Fundamentalist Christian Schools

Is the Sexual Revolution Over? An Interview with Sol Gordon and Rob Tielman Sidney Hook Debates Rabbi Homnick on Jewish Fundamentalism Also: Dr. Benjamin Spock, Konstantin Kolenda, Matthew les Spetter, Michael Ruse, Betty McCollister, Edd Doerr on Fetal "Personhood," and Peter Popoff's Broken Window! FALL 1987, VOL. 7, NO. 4 Contents ISSN 0272-0701 3 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 19 EDITORIALS 20 ON THE BARRICADES 61 CLASSIFIED 62 IN THE NAME OF GOD

22 VIEWPOINTS Papal Stakes, Tom Flynn / The Judge and Adam's Navel, Betty McCollister / Fetal "Personhood" and Abortion Rights, Edd Doerr / Judge Hand Erred in Holding that Secular Humanism Is a Religion, Ronald Lindsay FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS: A NATIONAL SCANDAL 4 A Call for Public Scrutiny The Editors 5 The Truth and Consequences of Fundamentalist Christian Schooling Alan Peshkin 11 Children Are Not Chattel Kathy L. Collins 12 Reading, Writing, and Religion Mary Beth Gehrman 15 Selections from Fundamentalist School Textbooks 17 The World According to the Reverend Barney Lee AN EXCHANGE 28 Hook Is Mired in Secular Confusion Yaakov Homnick 29 A Common Moral Universe? Sidney Hook

32 The Challenge of Literalism Harry White A FREE INQUIRY INTERVIEW 34 Is the Sexual Revolution Over? An Interview with Sol Gordon and Rob Tielman ARTICLES 41 The Imagination: A Double-Edged Sword Linda Emery 47 Peter Popoffs Broken Window David Alexander 49 James Randi and The Faith-Healers Robert Basil PERSONAL PATHS TO HUMANISM 50 Human and World Care Benjamin Spock 52 Hope for Living Matthew les Spetter 53 The Testament of a Humanist Konstantin Kolenda BOOKS 54 Argument Without End? Michael Ruse 57 Community Was the Curriculum Robert Basil

Benjamin Spock't article was adapted with permission from The Courage of Conviction, edited by Philip Berman, published in hardcover by Dodd, Mead. and Company and in paperback by Ballantine Books.

Editor: Paul Kurtz Senior Editors: Vern Bullough, Gerald Larue Associate Editors: Doris Doyle, Steven L. Mitchell, Lee Nisbet, Gordon Stein Managing Editor: Andrea Szalanski Executive Editor: Robert Basil Contributing Editors: Lionel Abel, author, critic; Robert S. Alley, professor of humanities, University of Richmond; Paul Beattie, president, Fellowship of Religious Humanists; Jo-Ann Boydston, director, Dewey Center; Paul Edwards, professor of philosophy, Brooklyn College; Albert Ellis, director, Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy; Roy P. Fairfield, social scientist, Union Graduate School; Joseph Fletcher, theologian, University of Virginia Medical School; Antony Flew, philosopher, Reading University, England; R. Joseph Hoffmann, chairman, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Hartwick College, Oneonta, N.Y.; Sidney Hook, professor emeritus of philosophy, NYU; Marvin Kohl, philosopher, State University of New York College at Fredonia; Jean Kotkin, executive director, American Ethical Union; Ronald A. Lindsay, attorney, Washington, D.C.; Delos B. McKown, professor of philosophy, Auburn University; Howard Radest, director, Ethical Culture Schools; Robert Rimmer, author; Svetozar Stojanovic, professor of philosophy, University of Belgrade; Thomas Szasz, psychiatrist, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse; V. M. Tarkunde, Supreme Court Judge, India; Richard Taylor, professor of philosophy, Union College; Sherwin Wine, founder, Society for Humanistic Judaism Editorial Associates: Thomas Flynn, Thomas Franczyk, James Martin-Diaz Executive Director of CODESH, Inc.: Jean Millholland Public Relations: Tim Madigan Systems Manager: Richard Seymour Typesetting: Paul E. Loynes Art Director: Alain Kugel Audio Technician: Vance Vigrass Staff. Darrell Crawford, Steven Karr, Jacqueline Livingston, Valerie Marvin, Anthony Nigro, Alfreda Pidgeon

FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published quarterly by the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH, Inc.), a nonprofit corporation, 3159 Bailey Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14215. Phone (716) 834-2921. Copyright 01987 by CODESH, Inc. Second-class postage paid at Buffalo, New York, and at additional mailing offices. National distribution by International Periodicals Distributors, San Diego, California. Subscription rates: $20.00 for one year, $35.00 for two years, $48.00 for three years, $3.75 for single copies. Address subscription order, changes of address, and advertising to: FREE INQUIRY, Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005. Manuscripts, letters, and editorial inquiries should be addressed to: The Editor, FREE INQUIRY, Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005. All manuscripts should be accompanied by two additional copies and a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or publisher. of words and images. That being the case, I choose to believe in a theistic cosmos, a universe completely pervaded by conscious- LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ness, in which my human self is a vehicle by which the Anentropic—i.e., the one thing that would not have been accidental—can "play" at games of order and chaos. That A Positive Defmition Bang theory is certainly clear, concise, and choice is an act of faith, not blind belief, of Humanism fascinating to read. However, his attempt to but an active choice in an unprovable matter. conclude that the observed physical proper- I choose that one because it enables me to Robert Detzell makes a good point (FI, ties of black holes "prove" anything with behave as a humanist without suppression Summer 1987), regarding my definition of respect to the existence of supra-physical and of my spirituality, and because I find it humanism, and I offer one that starts with pretemporal conscious will confirms my esthetically much more beautiful as drama, a more positive emphasis: opinion that neither the smallest possible more fulfilling as adventure, and ever so "Naturalistic humanism is a life-affirming time-space continuum (the Planck-time much more loving and joyful ontologically. philosophy with supreme commitment to the sphere?) nor the largest extant continuum It also enables me to easily detect and avoid welfare and happiness of all humanity, with (our present universe?) can be of itself the mind-traps of the various oil-of-pilgrim no belief in supernatural entities and with "proof' or "disproof" of the existence of sellers who go about their business in the reliance on the methods of reason and sci- "God." world in the name of religion. ence, democracy and compassion." It appears to me that, while the "scientific Like Stenger, I doubt very much that Since humanism supports many high method demands excessive conservatism," it proof of God or a Grand Design will ever ethical and social values, its "main thrust" is need not necessarily mandate atheism. Sci- be found; unlike him, I doubt that empirical certainly not "to put down" God and im- entific fundamentalism can be as narrow a knowledge of pre-universe or extra-universe mortality. Nonetheless, humanism remains mind-space as the biblical turf, and attempts conditions can be found by any means of incomplete unless it rejects these two reli- to force science to prove any theological examining the inside of the bubble. If there gious concepts as inconsistent with a scien- notion, including atheism, will most often were no photons until after Planck time, tific view of man and the universe. While leave one up against the limitations of one's then "Let there be light!" is as far back as we gladly accept some of the ethical ideas own definitions. we can see. Clearly, whether as Stenger's of Christianity, we must make clear that we For example, Stenger's conclusion, atheistic "accident," or as the theistic-deci- disagree with its theology. Otherwise, "There could not have been any Grand sion process I have suggested, this new pic- humanism loses a basic part of its philo- Design at the Planck time" could be valid ture of the creation will never agree with sophic structure. only if qualified this way: "if such Design the primitive mythological image of Judeo- were stipulated as formulated of the sub- Christian tradition. But as for insisting that, Corliss Lamont stance of the extant universe." If our uni- because science confounds Abraham, there New York, N.Y. verse is an expanding bubble within which is no God... I would far prefer to believe all of our experience is contained, and from that Abraham was a self-deluded, guilt-cult Secular Humanism's Moral which all of our evidential information must huckster whom time has inflated to idol- Creativity be taken, we have no particular reason to hood, and that God is a physicist. assume that all of the "exterior" Void was Congratulations on your editorial "The Af- or still is in a state of total entropy. James Nathan Post firmations of Humanism: A Statement of My conclusion is not intended to lend Las Cruces, N.M. Principles and Values" (FI, Spring 1987). I weight to the notion of Grand Design, nor was also moved by Robert Basil's "Friend- in any way to support the clearly-deluded Explaining Reincarnation ship Center Report" and the articles by Genesis junkies' absurd Melodrama-in-the- Robert Meyer and James Christopher on Garden scenario. To begin with, the notion Paul Edwards's case against reincarnation Secular Sobriety Groups, which appeared that all post-Planck-time events in the ex- can hardly be called a "free inquiry." His in the same issue. Secular humanists, it panding black hole we call Home have come articles are pervaded by the same tone fun- seems to me, in the past have run the risk of about as the random selections made by damentalists have when they witness to the appearing to be a group of wreckers—tearing particles behaving in accordance with a few converted. As your magazine makes clear in down ancient and widely respected edifices primal rules I would regard as wholly possi- its repeated appeals for readers to "remem- only to abandon the vacant lot they've cre- ble, and logically admissible. I could not ber" FREE INQUIRY in their wills, "humanists ated to the weeds. I hope you will continue refute anyone who wishes to believe so, least do not believe in immortality." Apparently, to emphasize the potential of secular of all by attempting to use these notions as they delight in watching a professor of humanism for the sort of moral creativity "proof" of my own views. philosophy decapitate intellectual light- that can raise a more beautiful, new edifice In practice I behave as a humanist, and weights like Annie Besant and Madame to replace the old one. I delight in the success of the humanist Blavatsky. cause. I recognize that the world, from You might consider looking at someone George D. Snell mesons to megatrends, cannot be utilized as more serious, like Rudolf Steiner, whose case Bar Harbor, Me. definitive proof of the existence of any con- for reincarnation (elaborated in some 350 scious entity or agent apart from the matter, volumes) does not get blown away so easily. Stenger's Big Bang energy, space, and time that comprise it. I And, if you really want your inquiry to be also recognize that no such proof can be free from bias, you'll find an author who Victor Stenger's elucidation of current Big obtained from the cleverest manipulations (Continued on page 58)

Fall 1987 3 oO E co

cr A Call for Public Scrutiny

he number of independent Christian students rather than to educate them. This Tschools sponsored by evangelical and indoctrination pervades the entire curricu- hile parents undoubtedly should have fundamentalist churches has risen rapidly in lum: Texts and teaching techniques are Wthe right to send their children to recent years. More and more, Christian grounded in the institution's religious, cul- schools outside the public school system, we parents who have examined the textbooks tural, and political convictions, which stu- believe that children, adolescents, and young and the curricula of public schools and have dents, parents, and teachers are required to adults should have a concomitant right to found them incompatible with their beliefs accept. Dissent is not tolerated. learn elementary logic, critical thinking, and are enrolling their children in these alterna- • No attempt is made to develop an other problem-solving skills and to test ideas tive schools. It is estimated that there are appreciation of this nation's most cherished before accepting them. The schools included now more than one million students in democratic principles, such as the freedom in our research deny their students these twelve thousand such schools across the of speech, the freedom of inquiry, and the basic elements of education and employ a country—but little is known about the qual- ideal of pluralism. Toleration of different subtle form of mind control. ity of education offered by these institutions. beliefs is undermined. The education of our youth is a public Although the public schools have come • Their textbooks present an extremely trust. If we are to meet the challenge of under scrutiny by their critics, an even- one-sided, and often verifiably false, view of other nations and cultures with imagination handed examination of the Christian school the natural and social sciences, philosophy, and determination, and if our children and movement, which is often held up as an literature, and the arts. Indeed, as the sam- our children's children are to find solutions alternative model, has not been undertaken. ples of course material reprinted on the fol- to the complex technological and moral In an attempt to fill this void, FREE lowing pages show, these textbooks exhibit dilemmas of our day, we must teach them INQUIRY recently embarked on a rigorous little appreciation for the achievements of well. To do so requires that we expose them examination of several newly formed funda- modern science and demonstrate an abysmal to the scientific method, to social, cultural, mentalist Christian schools. Our review of ignorance of America's political and cultural and historical studies. But just as key is their curricula, textbooks, and educational history. teaching the arts of negotiation, empathy, philosophy reveal that they are flawed in • These schools do not develop in their compromise, and self-criticism. This educa- numerous and serious ways: students the skills of critical thinking. True tional ideal will encourage the kind of crea- • Independent Christian schools do not education can only begin when a questioning tive thought in our children that will chal- expose students to the wide range of ideas outlook is cultivated, yet any questioning in lenge and overturn the simplified formulae found in the many disciplines of human these schools is repressed, and rote memor- of the past and enable our youth to cope knowledge. ization remains the principal educational critically and intelligently with the emerging • Their admitted aim is to indoctrinate tool. problems of the future. — The Editors •

4 FREE INQUIRY The Truth and Consequences of Fundamentalist Christian Schooling

Alan Peshkin

n recent years many American parents have been removing 6. lead children to enter full-time Christian service by be- their children from the public schools and enrolling them coming preachers, teachers, and evangelists; and, I in fundamentalist Christian schools, where they can be 7. failing this, to have children become full-time Christians, sequestered from all secular influences. The number of these living their lives, whatever they do, wherever they are, schools has been increasing rapidly in the wake of what some always for the glory of God. scholars consider another American "Great Awakening." I spent eighteen months closely studying one such school, affiliated These purposes that shape Christian schools are derived with the conservative, Baptist-dominated American Association from scriptural doctrine as seen by the fundamentalist: not as of Christian Schools, which has more than one thousand mem- metaphor, allegory, or the wisdom of sages, but as the direct bers. I will attempt to show that schools based on absolutist Word of God. The Christian school is based on Truth with a doctrine—as these are—logically develop into "total institu- capital T, a Truth that is absolutely known, universally applic- tions" and will explore the possible consequences such schools able, and beyond the claims of empirical evidence; a Truth that have for their students and for the rest of us. needs to be inculcated; a Truth subject to questioning only to clarify, not to modify or interpret. Since the mood of Bethany's Truth and Its Organizational Means doctrinal Truth is imperative, the only proper response of believers is obedience. he high school I observed, the "Bethany Baptist Academy," In ordinary discourse we frequently use the word true and Twas located in Illinois and had an enrollment of 115 its derivatives without qualification, as if we had no doubt students. Together with its fellow members of the nationwide about the fact of the matter: "Was she being truthful when she American Association of Christian Schools, it was established said she'd return home tomorrow?" "The truth is that most to: murderers will be jailed." "Is it true that house plants die if exposed to freezing temperatures?" And so on. Indeed, it is 1. bring children to salvation; misleading to assert that only Christians deal with Truth with a 2. inform children about the Word of God; capital T and thereby imply that non-Christians live in a world 3. keep children immersed in the Word of God; of clearly acknowledged relativism. In the case of the Christian 4. keep children separate from the world; and the non-Christian domains we neither contrast the con- 5. encourage children to proselytize the unsaved; fidence of absolute Truth with the confusion of relative truth nor pit a one right source of solutions against a babel of competing, conflicting ones. This dichotomous view exaggerates the distinctions between the fundamentalist and the nonfunda- Alan Peshkin, a professor of education at the University of mentalist views and the use of truth. Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, conducts ethnographic studies The essential distinction between the two groups is that of the school-community relationship in rural, fundamentalist, Christians claim to know the Truth unequivocally; their abso- and multiethnic settings. He is the author of God's Choice: lute certainty derives from belief in a doctrinally inerrant Bible. The Total World of Fundamentalist Christian Schools. They organize their institutions—family, church, and school—

