Secular Humanism

• DEFINITION: According to Christian Fundamentalists, a set of religious beliefs mistakenly glorifying all things human and unduly emphasizing the things of this world

SIGNIFICANCE: Fundamentalists have charged that public institutions such as schools and government, rather than being free from religion, as required by the Constitution, have adopted the religion of secular humanism

Considered separately, words such as “secular,” meaning worldly, and “humanism,” referring to the perfectibility of humans through reason and intellect, are innocuous. When paired, however, they become a derogatory label. To some Fundamentalist Christians, secular humanism is a religion, a cult of sorts, that has infiltrated the government, the justice system, and the classrooms of the United States. Some Fundamentalists have charged that secular humanism has infringed upon, perhaps usurped, traditional national values of Christianity. Although students of the founding and of the Constitution of the United States might be puzzled by such an assertion, it began to influence social and political life in the late twentieth century. Fundamentalists chastised the secular humanism of textbooks, curricula, and instructors. Secular humanism has been blamed for corrupting young minds, promoting self-serving ethics, and encouraging students to think for themselves.

Humanism was born of the Renaissance’s resurgence of interest in classical works. Humanism has asserted a belief in universal truth and a belief that humans are perfectible through education and capable of self-fulfillment without recourse to supernaturalism. Humanism is a nontheistic, rather than an atheistic, theory. Humanism does not deny God but rather concentrates on humanity. Humanism encountered the disapproval of the church from the start. With the Reformation, humanism diminished as a topic of debate, although many of the Humanists’ criticisms of the Roman Catholic church, particularly of monasticism and corruption, became points of contention for the Protestants. Humanist values arguably gained wide, if unacknowledged acceptance from the sixteenth century onward.

Modern Attacks

After the decline of communism as a threat to the United States, many Fundamentalists took up the battle cry of “secular humanist” to replace the epithet of “godless communist.” The appellation was designed to quash argument and to silence those who disagreed. The most prominent Fundamentalists—Jerry Falwell, Phoebe Worrall Palmer, Phyllis Schlafly, Pat Robertson, Senator Jesse Helms, Mel Gabler, Billy Graham, Norma Gabler, and others—shared certain religious convictions of the majority of the nation’s populace. The difference, however, was the conclusions they drew from those convictions. Advocacy of those conclusions has contributed to the withdrawal of thousands of children from public schools into private or home schooling.

According to this group, textbooks, library books, curricula, films, and teachers have acted as subversive agents of secular humanism in the schools. Consequently, many Fundamentalists have been of the opinion that since class time was devoted to what they referred to as “values change,” or indoctrination into secular humanism, no time was left for educating children in the basics, which had contributed to the decline in the late twentieth century in academic prowess, classroom discipline, and SAT scores. The Fundamentalists have campaigned to amend textbooks, prohibit sex education, remove books from libraries, mandate prayer, require the teaching of creationism, and eliminate any references they deemed anti-American or anti-Christian. They have also advocated the removal of students from public schools and placement of students into private Christian schools or teaching children at home.

Multiple Definitions

Definitions of secular humanism have been wide and varied. However, there are several specifics on which Fundamentalists have agreed. Concerning their children's education, they have identified eight basic concepts that they prefer not to discuss in classrooms. This list has been incorporated into the printed materials furnished by Educational Research Analysts, a Texas-based textbook review group headed by the Gablers. Under each point was a verse from the Bible, selected to add credence to their objections. The concepts they wish to exclude are evolution, which regards the universe as self-existing and not created; self-authority or individual autonomy—the belief that humans are their own authority and not accountable to any higher power; situational ethics or relativism—the belief that there are no absolute rules for conduct, other than what individual situations dictate; distorted realism—the exposure to diverse points of view, including profanity, immorality, and perversions as acceptable modes of self-expression; sexual permissiveness—the belief that all forms of sexual expression are permissible, including sex education; antibiblical bias— the notion that humans created God out of their own experience; opposition to free enterprise—the ideology that government control or ownership of the economy should replace private ownership; and one-world government—advocacy of global citizenship as a replacement for nationalism or any view that advocates world peace.

A popular pamphlet widely circulated among the group, Is Humanism Molesting Your Child?, describes humanism as a denial of the Bible, God, and moral values, and a belief in sexual freedom, incest, abortion, suicide, and a one-world socialistic government.

Secular Humanism Numbers

The Fundamentalist Christian movement against secular humanism has gained adherents through the use of selected media, such as the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), founded by Pat Robertson in 1960. The CBN has claimed a viewing audience of up to sixty-seven million households with the political machinations of such people as Senator Jesse Helms (1921-2008). Tim LaHaye (1926-2016), a San Diego minister and member of the Moral Majority, sold more than 350,000 copies of his pamphlet TheBattle for the Mind (1980), primarily through direct mail. This work was followed by The Battle for the Family (1981). LaHaye contended that 275,000 committed secular humanists infiltrated the government, courts, schools, and media of the United States. Other Fundamentalists have asserted that the U.S. Supreme Court has effectively declared secular humanism the official religion of the United States, in violation of the First Amendment. While historically, the U.S. has been a highly Christian nation, the mix of beliefs among American adults in the twenty-first century is more diverse. While over 30 percent of Americans report being Christian, over 20 percent of the population claims no religious affiliation.

Teaching Religion

The U.S. courts have ruled that public schools can teach about religion, but not teach which religious beliefs are correct. Because parents, school systems, and many educators have confused culture with religion, school curricula have tended to exclude all mention of religion’s influence on history, art, literature, and values. It was simply too difficult to address a diversity of traditions while remaining neutral, and textbooks and teachers began to distort history and literature to avoid discussing religion at all. This practice drew the attention of Fundamentalists.

One Fundamentalist school board member lamented that humanists were having church services in schools five days a week, while others compiled lists to alert parents to humanistic terminology in texts. Additionally, others insisted that since humanism centered on the self, the educational system tried to instill a positive self-image in the children, which eliminated their going to Christ for forgiveness of sin. Although Christian Fundamentalists and publishers and educators who eliminated material to avoid controversy have disagreed on many points, both have practiced censorship.

Bibliography

Edward Larson’s Trial and Error. Oxford UP, 1985.

Toch, Thomas. In the Name of Excellence. Oxford UP, 1991.

Vitz, Paul. Censorship: Evidence of Bias in Our Children’s Textbooks. Servant Books, 1986.

"What Is Secular Humanism?" Free Inquiry, secularhumanism.org/what-is-secular-humanism. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.

Zuckerman, Phil. "What Is Secular Humanism?" Psychology Today, 12 Feb. 2020, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-secular-life/202002/what-is-secular-humanism. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.