The Humanist Newsletter for April/May 2001

SUNDAY, APRIL 15, AT 2:00, HARVARD SCI. CTR.
OREGON’S LAW: "DEATH WITH DIGNITY"
CODY WEBB, MD, FROM THE HEMLOCK SOCIETY

We will meet at the Science Center, this time in Hall D, and take a look at a unique law, how it came to be, and what effects will follow. Dr. Webb has long been active in this cause and is a board member of the Hemlock Society. (81 Kilburn Rd., Belmont, MA 02178, c/o Nancy Dorfman) After we have queried the doctor, we will have a social hour.

In November, 1997, the citizens of Oregon chose to retain this Assisted Dying statute by a margin of 60% to 40%. The Act allows terminally-ill Oregon residents to obtain and use prescriptions from their physicians for self administered, lethal medications. The law, while legalizing physician assisted suicide, specifically prohibits euthanasia, where a physician or other person directly administers a medication to end another’s life. To request a prescription, the patient must be an adult, (18 years of age or older), a resident of the state, with the capacity to make and communicate health care decisions, and has been diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within 6 months.

The 27 patents who, in 2000, ingested lethal medications were demographically comparable to other Oregonians who died from similar underlying illnesses except that persons with a post secondary education were much more likely to participate,.with the exception of educational attainment., and there was a notable increase in the frequency of concern about being a burden to others. From an overview, the number of participants is quite small, but the significance lies in the courage and reasonableness of all involved. A brave new world, indeed!. Join us on April 15.

EARTH DAY, APRIL 22, 2001 - A HUMANIST HOLIDAY

Prof. E. O. Wilson,who is Harvard's foremost advocatte in defense of bio-diversity, is quoted in Salon Magazine (Jan. ‘01): "…what we need to offer in the way of reverence should be not to some imagined higher power, but to each other. And to dedicating ourselves to preserving the one home – the only home-- we’re ever likely to have as a species." These words are an expression of spirituality from the Humanist of the Year, (1999). 

They also express his and our deep concern for the environment. Presntly, our government seems insensitive to the well being of the world around us.

Let's stay alert.

SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2 PM, SCIENCE CENTER,
OUR SPIRITUALITY—IS IT FROM FAITH OR REASON?
TOM CLARK, HUMANIST PHILOSOPHER & WRITER

Spirituality is not the exclusive domain of the supernatural believer. One humanist thinker who has examined this question is our resident writer and essayist, Tom Clark. He will speak to us and all interested friends and neighbors on May 6 at 2 PM in Hall A in Harvard’s Science Center.

We urge you to visit his varied and intelligent website, naturalism.org, where you will find you will find these beckoning thoughts:

AT LAST, FULL AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 
FOR ATHEISTS & AGNOSTICS?

During the Presidency George H. W. Bush, he was asked by a reporter whether he thought that an atheist could be a good citizen of the U.S. His short answer was "no."

Ever since I have been seeking an entre’ to the inner sanctum of responsible citizenship, an opportunity to justify my obvious masquerade as a loyal and respectable American citizen. This is not a problem unique to me. According to the L.A. Times, those of the "secular" persuasion represent a mere 13% of the population, a measly 37 million souls.

Here have I been voting, serving in the Armed Forces (yes, there are atheists in foxholes), contributing to political candidates, testifying before legislative committees, serving conscientiously on juries (after affirming my oath), participating as a volunteer and a leader in a multitude of not-for-profit community service organizations, contributing 10% of my income every year to charitable organizations but, apparently, not ever able to achieve the benchmark of a "good" citizen because of my conscionable reluctance to accept what I perceive as the myth of the existence of a deity (let’s face it, an Abrahaminic deity), which, apparently, watches paternalistically and perpetually and preferentially over our fair land, from sea to shining sea. I suppose our Buddhist and Confucian cohorts are also proscribed this special level of citizenry status, since Buddhists and Confucians recognize no deity either…but at least they can claim to be religious. There aren’t many of them, either.

Now, finally, the opportunity to be of estimable service despite my atheism has almost miraculously appeared in the guise of The Faith-Based (read: Religious) Charitable Choice Initiative.

What most damned Secular Humanists view as an intrusive and abusive challenge to their constitutional right not to have their taxes used to support religious organizations and, especially, religious proselytization, I see as a clear and present opportunity to finally perform duties which will qualify us Secular Humanists for the approbation of even our most vitriolic opponents. Perhaps if we serve with distinction in the capacity I have in mind, we will, at the sufferance of our believing "good" citizens, finally qualify for that estimable sobriquet "good."