Fall 1987 5 to be fully congruent with their biblical Truth, certain that they can ignore variant notions about issues of consequence to "Nothing teachers said in their classrooms and humanity—notions based, for example, on new evidence or on changing times. And they hope, knowing such hope is futile no response they gave to my questionnaire or until Christ's promised return, that the institutions now beyond interview items indicated that they had any prior- their control also will incorporate their biblical Truth. Non- ity other than teaching their students to be fundamentalists, more an aggregate than a group, are therefore Christ-like in their behavior and to serve the glory difficult to generalize about. If they behave as though some claims are known to be absolutely true, they seldom can or do of God. Congruent, harmonious attachment to make truth claims, as fundamentalists do. And they rarely these goals is facilitated by the academy's rejection have a single, consistent, uniform doctrine to direct every major of controversy and critical thinking as essential aspect of their lives. aspects of the educational experience. Bethanyites To be sure, Bethany's Truth does not contain answers to unresolved questions of physics and chemistry, or to thorny eschew these as confusing to the youthful mind problems of international trade or Third World indebtedness. and inappropriate to their perception of Truth." To the extent that their Scripture speaks to such matters, it informs rather than dictates policy. Bethany educators do not been cut off and swept away. Indeed, the right to address any view the Bible as an answer book that responds directly to Bethany gathering was awarded only to those of established every conceivable school-related question. However, since the orthodoxy, to those whose lives evidenced their devotion to Bible does cover all matters of consequence that the school Christian fundamentalism. The academy strives to ensure this wishes to control, its educators speak with the true believer's outcome by its policy of hiring only committed born-again full measure of certainty. Christians who will willingly join the Bethany Baptist Church. Bethany seeks to shape the entire life of each of its students, in and out of school. This charge requires the academy to operate as a "total institution," very much like the total institu- The Goal of Changing Behavior tions sociologist Erving Goffman describes as places "where a offman described total institutions as "the forcing houses large number of like-situated individuals, cut off from the wider for changing persons" (1961, p. 12). Of course, all schools society for an appreciable period of time, together lead an G hope to change their students' behavior. But the extreme to enclosed, formally administered round of life" (1961, p. xiii). It which Christian schools go to achieve their ends, and, moreover, could not be otherwise at Bethany, for how else could the the unlimited compass of their ends, distinguishes them as forc- church not only assure the inculcation of its doctrinal standards ing houses. As undeviatingly single-minded places, they define but also enforce their implementation? Absolute Truth requires and redefine all the ordinary elements found in any school in educational means no less absolute. order to attain their one right way. Consensus About Work Goals and Practices For example, Bethany's teachers view the vocation of the Christian-school teacher as "full-time Christian service." This is the fundamentalist's highest ranked occupational category be- o establish an efficient organizational structure it helps to cause one can enter it only if called by God. It includes have clear and uncontested organizational goals. And T preachers, evangelists, missionaries, and others whose jobs are certainly no one at the Bethany contests the school's goals. wholly devoted to a Christian institution. Given every teacher's Nothing teachers said in their classrooms and no response they perception of this role as a servant of the Lord, it is not surpris- gave to my questionnaire or interview items indicated that they ing that one history teacher characterized his instructional role had any- priority other than teaching their students to be this way: Christ-like in their behavior and to serve the glory of God. Congruent, harmonious attachment to these goals is facilitated In a sense, we're trying to close off students from the world by the academy's rejection of controversy and critical thinking and to put as their goal holiness and godliness. The Bible tells as essential aspects of the educational experience. Bethanyites us to bring every thought to the captivity of Christ. . .. If eschew these as confusing to the youthful mind and inappropri- students are left to their own discernment . . . then they're ate to their perception of Truth. going to go humanly and we don't want that. See, we're in a Those of us whose home, church, and school are not battle: spiritual wisdom versus human wisdom. ... We are encompassed by one overarching absolute doctrine may find it trying to shape minds to one pattern. See, the Bible says that. difficult to imagine that a school can be organized to be fully consistent with any single set of beliefs. Nonetheless, complete "One pattern," however, does not signify full uniformity consistency is Bethany's ideal; all the evidence of my fieldwork among Bethany Christians; they are not alike in every detail. confirms its commitment to realizing this ideal. From my first Within the framework of the Bible's allowance for diversity— day there to my last, I never heard a contradictory message. including any interest or preference that does not violate scrip- Whoever stood before any assembled group of students, teach- tural injunction—some diversity prevails. We see, accordingly, ers, or parents spoke with one mind, as though they had been that students can be attracted to professional football, spicy pressed through the same template and all their differences had food, practical jokes, poetry, and backpacking to widely varying

6 FREE INQUIRY degrees. But, where it is understood that the authority of the ate, slept, played, and worked. Their basic thrust: to erect a Bible speaks, diversity never prevails. As the headmaster ob- "barrier to social intercourse with the the outside" (1961, pp. served, diversity regarding values is "student-centered education 4-6). The academy—which is not a boarding school—certainly at its worst. We feel in the doctrinal area you have to have functions this way. Its student pledge shapes student behavior unity." by an explicit set of "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots." Its Bethany's Truth—the "Word of God"—pervades the stu- teacher pledge commits teachers to join Bethany Baptist dents' lives. While acknowledging parental prerogatives, the Church, to tithe, and to exemplify model Christian comport- academy's educators mean to have their school standards pre- ment on the same full-time basis as the students. Its parent vail everywhere, unqualified by conditional or situational fac- pledge constrains parents from undermining the school's doc- tors. They "sacralize" all life, so that their Christian Way is as trinal orientation and attempts to enlist their support in main- applicable at the beach, on a date, or in a pizza parlor as it is taining it. Its student leadership pledge requires the school's in Bethany's corridors. That students differentially apply their "student elite"—all cheerleaders and class officers—to faithfully doctrinal standards, reporting themselves to be more obedient attend all church and school activities. And its employment at school, for example, than on a date, does not dispute either policy requires all its nonacademic workers to be born-again the ubiquity of the school's intentions or the students' under- Christians, members of Bethany Baptist Church, and worthy standing of this fact. Though Bethany's pastors and educators Christian models. know they do not attain the full compliance of their students, Bethany's web of control also extends to its library. Before they nonetheless continually affirm that their Truth provides a books may circulate, the librarian scrutinizes each one, elimi- yardstick for judging music, art, literature, and dance; that it nating those found unacceptable and expurgating others that defines subordinate-superordinate and male-female relation- can be made acceptable by drawing clothing on naked bodies, ships and who is acceptable as close friend, mate, or business blacking out offensive sentences, or pasting together disreput- partner; that it establishes the acceptability or unacceptability able pages. One day the librarian told her colleagues that she of welfare, homosexuality, abortion, private property, gambling, had been given books so terrible that she had to burn them drinking, dancing, and sex; and that it explains the origin of rather than risk an embarrassing discovery by the trash collec- the world, the purpose of life, and the nature of man's fate. tor. Moreover, they persistently discuss the particular application The academy routinely involves students and teachers in a of Scripture to this multitude of circumstances on every formal set of religious and institutional activities. Each day begins and informal occasion the school affords. While doing this, with a teachers' meeting at which the headmaster reads a Bible they also endeavor to restrict student contact with other beliefs. verse and elaborates its bearing on the life of the school. This meeting is followed by the students' ten-minute homeroom Barriers to Social Intercourse with the Outside devotion in which teachers read a verse and apply its message to the student's lives. Throughout the day, each class opens ethany's restrictions match those of Goffman's prototyp- with a student-led prayer, a free-form expression that, typically, ical total institution, which determined where their clients seeks strength for the teacher, sharp minds for the students,

Fall 1987 7 school, and home activities. When they departed from funda- "I am concerned by a group whose beliefs permit mentalist prescriptions, and all did to some extent, they did so no uncertainty, whose members frequent, accord- by relatively innocuous errors of commission and omission. For example, they might listen to rock music, go to the movies, ingly, a polarized world where things are either not make an effort to set backsliding friends straight, or fail to this or that, not this and that. Scriptural Truth, go out to proselytize. No student, however, was consistently as Bethany holds it, rejects negotiation; compro- deviant or unorthodox in behavior or belief; my data establish mise is unthinkable; purity of doctrine is the overwhelmingly that educators and students are primarily orthodox. Though the lives of the students at Bethany are scriptural standard. To me, such Truth is awe- girded by the organized, formal round of church and school some, its implications intimidating." activities, their participation, however strongly encouraged, remains voluntary, and their total institution does not strike and fulfillment of the needs of specifically named persons in them or their parents as sinister. poor health, with job problems, and so on. And each student Clearly, the further we move away from institutions whose attends a daily Bible classes taught by an ordained minister subordinates are not involuntarily located in places where they and thrice-weekly chapel sessions conducted by the headmaster are properly called "inmates," and where degradation does not or a pastor. characterize either the intent of the institution's overseers or This network of at-school religious functions is buttressed the perceptions of most of its participants, the less the designa- by church-sponsored Friday- and Saturday-night youth activi- tion "total institution" seems menacing. What remains of Goff- ties and by the school's expectation of student participation in man's original notion in Bethany's organizational structure, the church's Wednesday-night pre-service salvation-oriented and it is no small remnant, is the determined attempt by church "visitations" and its twice-yearly, week-long revival meetings. and school to socialize or resocialize its students, as the case Indeed, the headmaster holds to a way-of-life approach to may be, in beliefs and behavior that fit the institution's fixed control, which means that, for as long as a student is enrolled and precisely stipulated norms. Unlike total institutions that at the academy, he or she is subject to its rules any time and resocialize their participants so they will conform with society's any place. Consequently, students, if caught, will be punished norms, Bethany socializes its participants so they will deviate for misbehavior committed on weekends and vacations. from society's norms. It feels best about its students when they are most assuredly deviant and therefore ready to disseminate Mortification Practices their institutional message to the hell-bound world. The institution's scriptural measure of value is the only one that prevails ore subtle than the structural elements that Bethany within its domain. The challenge to its instructional effort is to Mestablishes in order to erect a total institution are its establish its domain as boundless. Only from an outsider's mortification practices, which strip the students of their pre- perspective do such efforts represent `organizational tyranny" institution self. Bethany is keenly mindful of a student's pre- and the "thwarting of human possibilities" (Perry 1968, p. 353). institutional selves. Students who come up through Bethany's And it is an outsider's perspective that will prevail as I turn elementary grades and those who come from fundamentalist now to discuss the consequences of Bethany's church and Christian homes see their school's expectations as natural; but school. to new enrollees who have not been born again or whose lives have not yet been directed by scriptural standards, these same Consequences expectations appear strikingly unnatural. Indeed, some former public-school students who are entering Bethany for the first any of us see fundamentalists through a filter fashioned time often feel humiliated by the academy's disrespect for their Mby the 1920s Scopes trial and erroneously imagine them present religious status, by the way it condemns their normal as ridiculous Dwight Moodys who believe that "an educated behavior as "worldly," and by its demand that they change rascal is the meanest kind of rascal" (Hofstadter, p. 108). This their appearance, their friends, their behavior, and their re- caricature is abetted by people like the censorious Bethany sponse to authority. If what stands out about their experience librarian. But one shouldn't substitute past history and present- at Bethany is the "curtailment of self' and the "role disposses- day book-burning for the whole reality of Bethany's successful sion" that Goffman says is the outcome of the total institution's enterprise. As I see it, the school is a profoundly serious ven- mortification process (1961, p. 14) rather than the rewards of ture, mounted by powerfully dedicated persons who manage to being born again, then these students will probably have a avoid sounding like megalomaniacs when they proclaim the short stay at the academy. But if Bethany's newcomers enjoy Bible to be the inerrant Word of God. the rewards of spiritual rebirth, then they will focus on the Does the school offer more than an opportunity to become positive rather than the negative aspects of the behavior- and live as a born-again Christian? Is it a good school in changing processes. conventional terms? Yes, by some measures. Its students, along The thrust of my data indicates that the vast majority of with Christian school students throughout the country, score at the 115 high-school students in my study were happy to be or above grade level on standardized tests without benefit of enrolled at Bethany. They accepted its core doctrinal standards specific prepping. And, yes, if we accept the attributes Michael and were contented to be encompassed by the cloak of church, Rutter and his colleagues identify in their book 15,000 Hours

8 FREE INQUIRY

as academically productive. The following teacher attitudes characterize the academy (Grant, 1981, p. 5): "I feel anything but indifferent to the Bethany Baptist academies of America because I fear Teachers regularly assign and mark homework ... expected people who believe they know the Truth and are pupils to act responsibly and gave them an opportunity to do so ... conveyed their expectations in the way they behaved convinced that everyone else should adhere to themselves . . . [and demonstrated] consistency and shared this same Truth. Their implacable logic is never norms. moderated by the need to be pragmatic, to find Furthermore, the shared doctrine that equips students with compromise, or to see things in terms of degrees." behavioral norms covering most aspects of their lives also joins them as brethren responsible for and to one another. Daily they learn about the principles of faithfulness and spirituality, feel free when their quest for truth is unfettered. Different which serve as a major basis for popularity and peer-group outcomes follow each perspective: a closed society in the first formation. Students also come to accept the fact that their instance, and an open one in the second. Bound by Truth that daily activities will be encompassed by the Christian commu- divides us into friend and foe, true believers may become cru- nity's plans. In fact, 69 percent of the 115 high-school students saders when conflict arises, warriors bearing Truth's sword. surveyed indicated that Bethany sponsors all or most of their How disconcerting is the image of social conflict involving away-from-home activities. Consequently, the academy func- crusaders! It takes little effort to imagine such societies because tions as a community-maintenance institution, and its students they exist today—in Iran, Ireland, and Lebanon. In such places have the experience of belonging. when true-believers become politically ascendant, their oppo- In the course of my fieldwork, and later when I analyzed nents, seen as heretics, become the victims of this zeal. my data, I was struck by the unity and connectedness of Bethany educators acknowledge that their own survival Bethany's community. I frequently thought, "How nice it is for depends on religious liberty and on legal support for doctrinal those who belong there." After all, an interest in community and ethnic pluralism. At no time, however, in eighteen months and a desire to study the school-community relationship has of listening did I hear this understanding reflected in the class- motivated my research since 1972. I concluded that to belong room or chapel. I never heard a discussion, let alone an elabor- in Bethany is to belong in a deep and special sense. Much as I ation, of the concept of pluralism and its implications for their felt this, however, I never could escape my "and yets"—with all own survival as a group. To the contrary, I did hear Catholics the reservations these words forecast. maligned, Mormons condemned with Hare Krishnas and prac- My "and yet" sentiments derive directly from the very basis of Bethany's sense of community—its idea of Truth. I readily DRESS CODE see the logic that leads from possessing the Truth to establishing a school as a total institution to inculcate this Truth and ensure its perpetuation. However, lacking the faith requisite for accepting Bethany's Truth as more than just one group's perception, I see the evangelizing true-believer as an arrogant doctrinal imperialist who impugns the integrity of nonbelievers. I am concerned by a group whose beliefs permit no uncertainty, whose members frequent, accordingly, a polarized world where things are either this or that, not this and that. Scriptural Truth, as Bethany holds it, rejects negotiation; compromise is CULOTT ES FOR unthinkable; purity of doctrine is the scriptural standard. To VOLLEYBALL & ATTENDANCE AT TRACK & FIELD EVENS me, such Truth is awesome, its implications intimidating. ACCEPTABLE Like their orthodox counterparts in many belief systems, fundamentalist Christians create a chasm between themselves and dissenters, a chasm that relativists and pragmatists have tried to bridge with a "live and let live" philosophy—as well as with legal constraints that preclude tests of faith as conditions of participation anywhere in public life. Some non-Christians argue that, given a troubled world, we would do best to band together. Ecumenists seek a core of common beliefs that can unite like-minded persons. However, in the name of doctrinal purity, the academy's national education association requires aspiring members to relinquish association with any ecumenical religious organization. NOT ACCEPTARL E Finally, while born-again Christians feel "free" when the Most Fundamentalist Christian schools have strict dress codes. Truth of their lives is settled beyond question and doubt, others

