Samuel Freedman: In a Crisis, Humanists Seem Absent

From the NYT.

Since the Newtown massacre on Dec. 14, the tableau of grief and mourning has provided a vivid lesson in the religious variety of America. An interfaith service featuring President Obama, held two days after Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, included clergy members from Bahai, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and both mainline and evangelical Protestant congregations.

The funerals and burials over the past two weeks have taken place in Catholic, Congregational, Mormon and United Methodist houses of worship, among others. They have been held in Protestant megachurches and in a Jewish cemetery. A black Christian youth group traveled from Alabama to perform “Amazing Grace” at several of the services.

This illustration of religious belief in action, of faith expressed in extremis, an example at once so heart-rending and so affirming, has left behind one prickly question: Where were the humanists? At a time when the percentage of Americans without religious affiliation is growing rapidly, why did the “nones,” as they are colloquially known, seem so absent?

To raise these queries is not to play gotcha, or to be judgmental in a dire time. In fact, some leaders within the humanist movement — an umbrella term for those who call themselves atheists, agnostics, secularists and freethinkers, among other terms — are ruefully and self-critically saying the same thing themselves.

Good observation. The answer that religions offer community whereas the humanists do not, doesn’t cut it, although the importance of community in the midst of a crisis is massively important. As I said in my sermon last Sunday, whenever you are dealing with death and mortality, nothing but a belief in the God who raises the dead and calls into existence things that are not is going to offer any real hope and comfort.

A thoughtful op-ed piece. Read it all.

When Will Justin Welby Officially Become Archbishop of Canterbury?

From the Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.

Welby Justin(18)Dr Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, stepped down from the position on 31st December 2012. Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham, was named as his successor on 9th November 2012.

Bishop Justin’s name was submitted to the Prime Minister by the Crown Nominations Commission after a consultation process to determine the needs of the diocese, the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. Consideration of the candidates took place over several months, then the Commission voted to identify a recommended candidate and a second appointable candidate.  These names went forward to the Prime Minister.

In this case the recommended candidate was Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham

Read it all.