As is usual in our litigious society, Freedom of Information Act requests, followed by an endless parade of vindictive lawsuits will be de rigeur, since the presumption of bias will be almost paradigmatic in this situation. "Are you now or have you ever been a card-carrying member of the Church of the Covenant?" "I respectfully refuse to answer that question on the basis of my right to avoid self-incrimination." Again, the trial lawyers will be the major beneficiaries of the taxpayers’ largesse. Then will come forth the talleyers: the people who will generate statistics akin to those generated for executions and the judging of Olympic skating performances. They will determine that 47% of the time, Methodists on these grant committees voted against applications by Lutherans, but only 34% of the time against applications proffered by Presbyterians. Res ipsa loquitur.

Of course, if enough money is thrown at the problem (a la the Pentagon) then the selection process can be pro forma and all who remember to sign their application form in the correct place and who have any sort of religious credential, web-based or otherwise, will receive the requested grant (as long as they don’t smoke peyote as part of their religious ritual…and maybe even if they do). Everyone will be happy, everyone can spend all their grant money on Bibles or Korans or Talmuds or Incense (or perhaps a movie starring John Travolta) instead of food and shelter…and the country will go bust.

No, ladies and gentlemen, there is one and only one rational solution to this dilemma:Only the damned Secular Humanists and their ilk are qualified to make scrupulous and unbiased evaluations of Charitable Choice grant applications. There is no reason to believe ipso facto, that they should be any more biased against Muslims than against Catholics. Since they presumably view all religions as cults, even the Moonies and Scientologists should be able to expect thorough and objective evaluations and decisions.

Perhaps the Freedom From Religion Foundation of Madison, WI can be imposed upon to serve as a clearinghouse for this effort. As a former Fundamentalist minister, its current Executive Director should have excellent insight into the nature and functioning of religious institutions. As a matter of fact, there is pretty much a full spectrum of expertise in this arena among Secular Humanists because so many are lapsed Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Fundamentalists, etc., etc.

CATHOLISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM

James Carroll. Constantine’s Sword: the Church and the Jews. Houghton Miflin, 2001.

Carroll has written an eloquent book about Catholic responsibility for the Holocaust and his own anguished love for the Catholic church which he finds so deeply flawed. He is a former Paulist priest who left the priesthood when the promises of Pope John XXIII were betrayed by later Popes. He is a novelist (and columnist), not a historian, and so relies on secondary sources. Much of what he writes is about himself, what he calls "moral memory."

He details the shocking history of Pius XII’ complicity in the Holocaust. While still a Cardinal, he negotiated a concordat with Hitler. The Church made effective protest when the Nazis removed crosses from schoolrooms, and did make some protest in favor of those Jews who had converted to Catholic ism, but otherwise was largely silent. The pope helped a lot of Nazis o escape to Argentina after the war. Even in trying to make amends Pope John Paul II could not go far enough. Edith Stein was canonized as a martyr, but because she was a Jewish convert to Catholicism, that action was an insult to Judaism. Also setting up a cross at Auschwitz denigrated the Jewishness of the Holocaust.

Where did the Church originally go wrong? Carroll points to the Gospels. They are based on oral traditions already one to two generations old. They white-washed Pontius Pilate as reluctant executioner even though in fact he had crucified multitudes of Jews without batting an eyelash, and they put all the blame on the Jews. How did they get it so wrong? To illustrate how oral tradition can falsify, Carroll recounts the story of his mother’s uncle Jame who reportedly died a hero in 1916, the year of the Easter upising. On investigation he found that, yes, he had died a hero, but while fighting in France with the British Army, not fighting for Irish independence. Nobody had lied; many of the facts were true; but the thrust of the story was all wrong. So it has been with the Gospels.