Fall 1987 9 titioners of Transcendental Meditation, and daily reinforcement 1. Bethany's youth, inoculated by their school's sweeping of their own scriptural Truth. doctrine, may be effectively cut off from society's political, eco- When I questioned academy students and a comparable nomic, and social diversity. group from a local public high school about their commitment 2. Bethany's students lack the opportunity to understand to pluralism, their answers, overall, were not far apart. But on the basis and the need for compromise in a democratic society. each item relating to a point that Bethany's doctrine covers, the They are likely to develop the ideological intransigence of what differences between Christian and public school students were Eric Hoffer termed the "true believer." enormous: Is interracial marriage okay? Yes, say 61 percent of 3. Since the fundamentalist's yardstick of orthodoxy has public school students; yes, say only 30 percent of Bethany unlimited application, all arts are judged strictly by their con- students. Should books written by communists be available in formity to scriptural standards. Their worth begins and ends public libraries? Yes, say 73 percent of public-school students; with their doctrinal fitness. Where orthodoxy prevails, creativity yes, say only 29 percent of Bethany's. Is it good that America is confined. has so many different religious groups? Yes, say 82 percent of 4. These schools effectively encourage their students to limit public-school students; yes, say only 27 percent of Bethany's. their cognitive experiences. Students may come to believe that And, finally, should homosexuals have the same rights as non- such self-censorship is generally a sound practice for non- homosexuals? Yes, say 58 percent of public-school students; Christians as well. So believing, they could endorse limitations yes, say only 26 percent of Bethany's. Given the differences on on what should be known and the right to know for those these specific items, I conclude that the academy and its paren- outside the Christian fold as well as themselves. The textbook- tal and church allies successfully communicate their beliefs and censoring practices of the Gablers in Texas and Judge Brevard values to a responsive audience. This is a notable achievement Hand in Alabama suggest this outcome is real, not extrapola- given, as previously noted, that the academy is not a boarding tive. school and its students' physical movements are not constrained by walls or curfews once they leave school. In regard to its Conclusion sacred core, involving beliefs like Christ's virgin birth and His death and resurrection, student views coincide almost perfectly eorge Steiner has written that "men are accomplices to with the academy's. Gthat which leaves them indifferent" (1967, p. 150). I feel But will their adolescent orthodoxy survive when Bethany's anything but indifferent to the Bethany Baptist academies of youth become adults? The following data suggest an answer. America because I fear people who believe they know the Eighty-three percent believe that when they are adults their Truth and are convinced that everyone else should adhere to friends will be born-again Christians; 85 percent believe the this same Truth. Their implacable logic is never moderated by Bible will be central to their lives; 85 percent plan to send their the need to be pragmatic, to find compromise, or to see things own children to Christian schools; and 91 percent expect to in terms of degrees. marry born-again Christians. As adults, will they modify their Indeed, the existence of independent fundamentalist Chris- beliefs toward social norms? Or will they become like their tian schools is paradoxical. Because ours is a pluralist nation, teachers, who hold generous views concerning the rights of these schools are legal. But, Christian-school practices would non-Christians but overwhelmingly (94 percent) believe that subvert pluralism in an attempt to produce a homogenized, theirs is the only true religion? Whatever their stated beliefs, fundamentalist America. Further paradoxical is this fact: that Bethany's sixteen teachers exemplify their school's singular such schools exist—that they thrive—is one prime measure of thrust. Note these facts: (1) of all their usual away-from-home our pluralism's vitality. Yet, the more such schools we have, activities, 100 percent are sponsored by Bethany church or the greater the threat to the survival of pluralism. school; (2) of the five different persons each of these sixteen I hope the day never comes when our society—feeling teachers identify as most influential in their lives, seventy-nine threatened by its success—concludes that Christian schools must of the total of eighty accept Bethany's doctrinal standards; be suppressed or curtailed in any way. Paradoxes of pluralism (3) of their three closest friends, forty-seven of the total of testify to our ideological health. I trust that my and others' forty-eight are born-again Christians; and (4) of the persons concern about the cost of Christian schools never exceeds the they regularly see outside of school, 100 percent accept need to be eternally vigilant about their effect. Bethany's standards either always or most of the time. Bethany's parents are pleased that their children's school is References doctrinally sound, morally upright, physically safe, free from racial strife, and devoted to the educational "basics" that many Goffman, E. Asylums. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1961 Grant, G. "The Character of Education and the Education of Character." critics accuse public schools of neglecting. For most academy Paper presented at Daedalus/St. Paul's Conference on Secondary Educa- parents, the only price they pay for these attractive benefits is tion, St. Paul, 1981. financial—rising tuition costs have not affected the the acade- Hofstadter, R. Anti-intellectualism in American Life. New York: Knopf, 1966. McEwen, C. A. "Continuities in a Study of Total and Nontotal Institutions." my's enrollment. A non-Christian outsider, however, can see a Annual Review of Sociology, 6 (1978): 143-185. higher price. Perry, N. "The Two Cultures and the Total Institution." British Journal of What are the possible costs to the students, and to American Sociology, 5 (1968): 37-40. Phillips, W. Speeches, Lectures, and Leiters. society, of such total institutions? Boston: Walker, Wise, 1864. Steiner, G. Language and Silence. New York: Atheneum, 1967. •

10 FREE INQUIRY Children Are Not Chattel

Kathy L. Collins

n Iowa, religious education is the issue someone else from abusing theirs. no outside contact, no help for the abused I of a crusade. Christian fundamentalists, Compulsory attendance laws are protec- child. motivated by an antipathy for the public tionist in nature. Their purpose is twofold: Federal and state laws guarantee free, schools, have removed their children from to protect the state by ensuring a properly appropriate education to handicapped chil- the classroom and are teaching them at educated citizenry; to protect the children dren, whether their disability is mental, home illegally. by ensuring that their labor is spent attaining physical, behavioral, or educational. The Hawkeye State is one of the last an education. Any law that would allow Teachers with specialized training are avail- bastions of resistance to the national move- Christians to teach their children without able in both public and private schools to ment bent on eliminating the long-standing oversight or interference from the state help children reduce or eliminate the handi- requirement that properly trained and state- would also allow parents with less worthy capping condition or the barrier it creates certified teachers instruct all children. One motives to lock their children in a closet, to learning. Many parents, given the choice, by one, state statutes have fallen. Only a use them to babysit for younger siblings, or would refuse this special-education assis- handful have successfully withstood intense have them work twelve hours a day in the tance, either believing that the public schools lobbying efforts and numerous court chal- family hardware store. Opening the door for caused the handicap in the first place or lenges. the lamb allows the lion to enter as well. denying the existence of the child's condition Seventeen years ago Amish children and Unfortunately, the population does not altogether. Clearly it is the child who loses their parents aroused the sympathy of this consist solely of moral citizens with skill, when such valuable assistance is rejected. country when an Associated Press photogra- ability, and worthy intentions. Where there It has taken nearly two centuries to enact pher snapped a shot of black-clad youngsters exists the possibility that children may be the many legal protections existing today fleeing into eastern Iowa cornfields. They exploited, neglected, or abused, the state, in for children. Abrogating the state's compul- were running from the local sheriff, who its role of parens patriae, has an obligation sory-attendance laws, or weakening them by was attempting to enforce the state's com- to protect them. It is no more possible to allowing parents to teach children at pulsory attendance law. The Iowa legislature, pass a law allowing "good people" to teach home, is no less than a giant genuflection embarrassed, quickly wrote an exemption their children at home than it is to pass a backward. The precarious balance of into that law. Wisely, however, the religious law allowing "good drivers" to speed. Some parents' rights versus children's rights should exception was narrowly drawn. It's tough ruin it for all. never be struck in favor of the parents. While for Baptists, who are the most prominent Certified teachers are state-mandated the Religious Right carries the Christian flag critics of the certification requirements, to child-abuse reporters. When children are into battle, the state must steadfastly hold meet. allowed to be kept at home, there may be high the banner of the child. • Lawsuits attacking the compulsory attendance law have been, by and large, unsuccessful. While the courts have consistently upheld a state's right to require the use of certified teachers and a minimum curriculum for all students, those seeking relief from this "governmental oppression" have achieved one thing: public support. How- ever, few realize the legal intricacies involved or the potential consequences to children if the certification requirement is removed. Children are not chattel; they are not personal property. They are not "owned" by their parents, nor do they "belong" to the state. The Christian fundamentalists who want the freedom to indoctrinate their children with religious education do not understand that the law that prevents them from legally teaching their kids prevents

Kathy L. Collins is an attorney living in Iowa.

Fall 1987 11 Reading, Writing, and Religion

Mary Beth Gehrman

n recent decades America's public-school system has been espouse and are prepared' to do whatever is necessary to get blamed for virtually every one of society's ills. While their children the education they think best. I government agencies and public-school administrators Ironically, while most educators consider the Christian- have been busy initiating various reform programs, however, a school movement a radical departure from the mass-education veritable holy war has been going on in education. system once almost universally supported by conservative The soldiers in this new crusade are fundamentalist Chris- Protestants, fundamentalist Christians see it as a return to the tians. Their weapons, what U.S. Secretary of Education William country's religious roots. America's cornerstones, they say, are Bennett calls "those values all Americans share." Their enemy, God and the Bible: the house of God and the schoolhouse of secular encroachment on the public-school system. colonial times were one, and the separation of church and state Most trace the first battle to 1962 and 1963 Supreme Court represents the separation of this nation from its very founda- decisions to ban from the public schools state-sponsored prayer tion. Secular encroachment is perceived as the vehicle of a and devotional readings. Since that time, enrollment has godless humanistic philosophy that is considered the "basic climbed steadily in independent, mainly Baptist-affiliated Chris- cause" of declining skills and morals. The state, at one time tian day schools. Today new schools open at a rate of one seen as the bulwark of nondenominational Protestantism, is every seven hours, and their total enrollment tops one million. now regarded as the enemy responsible for undermining tradi- Uniform rejection of the liberal social policies of the 1960s tional values. James Carper, coauthor of Religious Schooling and 1970s, backed by a sense of religious mission, has given in America, has said that this disillusionment is not only with these schools a base upon which to build. However, the surge public schools but with "the society which sustains the educa- of growth that has occurred in this decade is obviously cor- tional enterprise."' related to the rise of fundamentalism in general and the country's swing toward conservatism. Many nonfundamentalist any Christians believe that there is a conscious attempt parents are also dissatisfied with the allegedly liberal and irreli- Mby secular humanists to control young minds, and they gious bias of instructors, teachers unions, and school bureauc- frequently note in this context that Hitler's minister of propa- racy; the declining standards of progressive education; and the ganda said, "Let me control the textbooks and I will control general intellectual and moral climate of public schools. They Germany." This analogy is all too real in the minds of funda- favor the "back to basics" philosophy that Christian schools mentalists, many of whom believe that secular humanists are in control of the public schools. Humanist philosophy, according to disgruntled Christian parents, is responsible for declining academic standards, rebellion against parental authority, sexual permissiveness and perversion, drug and alcohol addiction, divorce, abortion, pornography, child abuse, murder, eutha- nasia, vandalism, suicide, mind control, unwanted pregnancy, Until recently on the staff of the telepathy, witchcraft, idolatry, socialism, communism, Satanism, SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Mary and the decline in U.S. power. According to an NBC News Beth Gehrman is now an assistant report, one Christian school pamphlet even blames humanism editor at Prometheus Books. This for causing "stomach- and head-aches, nightmares, and other article is based on Ms. Gehrman's inexplicable maladies among elementary and secondary school actual visits to several fundamen- children." talist schools in New York State. This alarmist view of humanism stems from the judgment of most Christian-school administrators that no subject can be

12 FREE INQUIRY taught objectively. According to the Reverend Thomas A. Cline, Basic Education Institutional Product Catalogue, printed by principal of Maranatha Christian Academy in Mayville, New Reform Publications of Texas, states: "It is impossible to edu- York, "The Bible says, `Learn not the ways of the pagan.' We cate without a philosophical and theological base.... You can't believe a curriculum is neutral.... We don't believe there cannot build charactered, responsible young people without a is any neutral ground." All subjects therefore must be taught positive foundation of life-building, character-building presup- from one of two perspectives—Christian, which in this case positions and values: (1) God created all things, (2) God has maintains that the Bible is the absolute, literal word of God; or communicated to man through ... the Bible [and] Jesus Christ, humanistic, which from a Christian point of view categorically (3) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge, Under- denies the existence of God in order to enthrone man as the standing [and] Wisdom, (4) A relationship with God must be center of the universe. established by the individual, (5) Salvation is through the atone- "Why a Christian School?" asks a pamphlet published by ment of Jesus Christ by the grace of God." the First Baptist Christian School of North Tonawanda, New The more than three thousand products outlined in this York. "Because the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of catalogue form the basis of one of the two main vehicles of this wisdom and knowledge, is rejected in secular schools. Because "right-thinking" philosophy. One is the Accelerated Christian the secular philosophy of life creates a conflict in the lives of Education (ACE) program, a sort of franchise of evangelical young people which surfaces in the form of rebellion during thought developed in 1970 in a small church in Texas by the teenage years. Because all truths are related to God which Donald Howard, a Ph.D. in Christian Education. Along with can only be taught in a Christian school. Because God never the slightly more traditional A Beca Book Publishing Company intended ungodly men to teach our children." There are finan- of Pensacola, Florida, ACE is the main supplier of Christian cial incentives as well: Sending your child to a Christian school schools throughout the country, with a mailing list of more is "cheaper than lawyer's fees to get him out of jail, or sending than six thousand. It is also one of the driving forces behind him to a Christian school and teaching him how to live might the growth of the Christian school movement, since for less be cheaper than raising his children from a broken home."' than a thousand dollars any pastor or group of parents with Many fundamentalists believe that public-school texts not the space and inclination to do so can acquire the materials to only fail to refer to the Protestant religion but actively attack begin a school. Christian values. Some even maintain that teachers verbally The program is a combination of the Bible and the so- attack children who express belief in Jesus.' called basics, delivered mainly through workbooks called The goal of Christian schools, on the other hand, is to Packets of Accelerated Christian Education (PACEs). During produce young people who will go to heaven by virtue of their the school year, the student progresses at his or her own rate solid Christian character, which embodies love of God and through about twelve of these workbooks in each of four country, self-discipline and responsibility, the ability to distin- subjects—math, social studies, language arts, and science—and guish moral truth from error, and a respect for parents, supplements this work with rote exercises and readings from teachers, and national leaders. Says the executive director of Scripture and other approved literature. the Association of Christian Schools International, Paul A. Each student is assigned a small cubicle or "office" in which Kienel, to work. He is not allowed to communicate with other students, get up, or turn around without permission. If he is having Christian schools are Christian institutions where Jesus Christ difficulty with a lesson, he raises a small American or Christian and the Bible are central in the school curriculum and in the flag to signal the supervisor that he needs help. Lectures, home- lives of teachers and administrators. This distinction removes work, and traditional teachers are virtually eliminated, and us from direct competition with public schools. Although we students are motivated through inspirational tapes, daily goal often compare ourselves academically, we are educational insti- charts, privileges, rewards, and fields trips. A student must tutions operating on separate philosophical tracks. Ours is receive a minimum of 80 percent on each test before progressing Christ-centered education presented in the Christian context. to the next level of workbooks. Theirs is man-centered presented within the context of the The ACE curriculum differs not only in the structure of the supremacy of man as opposed to the supremacy of God. Their position is known as secular humanism.' learning environment but in the content of the course material. Fundamentalist philosophy is woven into every aspect of the Christian-school curriculum, and the Bible is an integral part The "Statement of Faith" of the Grand Island Christian of each subject. School in Western New York explains it this way: "We believe Mathematics, for example, is seen as a manifestation of that heaven and hell are definite places ... that the true church God's orderly universe. Bible-inspired equations, such as the is composed of all those who have been born again ... [and calculation of the dimensions of Noah's ark or Solomon's that] the Bible teaches separation from the world and from temple, are a common type of math problem. unbelief." The school's objectives are typical: "To teach the English is taught as the way to properly articulate and necessity of being born again ... the application of Biblical spread God's word. The high-school reading list overlooks such principles to every part of daily life ... the need for separation classics as Romeo and Juliet, The Great Gatsby, and Huckle- from the world and its deceptive allurements [and] to integrate berry Finn in favor of books like Pilgrim's Progress, Did Man subjects with the Bible." Just Happen?, The Celestial City, and In His Steps. Typical of The standardized fundamentalist curriculum offered by the the elementary level multiple-choice questions are "Jesus died

Fall 1987 13 for (your, you're) sins" and "God (is, are) good." Science is chiefly concerned with natural science, biology, comparison of "the facts of creation with the fallacies of the t CENTER ROAD many theories of evolution," and "a Scriptural view of the t earth's past, present and future condition." Fundamentalists believe that evolution directly contradicts Baptist Church the Word of God and that children behave badly when they Independent Fundamental are taught that they have descended from apes. In 1975 the -. 41 Louisville Courier-Journal quoted Christian school activist John 412 Thoburn as saying, "We believe public schools are immoral. 41111212111111114131111111111111.110111. . . . [They] breed criminals. They teach [children] they're / // animals, that they evolved from animals." SCHOOL— Because God created the universe, all truth is God's truth. If there is a question about the accuracy of a textbook, the D A ElA RO Bible is always the final arbiter. Biology for Christian Schools 2 MO. & UP 675-65f5 states, "The people who have prepared this book have tried consistently to put the word of God first and science second." .r. Christian-school texts invariably contain editorial comment. ,,Ct

The categories [of elements] are a reflection of the kinds of [: people we find in the world. On the two extremes are the saved and unsaved people.... Unfortunately there is an intermediate group, the metalloid Christian—the worldly or carnal Christian. OPEN This type of person says he is saved but acts like an unsaved NROLLMENT

person at times. You should not be a metalloid Christian.

mou Referring to such passages, Dr. Walter Fremont, dean of edu-

Sey

ay Care Academy k cation at Bob Jones University in South Carolina, says "the

Ir" . Ric public schools teach a subtle humanistic philosophy, and we 1f7 _ t ._ E TION teach a subtle Christian philosophy. The public school uses sentences that condone dope and a lack of moral standards. designed to give the student an "appreciation for the Christian We're just fighting fire with fire." elements" of his country's past, particularly in relation to terri- Sex education, perhaps surprisingly, is part of the Christian torial expansion, the American Revolution, the Civil War, and school curriculum. A booklet published by the Center Road the growth of industrialism. Controversial current and historical Christian Academy of Buffalo, an ACE school, implies that events and figures are studiously avoided. the only proper way to approach the topic is with heavy refer- Social Studies also includes economic systems of the Bible, ence to moral absolutes. It states that all conduct that stimulates "biblical principles of handling credit," biblical precepts in rela- sexual desire (including dancing, hugging, and holding hands) tion to proposed government spending, and "biblical perspec- is forbidden to the school's students; all sexual activity should tives on employer-employee relations." take place only within the confines of matrimony, because Morals are taught most comprehensively in social studies premarital sex of any sort is "condemned by God"; masturba- courses. Many fundamentalists believe that public school tion and homosexuality are "not normal and right"; and it is "values clarification" courses, in which students are asked to wise to avoid "alluring dress habits, flirting, etc." and "places debate a wide range of subjects without condemning or pre- and activities where Christ would not be welcomed." Perhaps judging the opinions of others, have caused grave social prob- the most telling aspect of Christian sex-education, however, is lems among teenagers and young adults. Permissive attitudes that for each of the three educational levels described in this in the schools, they feel, have spawned several million "morally booklet (elementary, junior high, and senior high), the first confused" baby-boomers who don't know the difference be- precept to be taught students is "thought control covering all tween right and wrong. According to the Reverend Barney R. matters of self life." Lee of the Center Road Christian Academy in Buffalo, New Social studies provides an especially fertile medium for York, "The permissiveness of parents and teachers has reared a inculcating fundamentalist philosophy. History is presented as society of thoughtless, ungrateful, rude, loud-mouthed brats. the unfolding of "God's plan," beginning with the seven days of ... There is no one that likes a loud mouth, disloyal, arrogant, creation and early Bible stories and concluding with selective self-centered, irresponsible, ungrateful, unfaithful, inconsiderate, discussions of foreign and domestic policy of the 1970s. The bullish, proud busy-body, with a superior boastful, hateful atti- history of the world focuses on the Middle East, Greece, Rome, tude. But this is the product of today's philosophy of 'do your the Renaissance, and the Church. The history of America is own thing.-

14 FREE INQUIRY Selections from Fundamentalist School Textbooks The following selections are taken from high-school and college-level textbooks published by Ac- celerated Christian Education, Inc., the nation's best-selling publisher of Christian learning materials. The student is expected to memorize the material on his or her own, then answer fill-in-the-blank or multiple-choice questions that immediately follow the readings.

