An Atheist Minister And Atheist Rabbi Walk Into A…

When I worked at the University of Illinois (U-C) Hillel, I had a very nice relationship with the minister at the United Church of Christ. At the time I was significantly more traditional, but in my heart I was always looking for liberal role models in the world of religion and she was definitely one of them. However, if there’s one thing that was clear, she believed in God.

Could it be that the United Church of Christ (the Canadian version, which is the largest Protestant denomination there) is now allowing a new voice to emerge? The Rev. Gretta Vosper is the author of With or Without God: Why the Way We Live Is More Important Than What We Believe and minister of West Hill United Church in Toronto. On her own blog, grettavosper.ca, she states that she calls herself a non-theist. Today she gave a radio interview in Canada and it reached the pages of a UCC discussion page when a listener reported this:

Today, on the radio , I listened to a discussion involving Greta Vosper. She was introduced as a UCC minister, which of course she is.

but during the discussion she self identified as an Atheist.

It has come up here, that she has eliminated referrences to God and Jesus from the program at her church.

At what point does that make her no longer a minister of the UCC but something else?

I was certainly uncomfortable with her being identified as one of the minsters of my denomination while at the same time being an atheist [sic]

Polite Canadians that they are, there was a great deal of civil talk about it. A few defended her, very few “attacked” her and no one called her a heretic. Here is how Vosper explains her beliefs:

I describe myself as a non-theist since, as for many of my colleagues, it is easy for me to come up with a creative definition for the word “god.” I choose not to use that word, however, because to do so continues to allow those who believe in an interventionist theistic big G god to continue to believe that is what I am talking about. But I think it is high time we stopped feeding the acrimony between atheists and people of any faith tradition and start looking at the values that lie at the heart of whatever it is we believe. If those values are grounded in a respect for the dignity of all life and in creating and sustaining right relationship with self, others, and the planet, then who cares what religious or philosophical perspective one holds? I am seeking a way for liberal Christianity to move beyond the confines of its own divisive theology into the shared space of that values-based spirituality. The fact that liberal Christianity is where the scholarship that challenges it to do that was born and nurtured is all the more reason for it to do so.

Avoiding theistic language is a pretty gigantic step. This is basically a secular humanistic position with an emphasis on accepting people based on their behavior, without recourse to some vagued-up belief in God. Its pretty much a perfect Christian parallel to Secular Humanistic Judaism.

As a Jew, I have a heritage that is as ethnic as it is religious. It’s easy for me to be a Jew without God. Some question my retaining the title rabbi, but I think it’s a justifiable use of a title that signifies a teacher (and I worked hard for it). I can imagine that it must be more difficult for a minister.

We should all monitor the progress of Vosper and her followers. It could signal an important development in the transformation of liberal religion.