There Goes the Secular Humanist Vote

In what is fashioned as a news release, the Council for Secular Humanism (I’m not making this up) tried to takes its swipe at California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, who President Bush has nominated for the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Here’s the lead:

Amherst, N.Y. (April 27, 2005) -- The Council for Secular Humanism deplores the intemperate and uncalled-for attacks California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown made on secular humanists at an April 24 church-sponsored service delivered to judges and lawyers in Connecticut. The comments were seized upon this past Monday by evangelical leader Gary Bauer, of the ultra-conservative advocacy group American Values, in an e-mail blast Bauer sent to his supporters, praising Brown and her comments.

The release continues:

She has libeled tens of millions of Americans who do not share her ideological bias. "We particularly object to her claim that Secular Humanism threatens to divorce America from its religious roots," said Paul Kurtz, Chairman of the Council for Secular Humanism.

"We are alarmed at the implications that this first overt attack on secular humanism -- by such a highly placed jurist -- portends for the rights of unbelievers and the separation of religion and state guaranteed in the constitution," said Kurtz. "We are facing a clear and present danger to our liberties in the United States by militant religionists."

I don’t get it. Of course the secular humanists are trying to divorce America from its religious roots. Why wouldn’t they want to, given their commitment to secularism.

I hope this groups speak up more because it helps us all to understand that Secular Humanism itself is a real and present danger to the huge majority of Americans who believe that a nation that ignores the spiritual part of its soul will devolve into a dispirited and unprincipled mess.

--James Jewell