From the History of Civilization jection and anxious to have a united Christians. There were Deists and ration- Spanish-English Empire to control the alists among them. Some of them cham- History is His Story. That is, it is the story world, sent a great fleet of ships to the pioned the causes that were democratic, not of God's plan for mankind and what His English coast. He had 130 ships manned by republican, fostered by French atheists. providential hand is working out in the 7,000 sailors and an invasion force of 17,000. These ideas later led to the horrible French world. The pivotal point, of course, is the Seaman such as Drake and Hawkins de- Revolution, the classic example of democ- cross of Christ. All history before that time fended their English homeland by destroying racy run amuck, unchecked. Freedom was was working toward that end, and all history the Spanish ships.... Protestant Christians there destroyed by almost insane masses, since that time has been affected by man's believe God stopped Spain from conquering instead of being based on a solid constitution attitude toward that central event of history, England and making it Catholic again. This with representative rule. However, in the whether it be one of acceptance or rejection. was just before the great colonial period of providence of God, these extreme views were In short, the nations that have accepted it England in North America. Surely the Lord not allowed to rule the day in America. God have largely prospered, while the ones that desired America to become a home base for used the desire for freedom to help protect have not done so have mainly declined. In Protestant settlers and a nation from which the Christian's rights in America... . the beginning, our nation was based on this missionaries could one day be sent to the principle, and it should be our great desire rest of the world. to see it continue, or it is doomed to fail as From Collectivism other nations have done. George Santayana stated it well when he said, "He who refuses From The Bible and Science . . . Communism is usually erroneously to study his own history is condemned to viewed as beginning in the nineteenth- relive it." Perhaps if this generation will To this point in our study, we have seen century revolutions of Europe. Likewise, study its history, it will not make the same that the model of origins is far superior to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are gener- mistakes and America can go on being the the evolution model. The observed facts of ally touted as the dual "fathers" of the great nation it is. science are better explained by the creation modern communist movement. The true model, and many of these facts are, in fact, origins of communism, however, are to be predicted by it. This is true whether we are found far anterior to the publication of The Spanish Armada. No event in the speaking of the origin of the universe, the Marx and Engels' The Communist Mani- Exploration Period shows the hand of God's solar system, the earth, man, the witness of festo in 1848. Like its sister "isms," utopian- providence and sovereignty more dramat- the fossil record, or whatever subject you ism and socialism, communism (as a phi- ically than that of the Spanish Armada. please. When properly understood and inter- losophy) can be traced back to Lucifer's Under Henry VIII, England was disasso- preted, the observed facts of science are not revolt in Heaven and the fall of mankind in ciated from Papal rule. His son Edward VI in conflict with the Biblical record. We must the Garden of Eden. Communism has always carried out his reforms more fully. However, learn not to reinterpret the Scripture in the represented a revolt against God's natural he died at age 16. His older sister, Mary "light" of new scientific hypotheses, but to order of things in His universe. Tudor, who was married to Philip II of examine these hypotheses in the true light [On the French Revolution] The French Spain, was a fanatical Catholic. Part of the of God's inerrant word—the Bible. It is not King Louis XVI, who is so vilified by histor- reason for this was that her father had that we do not understand Scripture as much ians, was, in truth, a dedicated reformer and divorced her mother and had had to break as we do not understand what we observe sincerely wished to alleviate the oppression with the Church to do so. Mary persecuted in nature. of his people. In his zeal for reform, how- Protestants in England by burning them at The Biblical record, as we have already ever, Louis surrounded himself with advisors the stake. Fortunately, her reign was short, examined it, reveals that God created the and cabinet ministers who were radical and she died without an heir. Her younger universe—the heavens and the earth—in six liberals. It was these wild-eyed pseudo- sister, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and literal days by the Word of His power, from idealists ... who produced the climate for Anne Boleyn, whom he had beheaded, be- nothing! revolution. As so often happens, these over- rne queen. . . . Then came the problem reactive "reforms" aggravated the very ills th Spain. Philip II tried to woo Elizabeth they were attempting to cure. he had her older sister Mary. Elizabeth From the History of the United ... The simple truth is that Louis XVI ected his overtures, fearing loss of English States to 1865 was the victim of a conspiracy ultimately vereignty to Spain. This was providential. perpetrated by the "father of lies" (i.e.,

Fall 1987 15 portance, and that any state-mandated guidelines are an attempt The only way to counter this trend, say Christian-school to limit religious freedom. In the Spring 1985 issue of Educa- administrators, is to teach morals as absolute; there is no room tional Theory, William J. Reese noted that to the minds of for gray in an area that the Bible states is black and white. Lee many Christian-school administrators "God and the Bible are and others like him believe that the "situation ethics" taught in the ultimate standards ... [and] state licensing opens the door the public schools is dangerous. Only by learning that God is to state control, which means slavery to humanism." The book- in total control of our world and that right and wrong are not let of the Center Road Christian Academy bears out this contextual but absolute can a child "learn how to live before observation: "State curriculum is totally unacceptable in phi- [he] can get out in society," Lee says. "We teach them right, losophy and goals ... [because it is] developed by secular and the wrong will usually take care of itself. You don't have to educational administrators who may not be Christians." teach a child to lie. They lie from the time they're babies. They Fundamentalists do not see a need to justify the apparent cry when they're not wet, but just want to be picked up." His contradiction between their promotion of "Christian American- school's introductory pamphlet states: "Humanism, Progressiv- ism" and their opposition to local, state, and federal regulations. ism, Situation Ethics, and the New Morality are refuted and They choose instead to focus on the need for total compliance replaced by the absolutes for standards of right and wrong." with the forms of leadership they deem proper and holy. At the "God's career for your life" is, in many ways, wholly deter- Dade Christian School in Miami, for example, students must mined. The roles of men and women are "traditional" and pledge not to "draw, wear, or display in any way the `peace' Bible-defined: symbol." At the Center Road Christian Academy, only language and music that "glorify the Lord" are permitted. "Books and Men are often better at math and science because of the way magazines must be approved in writing by parents and ap- their minds work.... To fulfill their duties as protectors and providers, men usually have stronger, heavier muscles. . . . proved by supervisors upon arrival at school." And a dress Men usually enjoy work outside the home, while women usually code is strictly enforced. After-school jobs, too, must be ap- find great enjoyment working within the home. . . . Some proved by the school. The thoughts and actions of students vocations are distinctly for men, while others are distinctly for must comply unwaveringly with those of their parents and women. teachers. The Grand Island Christian School, near Niagara Falls, Social studies also repeatedly discusses, on all educational New York, states that its aim is to "teach the student to think levels, the United Nations' role in Satan's plan to install a for himself and to stand up for his personal convictions pro- socialistic one-world government before the Second Coming: vided they do not contradict the Word of God and the Code of "Many supporters of the United Nations sincerely desire a one- Conduct of our school." The Center Road Christian Academy world government. They see national sovereignty as a major booklet is less circumspect, "Daily lessons in the Scripture are threat to the World peace they so much desire. Such a super- designed for programming the mind to enable the child to see government, however, is quite undesirable to most evangelical, life from God's point of view.... Teaching is training." Bible-believing Christians." Parents are also expected to conform. Most schools require The righteousness of United States supremacy is one of the that they regularly attend a fundamentalist church and parent- basic tenets of Christian schools. The Center Road Christian teacher meetings. At least one ACE school even states that the Academy booklet states that "Christian Americanism places children of parents who do not attend these meetings will be emphasis on the greatness of America's heritage and the sacri- expelled. fices of its heroes. America is a republic which guarantees Criticism of the school is not tolerated: "Should it be neces- liberties to educate and preserve its freedom. We unabashedly sary to withdraw a student, it is critical that the student be teach the Biblical doctrines of self-discipline, respect for those warned against any negative behavior toward the school, either in authority, obedience to law, and love for flag and country." while the student is still in attendance or after. A critical attitude As NBC News put it, these schools are "based on a lie that spreads among the students, undermining much of what would God and America are the same"—that we as a nation made a have been accomplished." covenant with God and thus are the true chosen people. This Although corporal punishment is said to be seldom used to presents an interesting dichotomy in fundamentalist thought. encourage conformity, teachers are "given the liberty to enforce On one hand, obedience to all forms of authority is of para- classroom regulations in the manner which is in accordance mount importance, and questioning or challenging God, the with Christian principles and the discipline as set forth in the Bible, America, elected officials, fundamentalist leaders, pastors, Scriptures." For parents who might be inclined to spare the teachers, or parents is not permitted. On the other hand, state rod, in "Why a Christian School—Principles in Character encroachment, the authority that promotes godless humanistic Building," the Reverend Barney R. Lee devotes eight of the doctrine in the schools, must be fought at every turn. Accredita- booklet's twelve pages to expounding on scriptural verses like tion is an especially controversial issue, because in many areas this one: "Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver nonpublic schools are not subject to state or local educational his soul from hell" (Proverbs 23:14). Lee stresses that to show regulations and have only to meet fire, health, and safety laws their obedience to God, parents must be consistent in requiring to remain in operation. obedience from their children: Fundamentalists believe that church, home, and school form an indivisible triune, that parental control is of primary im- This is the blessing of the rod. Once it is used, we can com-

16 FREE INQUIRY The World According to "But How Can 1 Train My Child?" My obedience to God to train my child Reverend Barney Lee requires that every time 1 ask him to do Except for the correction of obvious typographical errors, the following something, whatever it is, I must see that selections are reprinted as they appeared in the Reverend Barney Lee's he obeys. When 1 have said it once in a normal tone; if he does not obey immedi- Christian-school brochure. Reverend Lee is the director of the Center cor Road Christian Academy in Western New York. ately 1 must take up the switch and rect him (love demands this) enough t hurt so he will not want it repgatgd.

"A Rod of Love D xcerpts from Center Road ming the mind to enable the child to see from Hostility" life from God's point of view. Humanism, Academy's Christian School Progessiveism, Situation Ethics, and the This is the blessing of the rod. Once it is brochure: New Morality are refuted and replaced used, once we have chastened, we can by the absolutes for standards of right completely forget the incident and fellow- "Accreditation" and wrong. ship is restored between parent and child. The children soon understand that the Accreditation by a state governmental rod is saturated with our love and they agency is an administrative mechanism "Christian Americanism" receive it as a rod of training, not a rod designed to ascertain uniform education of punishment. The hand should not be for all children in secular schools. It was Christian Americanism places emphasis used as the instrument of correction. The established as governmental means of upon the greatness of America's heritage hands should always be associated with causing local public school districts to and the sacrifices of its heroes. America helping not hurting. Also when the in- provide what the state educational agen- is a republic which guarantees liberties strument is chosen, great care must be !cies determine as minimum academic and to educate and preserve freedom. We made in selecting something that will not ,facility standards for all schools. Accredi- unashamedly teach the Biblical doctrines bring injury that will be lasting, a limber tation teams, therefore, investigate and of self-discipline, respect for those in switch or belt is best. A flat paddle may approve or disapprove facilities and cur- authority, obedience to law, and love for be used if applied to the child's bottom. riculum an educational institutions ac- flag and country. Never slap in the face or any place on cording to criteria developed by secular the upper part of their body. The bottom aducational administrators who may not is the perfect spot for using a paddle, the ::: be Christians. "Discipline" legs is the best place to apply a belt or Our Academy is members of Amer- switch. You may think "Oh I could never ican Association of Christian Schools. Students must at all times conduct them- be that cruel." Well you can't improve We are registered and recognized by the selves in a manner becoming of a Chris- If your on God's way and when you try, the harm State of New York. However, we do not tian. Griping is not tolerated! you do is everlasting. desire State accreditation, neither would child does come home complaining about we accept it if offered. Our school exceeds a policy of discipline, please follow this "It Is an Act of Faith" State Academic Standards, and the State procedure: Curriculum is totally unacceptable in I. Give the staff the benefit of the When the child is too young to use a philosophy and goals. doubt. 2. Realize that his reporting is emo- switch, paddle or a belt, a couple of swift tionally biased without all the informa- swats with the hand on the thigh or bare "The Pledge of Allegiance tion. bottom, laying the child down and hastily to the Christian Flag" 3. Realize that we have reasons for walking out of the room, showing total all rules and that they are enforced with- rejection is effective if you are sure that I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag, out favor. the baby is dry and not hungry or sick. and to the Saviour forWhose kingdom it 4. Support the Administration and If the child can dominate you he will, stands, one Saviour, crucified, risen, and call us for all the facts. but the child has been placed in your coming again, with life and liberty for all care, not you in his care. If you fail to who believe. "Sex Education" discipline, you ruin the potential that God has placed in your hands. But most of "Bible-Centered" All sexual activity is to be in the confines all you have failed God. Just to rear of matrimony; masturbation and homo- children is no service to God and the people of this earth. If all you have done, Education is life, and the Bible is the sexuality is not normal and right; activi- is bring the child up to adult size, without Book of Life! It is the basis of all text ties that stimulate sexual desires will not building character and a disciplined life, material, all human relations, and all be permitted (dancing, petting, kissing, you have created another factory of sin principles of teaching. Daily lessons in hugging, holding hands, etc.). Sex is not and rebellion. the Scripture are designed for program- a toy....

