While many higher-education institutions have been affiliated with particular religions since their founding, there has been a broad movement in recent years to accommodate religious diversity by enlisting additional chaplains to serve different faith groups, such as Muslims, Jews, Hindus and various Christian denominations that might not have been present at institutions’ foundings.
Now an organization of non-religious students at Tufts University is saying: Hey, what about us?
The Tufts Freethought Society — a group of about 150 students who identify as atheistic, agnostic, or otherwise non-religious — wants the university to establish a “humanist” chaplaincy to serve as a resource for students who are interested in exploring how to live “ethical and meaningful lives” without subscribing to any religion.
They may not be alone, according to Alexander W. Astin, founding director of the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, who has studied the issue. “Most students — religious and non-religious — have an interest in what we consider to be spiritual issues: the meaning of life, their most deeply felt values, why they’re in college, what kinds of lives they want to lead, how connected they feel to others, etc.,” Astin wrote in an e-mail.
“The current chaplaincies just don’t address the needs of those students,” said Xavier Malina, president of the society at Tufts. “A lot of students might want spiritual guidance but don’t feel comfortable going to the available chaplains on campus, [who] might not satisfy their spiritual needs.”
“Perhaps there is some validity there,” said Don Brewington, president of the National Association of College and University Chaplains. However, Brewington added that spiritual guidance may require “a little more than humanism will and can provide.”
“Using the word ‘spiritual’ — that seems to be somewhat contradictory,” he said.
Still, Brewington said he was reluctant to pass judgment on the notion of a humanist chaplaincy, since Wednesday — when he learned about the Tufts campaign — was the first he had ever heard of such a thing.
That’s probably because there are only three such chaplaincies in the country. Only Harvard University, Rutgers University, and Adelphi University retain humanist chaplains, according to Harvard’s Greg Epstein. Stanford University and Columbia University have had them in past years, Epstein said, but the positions are currently vacant.
So if being non-religious is a religion, complete with clergy, how are we going to separate church and state? If people who aren’t religious are concerned about their spiritual needs, in what sense are they not religious?
HT: Jackie
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