Anti-Judaism became anti-Semitism in the time of Constantine, the first Christian emperor. Constantine had elevated the cross as the Christian symbol, making the death of Christ, rather than his life and teachings, of paramount importance, thus making Jews guilty of deicide. The Church did try to protect the lives of Jews even while persecuting them, but the anti-Jewish rhetoric inflamed ordinary Christians. Often a Good Friday service mentioning the "perfidious Jews" led to a spontaneous pogrom. The first Crusade in 1096 strted, not by killing Muslims, but by killing thousands of Jews in Trier (in what is now Germany. With the Inquisition leadng to the forced conversions of Jews, Church officials became suspicious of the sincerity of the "Conversos" resulting in an anti-Semitism with a racial cast. In the nineteenth century, the Church was openly anti-Semitic. In France, it openly opposed Dreyfus even when it became clear he was innocent. And that anti-Semitism made it all to easy for the Church to act in complicity with Hitler.

Carroll loves his religion and feels that it need not remain anti-Semitic. His observations on the nature of tolerance and suggestions for reform of his beloved Church will be dealt with in the next installment of this review.

Peter Denison

OUR FUND DRIVE 2000 ENDS IN MAY
PLEASE RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP
WITH DUES ($35.00) …..AND A CONTRIBUTION?
ALL TAX DEDUCTIBLE
(Mail to the Humanist Association, 
P.O. Box 381125
Cambridge, MA 02238. )
Thank you

THE AHA ANNUAL CONFERENCE
LOS ANGELES, MAY 18-20 
at the
SHERATON FOUR POINTS HOTEL

We are all invited to celebrate our humanism in a city renowned for its diversity and creativity. Tom Ferrick has to go as a member of the board of directors, and Dick Radtke and Tom Larkin will be askedto represent our chapters, (HAM and HCH), Peter Denison will be along, and …maybe you!

Friends of ours, here inCambridge, are getting major honors. Stephen J. Gould of Harvard has been named Humanist of the Year, 2001, for his contributions as a teacher and writer as well as his defense of evolution time and time again. Wendy Kaminer of the Radcliffe Institute, lawyer and social critic, is the witty and incisive president of the Coalition Against Censorship.

Much time will be allocated to re-examining the relationship of chapters to the national office. Every humanist should have a sense of belonging to, and being appreciated by, the organizing center of American humanism – at 1777 T Street, Washington, DC, (Named after Mary and Lloyd Morain whose life-long devotion to the AHA culminated in the publishing of their book, Humanism as the Next Step, worth a read).

At the Conference you will hear about the new Coalition for the Community of Reason. Spear-headed by Herb Silverman which allows all free-thought organizations in America to collaborate efficiently , especially in the media. Cooperation with our allies, with Paul Kurtz and the Center for Free Inquiry, with the Atheists of America, with the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Ethical Societies, (AEU) with all non-theistic groups will provide a common front to the nation unlikely to be dismissed.

Lastly, without shouting it too loudly, these conferences can also be a lot of fun.

Integrating Humanist Chapters
Into the national organization,
The American Humanist Association.

Would it surprise you to know that not all, not most, members of our chapter, (HAM), have an affiliation with the AHA? They are not Humanists, nationally. If a person belongs locally to the Ethical Society, to this state’s civil liberties union, to the biggest retirement group, the person belongs naturally and automatically to the AEU, the ACLU, and the AARP, all national.

Not so, when you join a humanist chapter . Occasionally, you hear about the exotic doings of the national leadership, their new building in Washington, their bright leaders, such as Edd Doerr, Fred Edwords, Lloyd Morain, and maybe something of their court interventions, their political stances, their public struggles , e.g., against vouchers or for evolution. You may have seen, briefly, a copy of the Humanist, an intelligent quarterly, and know the AHA provides celebrants nationwide for marriages and funerals. Obviously it is funded, (moving from Amherst to the nation’s capital was not cheap), but would you know how? Not from this and other chapters; membership dues of $35.00 barely cover local needs. Also, you know every year there is a national conference, it’s a great take-in,

at which, among other things, a prominent person is named Humanist of the Year. But the AHA is not a household word, even in humanist homes!

Well, that may begin to change in Los Angeles this year: A plan to organically connect all 69 Chapters with the center of the Humanist web, to the action in Washington. The Chapters, with all their members, would become a part of the AHA. They would have direct access to "headquarters" and qualify for a host of services, such as assistance in their mailings, all kinds of literature and information, and a way to talk to the nation. Most importantly, everyone, now a national member, with a national mindset, would have representation at the highest levels of governance in the AHA. It might work on the model of a federation. Reciprocity would be a major principle. Inclusiveness, its spirit. Is this a pipe dream? We will proceed democratically, with patience and honesty. It will take some time. Let’s explore all its possibilities.