Fall 1987 17 pletely forget the incident and fellowship is restored between their varied interests. parent and child. . . . Grounding, nagging, scolding and On the other hand, there are some who are not strong threatening is very cruel.... When the rod is used consistently enough to withstand peer pressure and to sort out questionable for the slightest disobedience, it is never associated with anger, philosophies, and who quickly become saturated with subtle, displeasure or rejection, because the parent is never driven to ungodly attitudes that color their thinking for a lifetime. For that point.... You can't improve on God's way and when you them, the Christian school offers a haven where they can grow try, the harm you do is everlasting.... When the child is too and develop, where they can establish wholesome friendships, young to use a switch, paddle or belt, a couple of swift swats build self-esteem, and find acceptance in classrooms that are with the hand on the thigh or bare bottom, laying the child generally less crowded and less threatening.' down and hastily walking out of the room, showing total rejection is effective if you are sure the baby is dry and not hungry or sick.... The cradle is the place to lick the teenage problem. oral issues aside, parents and educators want to know ... If the child will murder, steal, be immoral, lie, be unthank- Mwhether a Christian-school education is basically a qual- ful, domineering and unholy with no respect for self, man, or i y education. Though diplomas from these schools were only God, this is 85% settled by the age of five. . . . If these recently accepted by the military and are still challenged at principles are new to you and you already have untrained most state colleges and universities, fundamentalist educators children, know that God will be very gracious to recover. It is claim numerous success stories. ACE claims that it has made not too late. "A" students out of many who could barely read and write in public school, and that their children generally score well above lthough Jerry Falwell considers Christian schools "the the national norms on standardized achievement tests. Ahope of the Republic," many secular educators believe Statistics don't always bear this claim out. The Miami News that they are part of a growing anti-intellectualism. Some reported that a sampling of students graduating from 1983 to maintain that by legislating morality and censoring materials, 1985 from the Freedom Christian Academy in Miami shows Christian schools deprive children of their right to learn and that the students actually "scored 'well below' the national their ability to reason. Students at these schools, they charge, average on college entrance SAT exams, averaging a combined will never know of the diversity of America's cultural, religious, 726 on math and verbal, almost 170 points below the national and political heritage. average." The prevailing attitude among nonfundamentalist educators Many charge that the ACE curriculum is frustratingly inac- is that public-school teachers and curricula are being unjustly curate, dotted with errors, and was hastily prepared, and that attacked. Few educators, for example, would frown on includ- the "supervisors" who help students through the program often ing in the curriculum a discussion of religion in historical or may not be qualified. Though nonpublic schools need not be literary contexts. Dorothy Olsen, a public-school teacher and a accredited, most of the larger ACE schools do claim to employ member of the Elim Baptist Church in Anoka, Minnesota, state-certified "supervisors" and to exceed minimum educational writes, "One area in which I am guilty is teaching my students requirements set forth by the government. Some educators not to blindly accept anyone's values. I teach them to be question the validity of this claim and speculate that state ac- responsible and to accept consequences of their behavior.... I creditation may be merely a "gentleman's agreement." cannot see that as a threat to parental values.... What will the Bruce Cooper, an associate professor at Fordham University Christians use after their school experience to escape from the who has studied Christian schools, says, "The problem with reality of life?"5 ACE is the higher order learning. Sure, in math two plus four Indeed, the children who attend these schools are purposely is always six. That's the only answer. But in other subjects at sheltered, raised in a "hothouse" environment in which funda- the higher end, where you're asking a child to synthesize facts mentalist ideas and attitudes are strenuously reinforced in into thoughts and interpret materials and render an analysis, church, home, and school. The movement's supporters feel ACE falls down. It doesn't prepare a child to think."8 that this helps keep young people from experimenting with drugs or getting into other trouble: "People say you're brain- Notes washing your kids. We're not brainwashing them. If you're convinced that loving God is the highest commandment, you're 1. James C. Carper, "The Christian Day Schools," in Religious School- going to want your child to love God." ing in America, edited by James C. Carper and Thomas C. Hunt (Religious 6 Education Press, 1984), p. 116. In an article called "What's a Parent to Do?" Sharon Shep- 2. A. C. Janney, "Christian Education Doesn't Cost, It Pays," American pard adds, Association of Christian Schools, (Fairfax, Va.: n.d.). 3. Tim LaHaye, in a televised debate with Paul Kurtz, "The Larry King Show," July 14, 1986. Obviously, Christian schools are not for everyone. Some kids 4. Paul A. Kienel, "The Forces Behind the Christian School Movement," apparently thrive in public schools. They have a strong Chris- Christian School Movement (1977), p. 1. tian base from their home and church, and the spiritual vigor 5. Dorothy M. Olsen, "Rising Tide of Pride," Standard (Arlington to maintain a firm witness and to withstand peer pressure to Heights, III.), 0ctober 1986, p. 55. 6. Pastor Greg Edwards, quoted in the Jamestown, New York Post conform to ungodly standards. They have the analytical skills Journal, "Christian Schools Base Curriculum on Religious Beliefs," Septem- to sort out the underlying philosophy on critical issues in light ber 27, 1985. of scriptural principles. 7. Sharon Sheppard, "What's a Parent to Do?" Standard (Arlington For such youngsters, the public school offers a variety of Heights, III.) August/September 1986, p. 12. 8. Bruce Cooper, quoted in "Fundamentalist Revival," by John Dous- opportunities, both for testing their faith and for developing sard, Miami News, September 28, 1985. •

18 FREE INQUIRY with much success. There is a lot of fear, even among Jews, that such critiques will be interpreted as anti-Semitic, or, even Editorials worse, that they will contribute to anti- Semitism. We believe, however, that Judaism should receive the same kind of scrutiny given other religions; and neither Jews nor non-Jews should indiscriminantly accuse such critics of anti-Semitism. So much can and should be analyzed: the concept of a Rights of the Child men who are embarrassingly incompetent "chosen people," the Mosaic code, the ethics (witness the appointment of Daniel Manion). propounded by the Old Testament, and the The editorial board of FREE INQUIRY expects Many worry that Reagan will be able to efforts by many Jews to defend the state of our study of the fundamentalist Christian pack the Supreme Court and effect a funda- Israel on religious rather than secular schools to be criticized. Is our call for public mental shift in emphasis. Already he has grounds. Many early Zionists were secu- scrutiny of these schools in reality a call to appointed William Rehnquist as Chief larists who believed in the ideals of democ- silence fundamentalists, to prevent funda- Justice and Antonin Scalia as an Associate racy and pluralism. But recently such secular mentalist parents from imparting their beliefs Justice—both of whom dissented from the voices have been drowned out by inflexible to their children? We are surely sensitive to Court's decision to overturn Louisiana's Orthodox Jews who believe that their poli- these parents' desire to educate their children Creation Science law. And now, as we go to cies are divinely sanctioned. as they see fit, and we understand their fear press, there is an intense debate concerning This alarming trend is not limited to that public schools undermine many revered the judicial intentions of Reagan's new Israel. Neo-conservatives in this country such and traditional values. Moreover, FREE choice, Robert Bork. Some democratic as Norman Podhoretz (in Commentary) and INQUIRY believes in a pluralistic society—in humanists, like Sidney Hook, have argued Irving Kristol (in the Public Interest), have which parents need to have the legal right in the past that activist Supreme Courts have been attacking the principles of secular to seek educational alternatives outside of usurped authority that rightfully belongs to humanism of late. Going so far as to seek the public schools. elected legislative majorities. Judge Bork an alliance with fundamentalist Christians But this right is not unqualified. Society claims to agree with this theory of "judicial on social issues, these writers have begun to has a duty to raise important questions. restraint"—which we can appreciate—but cling to a kind of religious orthodoxy, as- Parents have never been granted total au- many critics have shown convincingly that suming a defensively sectarian and ethnic thority over their children. They are not, for Bork and other conservative judges have posture. example, permitted to abuse or maltreat actually been inclined to pursue social poli- For these reasons, we welcome the crit- them, or to deprive them of adequate food cies that undermine our liberties. FREE ical exchange between Sidney Hook and and shelter or health care. Similarly, parents INQUIRY is concerned about the erosion of Rabbi Yaakov Homnick that appears below. surely do not have the right to prevent their First Amendment rights and the traditional The debate demonstrates, we think, that one children from learning how to read. By what separation of church and state. Bork's ap- can be critical of Judaism on philosophical, justification, then, can fundamentalists re- pointment would contribute to the growth ethical, political, or scientific grounds with- strict their children's opportunities to grow of the court's conservative majority, which out being anti-Semitic. Such a debate is long intellectually, to develop their skills of cri- seems inclined to subvert many hard-won overdue. tical thinking, to be exposed to a range of gains in human liberties. For this reason, alternative ideas? we are opposing the nomination of Bork to — P. K. That is what is at stake in our call for the Supreme Court. public scrutiny of the textbooks and curricula of fundamentalist schools. Our writers IHEU 1988 World Congress and researchers have found these schools Anti-Catholicism and Anti-Semitism intellectually deficient and culturally narrow. The International Humanist and Ethical FREE INQUIRY finds it ironic, to say the least, FREE INQUIRY's sixth annual conference, at Union (IHEU) plans to convene its that these same conservative religionists are American University in Washington, D.C., tenth World Congress at the State Uni- the ones who bitterly complain about the raises serious questions about Roman versity of New York at Buffalo and textbooks and curricula of public schools. Catholicism. Top scholars—Catholic, Prot- Niagara Falls, Canada, July 31-August If their own schools are an indication of estant, and secular—are participating in a 4, 1988. The theme of the congress will their ideal, it is clear that their final aim rare event: The premises of this powerful be "Humanism in the Twenty-first Cen- would impoverish learning. church are almost never openly debated. Is tury: Building a World Community." engaging in this kind of debate anti-Catholic? The IHEU, founded in 1952, now com- FREE INQUIRY strongly believes in the right prises more than sixty humanist and of dissent and the need for rigorous criticism secular organizations in twenty-two The Supreme Court of theological doctrines, particularly when countries. A fund drive is under way to they impinge on the broader public. This help develop the IHEU world-wide. For The battle for the mind is also being waged kind of open debate is not anti-Catholic. further details about membership in the in the courts. President Reagan has already Similarly with critiques of Judaism. For IHEU, headquartered in Utrecht, Hol- filled more than one-half of the federal a long time FREE INQUIRY has sought land, write IHEU, Box 5, Central Park judgeships, most often with men whose views authors who are willing to critically examine Station, Buffalo, NY 14215. are extremely conservative, sometimes with the Jewish religion, but we have not met

FREE INQUIRY 19 ON THE BARRICADES Is Psychotherapy a Religion? Alabama Federal Court Judge W. Brevard Hand's March 4 textbook-banning decision News and Views —which described secular humanism as a religion subject to all the protections and restrictions of the First Amendment's Estab- A Supreme Court Victory enhance the freedom of teachers to teach lishment Clause—continues to inspire reli- what they choose and fails to further the gious groups to challenge the legality of goal of `teaching all of the evidence.' For- traditionally secular institutions. In Manatee, On June 19, the United States Supreme bidding the teaching of evolution when crea- Florida, one minister is challenging the Court ruled that Louisiana's "Creationism tion science is not also taught undermines county's funding of a psychotherapy clinic. Act"—which forbade the teaching of the the provision of a comprehensive scientific The minister, the Reverend Wendell C. theory of evolution in public elementary and education.... A law intended to maximize Wilson, is upset that the county is funding a secondary schools unless accompanied by the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of youth drug-and-alcohol-treatment program instruction in the theory of "creation science" science instruction would encourage the that employs psychotherapy instead of a —violated "the Establishment Clause of the teaching of all scientific theories about program that he proposed, which would use First Amendment, because it lacks a clear human origins. Instead, this Act has the "the Bible as therapy." Psychotherapy, Wil- secular purpose." The vote on the decision distinctly different purpose of discrediting son said, is a form of secular humanism, was 7 to 2. Justice William Brennan drafted evolution by counterbalancing its teaching because it holds that man can solve his own the majority opinion, and Justice Scalia filed at every turn with the teaching of creation problems. And, since secular humanism has a dissent—in which Chief Justice William science." been declared a religion, Wilson is arguing Rehnquist joined. The Louisiana law, Brennan wrote, was that the county was unfair in selecting one Seventy-two American Nobel Laureates religiously based. "The Act impermissibly religious group over another to run a clinic. and twenty-four scientific organizations sup- endorses religion by advancing the religious Wilson was asked by County Attorney ported an amicus curiae brief condemning belief that a supernatural being created Hamilton Rice whether the minister would the Act's mischaracterization of creationism humankind.... [Its] primary purpose was be willing to give up the religious theme of as a science. to change the public school science curricu- his proposed center. "I would not be willing In his majority opinion, Justice Brennan lum to provide persuasive advantage to a to restructure to the point of taking out the wrote that the Louisiana Act "does not particular religious doctrine...." spiritual quality," Wilson responded. "Com- promise is the worst thing a man can do."

Zappa Zapped by Fox Network MAI 1)I1) 'IVY MAN When the Fox Broadcasting Network fired Joan Rivers as the hostess of its "Late THAT (RACK ABOUT Show," the show's producers began featuring some @VOLVING SLOW a string of guest hosts—including people like Martin Sheen, Suzanne Somers, and Tom TIM OThûRS ? Snyder. The network thought they could expand the show's paltry audience by sched- uling Frank Zappa, the inventive rock gui- tarist who is also an outspoken opponent of censorship. When Zappa proposed to invite Gerard Straub, author of Salvation for Sale (Prometheus Books), a controversial look at Pat Robertson that was excerpted in FREE INQUIRY, Summer 1986, "the producers absolutely panicked," said Zappa—so they zapped Zappa and Straub and scheduled a rerun. Fox executives claim that audiences aren't interested in authors. But many media critics charge that the fledgling network wants to avoid controversy at all costs. Zappa, however, has built a career out of being heard, so now he is producing a video on fundamentalism—featuring Gerry Straub and Edmund Cohen, whose "Psychology of the Bible Believer" appeared in the Spring 1987 issue of FREE INQUIRY.

20 FREE INQUIRY FREE INQUIRY and the Media Secular Sobriety Update Forkosch Awards

FREE INQUIRY continues to attract the atten- Since it was first announced in FREE The Morris D. Forkosch Endowment tion of the media, both as a subject of news INQUIRY (Spring 1987), the Secular Sobriety Fund has been established to provide stories and as a source of information. Group (SSG) movement has taken off. an annual prize of $1,000 for the year's Among some of the more prominent cover- "Grass-roots groups are forming throughout best book on humanism. The Selma V. age were major articles in the Chicago the country," says SSG founder James Forkosch Award has also been funded Tribune, on FREE INQUIRY's continuing in- Christopher. "Alcoholics who wish to to provide an annual prize of $250 for vestigation of faith-healers, the Philadelphia achieve and maintain sobriety, but who have the best essay published in FREE Inquirer, on the Delaware Valley Secular had a tough time abiding Alcoholics Anony- INQUIRY. Humanist Group, and USA Today, which mous's `higher power' philosophy, have quoted Bob Basil, executive editor of FREE found our approach to be rewarding. Alco- FREE INQUIRY Highlights INQUIRY, on the political ramifications of holics in the hundreds have called and writ- the "New Age" phenomenon. Paul Kurtz, ten me about the need for this secular al- 1987 marks the centenary of the births of editor-in-chief of FREE INQUIRY, appeared ternative. Health-care professionals have two distinguished humanists: Sir Julian twice on Milt Rosenberg's radio program, made inquiries for their clients. And many Huxley (1887-1975), noted British biologist, "Extension 720," and debated Mother nonalcoholics are contacting us about non- and M. N. Roy (1887-1954), founder of the Angelica on National Public Radio's "Radio religious friends and relatives who have Radical Humanist Association of India... Chicago" program. Dr. Kurtz was also fea- problems with alcohol and who—until now Robert Alley and A. E. Howard, of the tured on programs in Charlotte, Nashville, —have had nowhere to turn." James Madison Memorial Committee, par- Pittsburgh, and, with Basil, on several radio With such active and widespread interest ticipated in the official ceremonies com- shows in the Philadelphia and Albany areas. in SSG, it's not surprising that the organiza- memorating Madison's birthday at the Tim Madigan, FREE INQUIRY's new Public tion is already helping found spin-offs. "Per- fourth president's newly opened homestead Relations Director, has appeared on radio haps the most important," notes Christopher, in Montpelier, Virginia on March 17, 1987. in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and Western New "is 'The Sobriety Priority'—a treatment pro- The committee, initiated under the auspices York. The Christian Broadcasting Network gram designed by psychologist Bill White of FREE INQUIRY magazine, helped secure interviewed Paul Kurtz in a TV-special and myself for clinics and hospitals. Today, the homestead as a way of honoring Madi- devoted to secular humanism. "For a change when you go into a hospital for an addiction son for his contribution to the United States I was actually quoted in context, more or problem, the treatment you receive is virtu- Constitution.... National Secular Humanist less," Kurtz said. Catholics Anonymous, an ally always based on AA's religious recovery Friendship Center coordinator Robert Basil organization recently launched with the model. And, since most hospitals are secular and FREE INQUIRY editor-in-chief Paul assistance of FREE INQUIRY, was the subject institutions, they ought certainly to offer Kurtz addressed groups forming in Albany, of a widely syndicated Associated Press their patients the option of having secular New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. story. addiction treatment." The Sobriety Priority Next on the schedule are Chicago, Denver, pilot program is set to begin soon in Los Los Angeles, and San Francisco. . . . Angeles. Catholics Anonymous is readying a national For more information, call 818-980-8851 newsletter for this fall in order to coordinate or write: the rapid growth of the organization... . Robert Ingersoll House Five members of the FREE INQUIRY staff SSG (Paul Kurtz, Vern Bullough, Jean Millhol- FREE INQUIRY has taken the initiative in Box 15781 land, Richard Seymour, and Robert Basil) establishing a new "Robert G. Ingersoll North Hollywood, CA 91615-5781. will be participating in a meeting of the Memorial Committee." The committee's pri- International Humanist and Ethical Union mary purpose: to raise funds to purchase this October in Utrecht, Netherlands. and refurbish Ingersoll's birthplace in Dres- den, New York, a small and picturesque village in the Fingerlakes area. Ingersoll Sidney Hook Wins First Secular (1833-1899) led a vigorous public life defend- Humanist Award ing free-thought and wrote many seminal works, including Mistakes of Moses, Why I Sidney Hook was tendered the first "Distin- Am An Agnostic, and Superstition. Henry guished Secular Humanist Award" in Wash- Ward Beecher described Ingersoll as "the ington, D.C., on September 12, 1987, at the most brilliant speaker of the English tongue sixth annual FREE INQUIRY conference. of all the men on the globe." Hook is professor emeritus of philosophy The newly founded committee comprises at New York University, senior research Philip Mass, Gordon Stein, Roger Greeley, fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford and Paul Kurtz. Its goal is to raise $26,000 University, and an outspoken proponent of to restore the house for use as a free-thought secular humanism. His autobiography, Out center, library, and retreat. To launch the of Step, was recently released to near- project, the committee sponsored a special universal acclaim. An account of the FREE commemorative ceremony on August 11 at INQUIRY conference, held at American Uni- Ingersoll's homestead. versity, will appear in the next issue.

Fall 1987 21 abortion, and its refusal even to consider the ordination of women. Gays have vowed Viewpoints to protest John Paul's renewed condemna- tion of homosexuality so vociferously that Papal Stakes many believe Detroit was added to the end of the papal tour just so the trip would not conclude on San Francisco's sour note. Thomas Flynn Liberals will condemn the Vatican for its high-handed protection of Paul Marcinkus hen Pope John Paul Il conducts his minded his church that homosexuality is a and others in the Vatican Bank scandal, and WAmerican tour in September, the "moral evil"; restored the Marian devotion for the extravagant $20 million budget of stakes will be uncommonly high. Some ob- with an enthusiasm that has astonished ecu- the tour itself. Conservatives, meanwhile, servers feel the tour represents his last, best menical Protestants; and harshly reinforced will certainly be heard excoriating the Amer- chance to reaffirm Vatican control over archaic teachings on birth control and sexual ican church's independence and progressive free-wheeling U.S. Catholics and their unruly morality. tendencies. bishops. Others warn that if John Paul at- Politically, by frustrating the communist Even elected officials are fidgeting. In tempts to re-impose papal authority over government of his native Poland, the Pope Florida, state legislators balked at appropri- the American church, he will encourage the has demonstrated his willingness to challenge ating $1.5 million for security during the very schism he seeks to prevent: the forma- powerful opponents. (Whether he is moti- pontiff's visit to Miami. Governor Robert tion of an independent American Catholic vated by a concern for human rights or by Martinez saved the appropriation only by church. some wild hope to restore church hegemony diverting $12 million in discretionary funds Not long ago, talk of a split from Rome over Central Europe remains to be seen.) In —eight times the amount requested for would have seemed absurd. But, after two America he has tested his muscles with fusil- papal security!—to programs demanded by decades of breakneck change, the U.S. lades against theologians Terrence Sweeney, key legislators. church can clearly be seen evolving in ways Charles Curran, and Seattle Archbishop that are far more distinctively American than Raymond Hunthausen. Most worrisome of udging from the protest plans, never has they are Catholic. Conservative critics point all for U.S. Catholics is the example of Latin Ja papal visit seemed less sacred to many to Renew, a revivalistic parish program de- America, where the Vatican has steered Americans. Yet never has one been so im- signed to involve Catholics more profoundly many priests away from "liberation the- portant. Whatever John Paul does on this in church life. In its emphasis on healthy ology" and political activism toward a con- tour will define U.S.-Vatican relations for group dynamics, self-actualization, and a ventional pietism that casts a blind eye the foreseeable future. personal relationship with Jesus, Renew toward injustice. If the Pope adopts a "peace at any price" seems to owe more to Carl Rogers, Abraham Not surprisingly, some Catholics believe strategy, as Archbishop Pilarczyk predicts, Maslow, and Martin Luther than to Thomas that John Paul is coming to America to he will be seen as acquiescing to the Amer- Aquinas or Pope Pius XII. Renew is typical grab them by the scruffs of their necks and ican church's new directions, making a of new trends in the American church, pull them back into line. So pervasive is future, further-deferred clampdown far more trends that prompt conservatives to charge this concern that Cincinnati Archbishop difficult. The ultimate result might be an that "The American church didn't just Daniel E. Pilarczyk has felt the need to American church that has almost no doc- embrace Vatican II, she eloped with it." declare that "the Pope is not coming to the trinal or structural dependence on the This flowering of eclecticism is, of course, United States to scold." But Milwaukee Church of Rome but continues to call itself utterly contrary to the agenda of John Paul Archbishop Rembert Weakland—former Roman Catholic. II. For him, playing the Good Shepherd world abbot general of the Benedictines— If the Pope adopts a sterner strategy, seems to mean pulling back into the flock has compared the new church crackdowns explicitly decrying the American church's all the sheep that escaped through holes his on dissent to its reaction to Galileo and its deviations, and manages to outgun the U.S. predecessors thoughtlessly cut in the pasture attack upon modernism at the beginning of bishops in the resulting political duel, he fence. John Paul II envisages an old- this century. Progressive American bishops may succeed in reconsolidating a truly fashioned faith, as firmly anchored in the have, however, demonstrated that they can Roman Catholic church in the United States central authority of Rome as it is suspicious exercise formidable power in their own de- —if at the cost of creating a welter of tiny of new developments. fense, as shown by the ultimate relaxation liberal congregations. Surely, from the On the doctrinal front, he has reaffirmed of the Vatican's original harsh verdict against standpoint of human rights and the human the teaching that divorced Catholics who Hunthausen, whose position on the nuclear development of those Americans who follow remarry may not receive Communion unless arms race, birth control, and ministration church teachings, this is the least desirable they abstain from sex; praised the "sense of to homosexuals drew vocal conservative outcome. sin" and called for a revival of the self- protests. But an explicit papal scolding may back- abnegating rite of individual penance; Laypeople, too, ascribe a special signifi- fire, kindling the outrage of the U.S. bishops, rescued the Holy Spirit, good angels, and cance to this papal tour. When the Pope priests, and laity, ultimately laying the Satan from the ash can of doctrine; re- last visited these shores, scarcely anyone groundwork for the creation of an indepen- other than Madalyn Murray O'Hair felt dent American Catholic church. In such moved to picket. This time the pontiff will chaos, conservative Catholic factions might Thomas Flynn is co-founder of Catholics face organized protest at almost every stop— well launch their own church too. No doubt Anonymous and co-editor of the Secular a phenomenon common enough in Europe, a core of old Roman Catholics, loyal to the Humanist Bulletin. but unheard-of here. Women will attack Vatican, would remain as a third sovereign church teachings on divorce, birth control, group.

22 FREE INQUIRY Does this picture seem extreme? What can it be otherwise when the Vatican Pope John Paul II cannot help but con- often goes unrecognized is how far the bureaucracy holds that the church is the sole demn the "new Protestantism" of the Amer- American church has strayed from the spirit true agent of the divine will? When the winds ican Catholic church, if he means con- of Catholic dogma—and how profoundly the of change blew through the U.S. church, sistently to implement the doctrines of ingrained American concepts of pluralism the faithful naturally felt drawn in the direc- Rome. As secular humanists we will watch and individual decision differ from the tion of the individualistic, independent, developments in this large and powerful reli- teachings of Rome. As Paul Blanshard fre- human-centered values they had come to gious group with concerned interest. Al- quently observed, being a good Catholic and embrace in their lives outside the church, though we cannot intervene, we can extend being a good American often conflict. In its values more reminiscent of New England our felicitations and our hopes to those heart of hearts the church remains authori- Protestantism than of Rome. Seen outside factions within the church that come closest tarian, hierarchical, demanding of obedience, the religious framework, those values can to espousing a nonauthoritarian, human- and often heedless of individual rights. How even be called humanistic. centered view. •

argument was originally propounded in 1857 (two years before The Origin of Species The Judge and Adam's Navel shattered Victorian certitudes) by the Reverend Philip Gosse in a doomed attempt to reconcile his trained naturalist's eye with his grimly fanatical faith. In his book Betty McCollister Omphalos (Greek for "navel"), Gosse also answered the thorny question of whether, nited States Supreme Court Justice creationist "scientific" organizations must despite their unique creation, Adam and Eve Antonin Scalia's dissent from the sign a statement of faith in the five funda- U had navels. Gosse concluded that God had Court's decision on the teaching of "creation mentals, including biblical inerrancy. One created them to look as though they'd been science" was curiously naive. The Court, such profession of faith begins, "We are an attached to placentas even though they wrote Scalia, had heard "ample uncontra- organization of Christian men... ." Real hadn't. Similarly, Gosse concluded trium- dicted testimony that 'creation science' is a scientists come in both sexes and with every phantly, God created rocks and strata six body of scientific knowledge rather than imaginable philosophical-religious stance. thousand years ago to look millions of years revealed belief." So much for scientific credibility. Reli- old. Evidence hardly supports him. Here, in gious? Hardly. Creation "science" is the To Gosse's intense mortification, his a typical example, the Reverend Walter Lang product of extreme Christian fundamen- resolution brought ridicule from scientific (of the Bible-Science Institute) offers us his talism. In criticizing this view, liberal Chris- and religious sides alike and moral outrage view of genetics: tians have joined Jews, Unitarians, and other as well from the latter. The Reverend religious groups in viewing this bogus science Charles Kingsley, an Anglican divine whom With our knowledge of modern-day as an attack on religion as well as on the unfortunate Gosse appealed to, re- genetics, we realize that it was possible authentic science. sponded: for God to place the potential for all What moral credibility do creationists people throughout history into the genes have? For their religious ends, they mis- of Adam and Eve when He created them. Your book tends to prove that ... God quote, quote out of context, and dredge up becomes God-the-Sometime-Deceiver. 1 do long-discredited hypotheses like the exposed And on science: not mean merely in the case of fossils Piltdown man fraud. They distort the second which pretend to be the bones of dead law of thermodynamics to confuse their animals; but in your newly created Adam's Because science restricts itself to nature ignorant and gullible followers; and they navel, you make God tell a lie. I cannot alone, is the wisdom which depends on claim it's pure coincidence that, quite inde- believe that God has written on the rocks the fear of the Lord really a science? We an enormous and superfluous lie for all say it is, because when science is divorced pendent of Genesis, they have located evi- mankind. from ultimate wisdom, it becomes my- dence that supports hypotheses of a young thology, as in the theory of evolution. earth, an instantaneous and complete creation by a conscious designer, and a world- The "Adam's navel" argument, stillborn in 1857 but still used in creationist propa- This kind of "science" is as tendentiously wide flood. ganda, turns both science and religion on absurd as the argument some creationists In science, integrity is the first ground their ears. And one might also note that it use to prove that Copernicus and Galileo rule. As an anonymous sage puts it, could posit, with equal plausibility, that God were wrong. We should know, they say, that created the earth four and a half billion years the sun revolves around the earth, because Science is a set of rules to keep us from ago, set biological evolution in motion a Joshua commanded the sun to stand still. Is telling lies to each other. All scientists billion years later, and created fundamen- this "scientific knowledge rather than really have is a reputation for telling the truth. talists in twentieth-century America who revealed belief"? would determine that Genesis makes it look But Justice Scalia needn't study these as if He hadn't. gems of "science." All he needs to do is con- Creation "scientists" have no such reputa- In a nation where religious freedom has sider that all applicants for membership in tion. Most singular of all, creationists have worked well, fundamentalists, it goes without projected their own deviousness onto their saying, are absolutely free to believe their Betty McCollister is a regular contributor creator. They argue that God created the particular brand of faith. But to push it as of FREE INQUIRY. cosmos and our planet 6,000 years ago but science is not scientifically, religiously, or made them look billions of years older. This morally credible. •

Fall 1987 23 Fetal "Personhood" and Abortion Rights

Edd Doerr

ccording to the U.S. Supreme Court's women (their moderate and liberal counter- one weeks. A1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, a woman's parts, as well as most Jews, support freedom Anthropologist Lynn M. Morgan and constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy of choice), they apparently feel that the most psychologist Leigh Minturn showed that rests on two bases: the Fourteenth Amend- effective tool for mandating motherhood is there is wide variation among cultures in ment—protected right to privacy and the legal to convince lawmakers and voters, through defining "personhood" and that throughout definition of "personhood" as beginning at the use of well-planned propaganda cam- history societies of the West generally did birth. paigns, that fetuses are persons at all stages not treat or regard fetuses as persons. Most Americans support freedom of of development. Unfortunately, defenders of Attorney Judith C. Rosen (who was conscience on abortion, and there is little choice, women's rights, and freedom of con- honored by the Criminal Defense Bar Asso- chance that Congress will approve a consti- science have not adequately responded to ciation of San Diego for her successful work tutional amendment to ban all or nearly all this propaganda ploy. in a fetal "personhood" case in early 1987) abortions. Still, anti-choice advocates have For this reason, Americans for Religious warned that lawmakers and judges, often succeeded in banning most Medicaid funding Liberty sponsored the first interdisciplinary motivated by a desire to outlaw abortion, of abortions for poor women, in stopping conference on fetal "personhood" on May are increasingly trying to define fetuses as insurance coverage of abortion for federal 30 of this year in Washington, D.C., inviting persons in cases seemingly not related to employees, and in cutting off access to abor- experts in biology, psychology, anthropol- abortion rights. This trend, she noted, tions by military and Peace Corps personnel ogy, law, bioethics, and theology. threatens women with criminal prosecution and their dependents. Further, by harassing "Personhood," the speakers found, resists for "fetal abuse," with the loss of jobs and patients and bombing clinics, anti-choice exact definition. Most agreed that person- children, and even with forced surgery. fanatics have chilled the right of choice to a hood requires conscious awareness, percep- Theologians Marjorie Maguire and Paul degree not easily measured. tion of sensation, and the ability to think; D. Simmons agreed with Flower's neurobio- Most of the opposition to choice stems an operational brain, they concurred, ani- logical perspective and strongly supported from fundamentalist leaders, both Catholic mates these functions. freedom of choice. Maguire, a Catholic, said and Protestant, who insist that fetuses are Lewis and Clark College biologist that only the individual woman can decide "persons" from the earliest stage of preg- Michael Flower explained that "the first when to attribute personhood to the fetus; nancy and that this position, which is essen- movements of the early (six week) fetus can government and society, she said, ought to tially théological, should be imposed on all be attributed to simple reflex arcs involving keep out of her way. Americans by law. These leaders convenient- no `central' integrative activity.... There is Simmons, a Baptist, noted that there is ly overlook the facts that Catholic doctrine no evidence of a neocortical role during the no biblical basis for attributing personhood on early fetal personhood was not crystal- first trimester. The cells of the neocortex to fetuses and that anti-choice evangelicals lized until the middle of the nineteenth cen- are neither fully in place nor synaptically misuse the Bible when they claim there is tury and that fundamentalist Protestants interconnected until mid-gestation and, even such a basis. The constitutional principle of generally accepted the view that personhood then, neocortical connectivity is just begin- separation of church and state and our begins at birth, at least until political evan- ning. More importantly, the rudimentary nation's ideal of cultural pluralism, he said, gelists decided during the 1970s that adopt- fetal neocortex is unlikely to receive any require government to refrain from imposing ing the Vatican position on personhood was sensory input until after mid-gestation...." a narrow theology of personhood by law. a key to political power. Simply put, the basic machinery for Defenders of freedom of conscience, Although fundamentalist Catholic and functioning as a person is not wired into women's rights, religious liberty, and Protestant opposition to choice may be place until sometime after the twenty-eighth church-state separation will need to make based upon hostility to equal rights for week of pregnancy. All legal abortions, it is use of this clear thinking, especially the important to note, are performed before that findings of neurobiology regarding brain Edd Doerr is executive director of Amer- time. Indeed, over 95 percent of abortions development, to counter pressures being icans for Religious Liberty. are performed during the first fourteen weeks exerted to bind women, and our whole soci- of gestation, virtually all the rest by twenty- ety, to dogmatic obscurantism. •

24 FREE INQUIRY Judge Hand Erred in Holding That Secular Humanism Is a Religion

When United States District Court Judge Brevard Hand ruled in the notorious Alabama textbook- banning case that secular humanism was a religion, the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism sponsored an amicus curiae brief Written by Ronald Lindsay—of the law firm Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather, and Geraldson—the brief was submitted to the United States Court of Appeals, which is expected to issue a decision early this fall. Excerpts of the appeal is published below.

Ronald Lindsay

A. Secular Humanism Is a Philosophy, Not is that it "comprehend[s] those experiences in any supernatural or transcendent reality a Religion. and aspirations of mankind that have been can be traced to their interpretation of the generally thought of as `religious,' thus rea- results of their approach to investigating sonably corresponding to most theological reality. Secular humanists "don't believe in he Supreme Court has drawn a sharp and lay ideas of the term."3 Almost all reli- an unseen hidden [because] they have no Tdistinction between religious and phil- gions have held that there is a transcendent evidence for an unseen hidden." osophical beliefs. In Wisconsin v. Yoder deity or deities. Indeed, at one time this One can dispute whether secular human- (1972), the Court differentiated between be- prominent aspect of religious belief led the ists have properly interpreted the results of liefs which are "philosophical and personal Supreme Court to declare that: "The term applying the scientific method. One can also rather than religious," emphasizing that a `religion has reference to one's views of his dispute whether the scientific method is the philosophical "belief does not rise to the relations to his Creator, and to the obliga- only way of acquiring knowledge about demands of the Religion Clauses." The lower tions they impose of reverence for his being reality. However, "[u]nless we are to assume court ignored this distinction between phi- and character, and of obedience to his will" an Alice-in-Wonderland world where words losophy and religion in holding that secular [Davis v. Beason, (1890)]. Acquaintance have no meaning,"5 the philosophy of humanism is a religion. with Eastern religions has taught us that it humanism cannot be classified as a religion. The common element of all religions is is possible for a religion to be nontheistic. the belief that there exists a supernatural or However, the fact that some religions may B. Secular Humanism Does Not Fit the transcendent order, that is, an order of not require belief in a deity or deities does District Court's Definition of Religion existence beyond the observable universe. not mean that courts must now apply some and, in Any Event, that Definition Is As one commentator has stated, "a religion cumbersome "functional" test for religion, Flawed. consists of beliefs or practices based upon a for even religions which are, rightly or perception of reality as being composed of wrongly, sometimes described as nontheistic sing belief in supernatural or transcen- both sacred ('wholly other') and profane hold that there are transcendent realities.' Udent realities as a criterion for distin- (natural) elements."' Even scholars who Secular humanism is not a religious be- guishing religion from philosophy or ide- despair of providing a definition of religion lief, but a philosophy. The fundamental ology has several advantages: it is a test that would be adequate for all purposes and principle of secular humanism is a methodo- which is easily applied, it captures the com- all times agree that belief in transcendent logical one. As Dr. Paul Kurtz, the author mon understanding of religion (and therefore reality is a necessary, albeit perhaps not a of the Secular Humanist Declaration, ex- presumably reflects what the Framers of the sufficient, condition for religion. In other plained during his testimony, secular first amendment had in mind) and it yields words, to qualify as a religion a system of humanism is primarily a belief that a certain results which are at least intuitively correct belief must include acceptance of transcen- method of inquiry is superior to others. in borderline cases. dent realities, but religion may have other Secular humanism holds that free inquiry Nonetheless, the lower court decided to distinguishing characteristics which may be and the scientific method are the preferred design its own test for determining whether difficult, if not impossible, to specify.2 means for investigating nature, including or not a belief constitutes a religion. Per- Using belief in transcendent realities as human nature. haps "tests" would lie the better word be- a means of distinguishing religion from non- Secular humanists do not believe in any cause the court actually seems to have given religion has several advantages, one of which transcendent power or order. Their disbelief its approval to various criteria, not all of

Fall 1987 25 them consistent. bates existing within the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities." The court over- Secular humanism is religious for first 1. Religion Evidenced by Hierarchy, looked the fact that schisms result in the amendment purposes because it makes Authoritative Texts and Ritual creation of separate and exclusive religious statements based on faith-assumptions. groups. Luther did not remain a good Thus, at one point in its opinion the district Catholic. The authorities within a religious court listed "a number of characteristics body will only allow so much variance from The Court is holding that promotion and exhibited by most known religious groups core beliefs before they take action against advancement of a religious system occurs to which courts can look when trying to dissenters even if, in more tolerant contem- when one faith-theory is taught to the determine if a set of theories or system of porary times, that only results in a with- exclusion of others and this is prohibited ideas is religious in nature." These criteria drawal of official endorsement of that dis- by the first amendment religion clauses. are sincerity of belief, group organization senter's views. There are no heretics among and hierarchical structure, authoritative texts secular humanists. In other words, the court has found secu- and ritual and worship. Finally, along with the absence of a hier- lar humanism to be a "faith" and therefore The criterion of sincerity is irrelevant to archy, secular humanists lack authoritative a religion. The court reaches this astonishing the instant case. Although the sincerity of texts. Secular humanists do not accept a conclusion because it thinks that the reli- an individual's beliefs may help distinguish proposition as true merely because it is as- gious skepticism of secular humanists is not individuals who are fraudulently claiming serted in the writings of Paul Kurtz, Sidney justified by application of the scientific to be religious from those who are truly Hook, Bertrand Russell, or other prominent method: "However to claim that there is religious, it is not much help in determining humanists. As for the Secular Humanist nothing real beyond observable data is to whether sincere secular humanists are correct Declaration, it is not a creed but a statement make an assumption based not on science, in characterizing their belief as a philosophy of consensus.6 "Not necessar[ily] everyone but on faith, faith that observable data is all rather than a religion. agrees at every point in that document.". that is real." As to the other criteria listed by the Indeed, the Declaration expressly states that The court's holding rests on an Orwellian district court, secular humanism fails to its contents are subject to modification and redefinition of "faith." The term "faith" is satisfy them. that the individuals who have signed it do usually employed in reference to a belief in To begin, secular humanists do not have not necessarily agree with every assertion in some order of existence for which there is churches, worship services, or other cultic the Declaration. insufficient evidence. To say that someone practices. Moreover, not only is the Declaration has faith is commonly understood to mean They also have no hierarchical structure. not a proclamation of dogma, binding on that that person believes in something for There is no humanist equivalent of the Pope all adherents of secular humanism, but it which there is insufficient or inconclusive or the Dalai Lama; Dr. Kurtz cannot censure serves no function similar to the holy or evidence. Secular humanists have no faith or excommunicate humanists who "defy" his sacred writings of religions. Secular human- precisely because they hold, as a methodo- "authority." Neither he nor any other secular ists do not employ the Declaration in any logical principle, that it is preferable to pro- humanist has any official authority to de- type of worship service or cultic practice. portion one's beliefs to the evidence. Since clare valid or invalid the beliefs of other Humanists do not gather periodically to have they believe there is no convincing evidence humanists. readings from the Declaration; they do not of a supernatural reality, they believe there A number of secular humanists do dis- use it as a means of imparting a blessing; is no supernatural reality. There is no more agree with Dr. Kurtz or with other prom- they do not kiss it to establish their fealty to "faith" involved in such a belief than there inent humanists about various aspects of its tenets; they do not solemnize their af- is in the contention that lightning should humanism. As Dr. Kurtz explained under firmations by placing their hands upon it. not be attributed to Zeus in the absence of cross-examination, "humanism is not a The Declaration has achieved a certain any evidence of such supernatural activity. dogma or creed, people disagree" and for prominence—mainly as the result of its de- As indicated supra, p. 8, one can cer- that reason "[h]umanists are given to wide- tractors—but otherwise there is nothing un- tainly quarrel with secular humanists' inter- spread debate." The court's observation that usual, and certainly nothing "other-worldly," pretation of the relevant data. A number of the humanist movement has "leaders .. . about it. As Dr. Kurtz pointed out, it is not great thinkers have maintained that through who are acknowledged, even revered, as uncommon, especially among academics, for observation of nature and use of our reason authorities on its purposes" is something of groups of individuals to endorse and issue we can establish the existence of a deity. an overstatement, but in any event the same "statements about moral, social, intellectual Thomas Aquinas' proofs of the existence of could be said for past and present leaders of and even political concerns." The Declara- God, referred to as the "Five Ways," are the Republican or Democratic parties. tion is simply one such statement. perhaps the best example of this line of Ronald Reagan has at least as much influ- From the foregoing, it is evident that thought. But recent developments in cos- ence in the Republican party as Paul Kurtz secular humanism lacks the hierarchical mology have also led some scientists to claim or Sidney Hook has among secular human- structure, authoritative texts, and ritual that a supernatural force must be responsible ists, but that does not convert the Grand practices which the court below stated were for the creation of the universe.' Old Party into a religion. the hallmarks of a religion. One can also argue that we have other, Cognizant of the undeniable diversity of perhaps "intuitive," ways of acquiring views among secular humanists, the court 2. Religion Evidenced by Faith-Assumptions knowledge of reality. Mystics have main- made a valiant effort to use this very diver- tained that they can experience the transcen- sity as evidence of secular humanism's reli- But the district court advanced other criteria. dent directly. St. John of the Cross, a gious nature: "There is a diversity of views The statements which perhaps best sum- famous Christian mystic, asserted that one and philosophies within the humanist com- marize the court's holding [are the follow- can acquire an "obscure knowledge" of God munity very similar to the schisms and de- ing]: which "consists in a certain contact of the

26 FREE INQUIRY soul with the Divinity." approaches "fundamental questions" with Notes But to hold, as the court does, that these "assumptions." Thus, if one scans the limiting one's beliefs to those supported by Secular Humanist Declaration one finds very 1. The Sacred and the Profane: A First evidence obtained through application of the little dealing with the "nature of man" or Amendment Definition of Religion, 61 Tex. L. scientific method is an act of faith is to "the ultimate end of man's existence." But Rev. 139, 164 (1982). See also G. Vernon, Soci- distort the concept of faith beyond recogni- of course the terms the court uses are so ology of Religion 55 (1962) (religion is that part tion. vague that depending on how they are de- of culture which identifies "the supernatural and the sacred and man's relationship thereto"). Perhaps what the court was attempting fined one might say that the assertion that 2. J. Choper, Defining "Religion" In the First "secular humanists ... believe in the central to say is that reliance on the scientific Amendment, 1982 U. Ill. L. Rev. 579, 602 (reli- method in any endeavor is an act of faith. importance of the value of human happiness gious "beliefs are concerned with aspects of reality After all there is no guarantee that commit- here and now" relates to a "fundamental that are not observable in ordinary experience, ment to verifiable observation, experimenta- question." but which are assumed to exist at another level"); tion, and sound reasoning will lead us to What is certain is that if this test for L. Dupre, The Other Dimension 20 (1972) (reli- the truth.8 Secular humanists acknowledge religion is adopted it would work a revolu- gion has "one universal objective trait, namely, a there is no such guarantee, but nonetheless tion in constitutional jurisprudence. There relation to some sort of transcendent reality," reliance on the scientific method is not an are many philosophies or ideologies that deal but a completely satisfactory definition of religion act of faith; rather reliance on the scientific with "fundamental questions of the nature is not possible). 3. J. Choper, Defining "Religion"in the First method is pragmatically justified: of reality and man's relationship to reality." Amendment, supra at 580. For example, existentialism is probably a 4. "Taoism," 14 The Encyclopedia of Religion religion under this test. 288, 291 (M. Eliade ed. 1987) (Tao, the central [The principles of the scientific method] Perhaps more significantly, Marxism- concept of Taoism, is "a primordial and eternal are corrigible; they are tested by the whole Leninism, or Communism, is undoubtedly entity" which is "beyond the grasp of the senses fabric of rationality; they are presupposed and is imperceptible" and "is transcendent with by ordinary common sense and imbedded a religion under this text. Indeed, Com- respect to the world of phenomena"); J. Noss, in the processes by which we characterize munism has often been called a religion, in Religions 180 (3d ed. 1963) ("But while the everyday world and make choices. The an extended sense of that term, because of Man's the Buddha uprooted from his world-view most consequences of denying them would in- the commitment exhibited by its adherents of what is commonly regarded as distinctive of validate the entire structure of behavior and its highly organized, rigidly hierarchical religion as such, he held to two major Hindu and would make any form of knowledge structure. However, characterizing Com- doctrines that have religious implications; he impossible. We do develop hypotheses that munism as a religion has normally been believed in the law of Karma and in the transmi- we say are true, and we act upon this understood as a metaphor. gration of souls"). knowledge; and in that sense every logico- The district court's definition of religion 5. See Welsh v. United States, 398 U.S. 333, empirical confirmation of our beliefs adds gives this metaphor legal effect. There is no 354 (1970) (Harlan, J., concurring). further justification for our root principles. 6. The same can be said of Humanist Mani- The secular and scientific humanist in the question that under the court's definition festos I and II, the predecessors of the Secular last analysis, however, remains a skeptic; Communism is readily classifiable as a reli- Humanist Declaration. and this applies even to his first principles, gion, much more so than secular humanism. 7. Indeed, one of the ironies of the court's which are not held on religious grounds Communism, with its dogmatic denial of opinion is that it seems to endorse the view that but are simply convenient rules of inquiry, God, its claim that man is alienated under we cannot conclude that there is a God from our vindicated by their consequences. capitalism, and its theory of dialectical observations of and our reasoning about the (P. Kurtz, The Transendental Temptation materialism, has rigid and fixed teachings natural world. The court quotes with approval 87-88 [1986].) about the existence, of supernatural reality, one witness who testified that it is not possible the nature of man, the ultimate end of man's to "defend the claim that on the basis of what we 3. Religion Evidenced by Fundamental existence and the purpose of the universe. know about the natural, we know anything about Questions The consequences of recognizing Com- the supernatural or can draw any conclusions munism as a religion are staggering. For one way or another about the supernatural" (Slip The court also stated that "religious beliefs example, laws and regulations denying op 98 n. 58 [quoting testimony of Dr. Charles may be classified by the questions they raise Communists access to certain sensitive jobs Rudder)). Many religious people hold the exact and issues they address" and that "[w]hen- would instantly become unconstitutional. opposite view. In fact, it is a dogma of Roman Catholicism "that the one and true God our crea- ever a belief system deals with fundamental Communist institutions would become en- tor and Lord can be known through the creation questions of the nature of reality and man's titled to the same tax-privileges enjoyed by relationship to reality, it deals with essen- by the natural light of human reason." H. Den- religious bodies. The military would have to zinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum § 1806 (29th tially religious questions." The court then accommodate Communist chaplains. ed. 1953). listed various "assumptions" through which In short, the district court's test is totally 8. 0ne court has defined "science" as "the religion "approaches" issues: unworkable. The common sense of the mat- process by which knowledge is systematized or ter is that what distinguishes religion from classified through the use of observation, experi- 1. the existence of supernatural and / or philosophy or ideology is the belief in a mentation, or reasoning." IIT Research Institute transcendent reality; supernatural, transcendent reality. Accord- v. United States, 9 Cl. Ct. 13 (1985). 2. the nature of man; C0DESH also maintains that the district ingly, secular humanism is a philosophy, not 9. 3. the ultimate end, or goal or purpose court clearly erred in accepting the preposterous of man's existence, both individually and a religion.9 contention that secular humanism is being taught collectively; in the public schools of Alabama. However, the 4. the purpose and nature of the uni- Conclusion Brief of the Defendant-Intervenors—Appellants verse. cogently sets forth the reasons why the district For all the foregoing reasons, the district court erred and CODESH has nothing to add to It is highly doubtful that secular humanism court's judgment should be reversed. their excellent argument. •

Fall 1987 27 Hook Is Mired in Secular Confusion

The following exchange between Yaakov Homnick and Sidney Hook was provoked by a story Tom Bethel! wrote for the American Spectator (May 1987). Called "A Stroll with Sidney Hook," the story recounted a conversation between Bethel! and Hook in which Hook sketches his ideas about religious faith. "At the age of twelve," Hook told Bethell, "I discovered the problem of evil. How can you reconcile God's goodness and infinite power with the suffering of the innocent and the success of the infamous?" Homnick, an Orthodox rabbi, wrote Bethel! vigorously contesting Hook's ideas. Rabbi Homnick's letter is reprinted with permission. It is followed by Hook's response.

Yaakov D. Homnick

feel compelled to share with you some level of Talmudic scholarship, having elected autonomous is not acceptable to the Torah; I of the agitation that was occasioned in at the age of eighteen to make this my life's my point is that we can even concede this me by the report of your stroll with the work; but my specialties are law and the- point and still leave Him with the authority, redoubtable Mr. Hook. As an almost-twenty ology, and my grasp of Jewish philosophy not to mention the power, to charge a bit of nine-year-old whippersnapper, I am hardly is more casual. Still, his points seem so fee- rent for His grace.) in a position to snap a whip at so distin- ble, the potential refutations so numerous But, of course, what Sid is actually argu- guished a gentleman. Still, as a "plain Jew" and elementary, that I find his presentation ing is that since we are forced, ultimately, to of the classical variety, I sense an obligation inconsistent with his wisdom and openness concede that there is some force that can to respond to the profile of Mr. Hook's in other areas of thought, pointing up the exist without being made, why postulate a apostasy as transcribed by yourself... . existence of an irrational segment of his G-d outside this world instead of assuming . . . I must begin by saying that his personality that "just doesn't want to be that it is the world itself that has this remarks left me gaping, utterly amazed and bothered." property? Which brings us full circle, be- incredulous. Do you mean to say that this Let's take his charming dialogue with his cause, given a choice between assigning eighty-five-year-old laureate, this paragon of father (hardly an educated man, and a poor metaphysical powers to the physical world reason, this beacon of enlightenment, this spokesman, indeed, for the faith of his or to a power beyond it, we ought certainly symbol of academic courage and integrity, ancestors for millennia). Sid: How do we to choose the latter, even if it involves stipu- is still basing his lack of faith on the ques- know there's a G-d? Pop: Who else made lating an existence that we cannot perceive tions he raised at the age of twelve, and the world? Sid: But who made G-d? Pop: (particularly since our inability to capture a that, moreover, are raised by most intelligent You can't ask that. Sid: So then don't ask metaphysical entity in the lens of our phys- children by that age, if not earlier? I feel me who made the world. Here his father, in ical vision is no reflection on its existence at cheated, like someone who opens his mail- his pristine simplicity, is absolutely correct all; just as we have no right to assume that order package and sees that all that glitters by all the standards of recta ratio. The it needs to be made, we cannot demand that in the catalog is not gold up close. Come question "who made x?" is only valid if we it be visible on the physical level that it in- on. Is this really it? Isn't this an insult to the must assume that x was made. We are en- trinsically transcends). Furthermore, it is, in meanest intelligence? titled to assume that the world was made, reality, impossible to attribute extra-physical He talks as if these quibbles are a credit since its components are physical, and all qualities to the physical world, as has been to his penetrating intellect. Bah, humbug! manifestations of physical existence that we noted by the earliest philosophers. Every line of the Torah, and the Talmud observe share the characteristic of being So tell me: Where is this abstruse point that explicates it, is replete with references made by, or growing from, something. How- that I must be missing hiding? to these subjects. We have a massive litera- ever, we cannot observe G-d, nor do we Hook's next point is that he fails to see ture of commentary from the best Jewish have any grounds to attribute to Him phys- enough justice in the world. Before respond- minds over three thousand years, incor- ical properties or phenomena, and conse- ing to this, it must be pointed out that this porating an almost infinite variety of insights quently are not entitled to ask who made argument does not challenge the existence into these questions. And Hook, the great Him. of G-d, because who said G-d must be just? philosopher, has the supreme effrontery to Or let's even follow Sid's lead and grant The only way for us to know that G-d is build an entire life on his prepubescent the validity of his question. So what would just is through observation or through reve- grumblings and to write off the magnificent he have us do? He would like for us to lation, i.e., He Himself tells us so. Thus, history of his downtrodden, but proud and agree that G-d must also be a product and Hook is already in our ballpark when he studious, people. Humph! not only a source. So what? Aren't we still puts this question. In essence, he is saying: Now I admit to being on a fairly high dependent on His constant beneficence? Assuming that G-d exists, that He made the Don't we still owe Him our very existence? world for a purpose, that He created Man Yaakov Homnick is an Orthodox rabbi Doesn't this alone entitle Him to dictate for the task of serving Him and bringing living in Chicago. terms for our dwelling on His turf? (Of about the purpose of creation, that He did course, the idea of G-d not being completely not rely on Man's ability to surmise exactly

28 FREE INQUIRY the nature and guidelines of the purpose and therefore revealed himself to a nation of millions at Sinai, that in the course of this revelation He explained that kindness and A Common Moral Universe? justice were His ultimate goals, then where is the justice? So he is admitting that G-d created the world, granting His right to make demands upon our lives, and just doubting Sidney Hook that there was a revelation, or that it still obtains, since justice is not sufficiently evident in Creation. asked Paul Kurtz to solicit Rabbi Hom- ported was my answer to his question: "At Once he has painted himself into that I nick's permission to reproduce his letter what age did you lose the religious faith in corner, he is left with little room to maneu- to Tom Bethell for several reasons. First, to which you had been nurtured? The first ver. First of all, his view of justice is sub- give evidence of the absence of discrimina- question, as to why the world needed a cre- jective. Remember, the likelihood of three tion on the part of secular humanists toward ator instead of being taken as given—which million people in a desert faking revelation obscurantism of any religious variety. In the almost every child asks—was not as impor- is pathetically slim. The likelihood of a stub- past some readers may have felt that our tant to me as were the questions about those born, independent bunch like that being criticism was focused too heavily on Chris- biblical incidents that fell short of a boyish conned is close to nil. There are fake revela- tian fundamentalists. Here, we have a speci- sense of fairness, justice, and even honesty. tions in other cultures, but never with too men of Jewish fundamentalist faith. More Although Rabbi Homnick makes heavy many real eyewitnesses. So here we have important, however, it raises a question weather about my obtuseness in not recog- three million men, women, and children who about the reasons for the surprising revival nizing the necessity of seeing why the world have undergone indescribable hardships and of fundamentalist religion in our time. Even has to have a creator who himself is not tribulations to merit being the direct recipi- those of us who cannot give credence to the created, he is blissfully unaware that every ents of G-d's Word, marching out of the supernaturalist dogmas of the religionists of sentence of his reply to my childish question desert and establishing a society marked by our time have been prepared to grant that begs the issue. Because the world has com- standards of charity and justice never the religious revival has been a response to ponents, he assumes that "they must have dreamed of before. And someone who hasn't the public and private decline of morality, the characteristic of being made by, or grow- really mastered the details of their history to the corruption, systematic lying, hypoc- ing from, something"—which is precisely and teachings feels entitled, on the basis of risy, and gratuitous cruelties of our time. what is being questioned. Nor is it clear that a subjective sense of injustice in Creation, Although we were never persuaded that the "being made by" and "growing from" are to reject all their noble systems of thought practice of morality could be sustained by synonymous, or that being made by some- and life. Remarkable. the inculcation of religious faith, we have thing (say, rain by clouds, wind, and a drop And what is this injustice that he per- taken for granted that we share a basic in temperature) involves being made by ceives? That a man can live a life of iniquity agreement with religious fundamentalists someone (the airman who seeds the clouds), without ever receiving outstanding punish- about what is good and bad, right and and that the someone is God. One could ment. So what? First of all, the Torah recog- wrong, in the human community. say, following this logic, that because some- nizes death itself as an unfortunate conse- I have now come to the conclusion that thing has moved, a person has moved it. quence of man's own actions, and final those who, like Rabbi Homnick, believe that Closing in for the kill, the rabbi is filled redemption must bring about its complete every word of the Bible is inspired, that every with a spirit of magnanimity. Granting the elimination (but, meanwhile, everyone dies, event inspired or approved by Jehovah is validity of the child's question, Homnick so the truly evil man is not distinguished by morally good, cannot really share with us a writes, "He would like for us to agree that this punishment). Second, most evil people common universe of moral discourse, despite God must also be a product and not only a are really quite miserable, particularly as appearances to the contrary. Although I source. So what? Aren't we still dependent they get on in years. Their punishment is no have long suspected this in my past ex- on his constant beneficence? Don't we still less devastating for being subtle and sublim- changes with Christian fundamentalists, it owe him our very existence?" But I am con- inal. Often, their frustrations are com- has become a conviction in consequence of fident the child he is instructing would have pounded by the fact that they must suffer in Rabbi Homnick's arguments. retorted: "Hold on! Where is the evidence private, without receiving sympathy and Readers should be told that Mr. Tom that whoever created God—if He exists— commiseration. Third, it is a basic principle Bethell is an Orthodox Catholic layman and created me? And where is the evidence of of the Torah that, until the world is elevated that his account of his stroll with me, pub- his beneficence?" through redemption, the payment of reward lished in The American Spectator, was an But, as 1 recall his experience, what and punishment is mostly carried out in a interview written by him in a light vein and troubled the child more were the incidents world beyond our own. The theological with a gentle kindness to me. What he re- he could not morally accept—even before foundation for this is twofold—the purifica- the larger problem of the existence of evil tion or corruption of the spirit must be Sidney Hook, professor emeritus of philos- blotted out any serious notion that the direc- rewarded in a spiritual form, and the sys- ophy at New York University and Research tor of human destiny was both all powerful tem of free choice may not be knocked out Fellow at Hoover Institution at Stanford and all good. Our doubts as children really of whack by making the cause-and-effect University, is the author of many books, arose originally as much out of a desire to relationship between physical actions and including The Paradoxes of Freedom and, be mischievous and to tease the half-illiterate metaphysical consequences too readily dis- most recently, Out of Step, an autobiogra- pedagogue who taught us the Bible as from cernible. Fourth, it's not even true. Despite phy. moral soul-searching. We asked how God (continued on p. 30) (continued on p. 31)

Fall 1987 29 (Homnick, coned. from p. 28) wicked person is paid off here with a few the ability to either destroy the entire world everything, most evil men do not die either crumbs for his rare moments of goodness, or corrupt it. There must be destruction so naturally or easily (at least, not obviously then he passes on to an unmitigated Hell or that we can learn to prevent it, to limit it, to evil men). Nor have evil societies historically an everlasting Limbo. The righteous one, gear our lives in a way that will eventually prospered for extended periods. cleansed by physical suffering from the taint vanquish it completely. We must say, as Actually, just to show you how radically of his infrequent infractions, proceeds on to Hook does, that it would be ideal for no removed is the Jewish perspective from eternal ecstasy. innocent to ever suffer, and we must then Hook's, I would point out that I have always Lastly, Hook decries what he sees to be say to ourselves that it is in our power to been surprised by just how much justice pointless suffering. Now, anyone who has assure that ideal, ultimately, by being sure G-d is able to get away with showing this lived a little bit and opened his eyes occa- that we never harm an innocent, that we world without tipping His hand and elim- sionally in the process knows that suffering, choose good over evil at every juncture. inating free choice. The Jews have got their in general, is at least as beneficial in the My, my, how I've rattled on and on, land back after two thousand years (an event context of our physical existence as is without even scratching the surface. Sure, for which there is nothing remotely re- pleasure. It is only through pain and disap- these are basic areas of human experience, sembling a historical precedent), and where pointment that we learn the value of things, and understanding them (as far as the human are the Greeks and Romans who drove them that we come to recognize our obligations mind is capable of doing so) is essential if away back then? Where is Babylon? Persia? and limitations, and that we develop the we are to live, and serve, with intelligence. Fourteen ninety-two was the time of the fortitude to lead successful and productive But methinks that the proper approach here Spanish Inquisition; by 1588 the Spanish lives. Let us take the case of Hook's mother, is to examine the broader propositions of Armada was defeated. And how long did who lost her two-year-old child through an balancing the goal of supreme and perfect Britain last as a world power once they accident (which, incidentally, reads like a justice with the prerequisite free choice that began pushing the Jews around? Where are heavy indictment against her supervision). is charged with bringing this about. The the Eastern European countries who ghetto- The wisdom, maturity, sensitivity, and, yes, question that we should be asking is: How ized the Jews for centuries if not enclosed in atonement that she and her husband derived else could it possibly be managed? How the most extensive and restrictive ghetto (or could have; people miss opportunities, could someone have free will in a world system of history? So where's the problem too) from that incident we will assume to be where no undeserving person ever suffered exactly? Because there are a few prosperous substantial. Now the question arises: Is it or prospered? It's truly ridiculous to suggest Germans still around? Because a man like just to make the child suffer for the benefit that a world could feasibly be run in the Mengele lived forty years like a hunted of the parents? Why not, if the child is manner outlined by Mr. Hook and still animal instead of being strung up publicly? viewed as an extension of the parents and achieve a fraction of these goals. Do you want G-d to appear in public on a its whole existence is for their benefit (at Personally, 1 always welcome discussion regular basis and explain all the minutiae of least, until he's old enough to call his own of these issues. It is here, more than any- His operation? Should He send out little shots)? where, that the triumph of religion over bulletins explaining why it was more appro- But even without focusing on the im- secularism becomes assured. It is the innate priate to make ä public example of one evil- mediate good that suffering can bring, the sense that suffering cannot be random, in doer rather than of another? I, for one, think rationale for the presence of tremendous contradiction to the well-organized phe- that it is a mind-boggling testimony to Man's pain in the world is obvious, inescapably nomena of the world, that nudges people capacity for conceit and self-deceit that there so. First of all, there is a need to provide a toward religion. They want to be sure that is anyone who still has the nerve to deny scope. Remember, G-d is not playing games the message of their suffering will not be Him or His justice. here. There are high stakes involved. Good lost on them. Yes, without a doubt, the guidance of must triumph, must be shown to be superior. Enough said. It is pitiful and pitiable history by G-d is perceptible even to our By following His commands we bring life. that an eighty-five-year-old man has rejected limited gaze. The sense of justice, of balance By sinning we bring death and destruction. the heritage of millennia of intellectual and and order, is palpable—and should be When we heed His Word, we are bringing virtuous forebears because of the questions doubly so to someone who has lived eighty- the entire world to its realization and frui- of a twelve-year-old. As I have often argued, five years, particularly these most eventful tion. By ignoring or violating the Word, we this is a far greater tragedy than all the ones, replete with poetic justice. Especially undo all His handiwork, we undermine all physically maimed children in the world. As is the Holocaust a proof of G-d's justice, His plans. BIG things happen when we act. the old Negro College Fund posters so poig- coming as the climax of a century in which In order to appreciate that, we must be nantly proclaimed, a mind is a terrible thing the vast majority of Jews, after thousands shown a microcosm of the vastness of His to waste. of years of loyalty in exile, decided to cast power. We must be able to reach magnificent Lord, says Sidney Hook, You didn't give off the yoke of the Torah. But you wouldn't heights of pleasure and frightful depths of me enough evidence. So sad, really, that he expect Mr. Hook to see that, would you? pain just to achieve a perspective of the had to grow up in the religiously impover- I believe these answers to be adequate importance, the significance, and the mean- ished country that was turn-of-the-century even without recourse to the Talmudic ap- ingfulness of His enterprise. So there must America. Grotesque, even, that he should proach, but I include it here because it does be suffering, often great suffering, to show still be wallowing in the mire of secular con- more than deflect criticism; it argues that the scale of the consequences of our sojourns fusion and directionlessness, while young the dictates of true justice and kindness here. punks like me have it all handed to us on a require that some evil men should have Then, there must be suffering for balance. platter in the spectacularly well-developed pleasant deaths while some good men should It would not be possible to offer Man free Yeshiva system of today. experience difficult ones, because this en- choice in a world obviously dominated by I must close by saying ruefully of Sidney ables the individual to pass on to his just good. Evil must be represented, often wreak- what he said about his own father, "If only deserts with a clean slate, as it were. The ing great havoc but never quite achieving he had my opportunities...." •

30 FREE INQUIRY

(Hook, cont 'd from p. 29) The enormity of Rabbi Homnick's senti- compassion that move human beings who could approve of Jacob stealing Esau's ment is enhanced by the fact that it is ex- do not live in the light of revelation. Of blessing, why God hardened Pharaoh's heart pressed to a believing Christian who, if he course, those who do not accept revelation when Moses asked him to let the Israelites accepted God's revelations in the way Rabbi are, and can be, guilty of lapses of morality. go and then punished him for acting on the Homnick does, might well have retorted that But if they forgo the belief in absurdity, judgment of that hardened heart. And, al- the fate of the Jews was brought on them- they are less likely to be blind to moral though we didn't understand too well what selves by their rejection of the final revela- atrocity. And that seems the tragic end to was involved in the story of Dinah, Jacob's tion of Christ. This, in effect, was the belief which the absurdities of religious funda- daughter, we felt, despite the story fobbed of Edith Stein, a Jewish convert to Cathol- mentalism can lead—the acceptance of moral off on us by our teacher, that Jacob's sons icism who went to her death at the hands of atrocity as integral to the cosmic scene. were thoroughly dishonorable, killing people the Nazis convinced that rejection of Chris- I cannot believe that the revival of reli- rendered helpless by circumcision. tianity by the Jews was the ultimate cause gious fundamentalism is inspired by a desire All apologists, whether Christian or Jew- of their fate. But regardless of her religion, to strengthen moral values and principles as ish, for the divine inspiration of the Bible Edith Stein could not believe—nor could we normally understand them. For it can be end up justifying these and all other actions any moral person—that the Holocaust was established that acceptance of the divine that in ordinary moral discourse we should an act of justice. It seems more the act of a inspiration, and therefore justification, of regard as wicked or evil. This should be satanic Creator than a divine one. biblical teaching is incompatible with these evidence enough that, in our discussions with The Holocaust, in its unextenuated hor- values and principles. Of course, not all them, we are not using terms like good and ror, is a challenge to the religious faith of religions or all persons who consider them- bad, right and wrong in the same sense. all persons, and especially to the faith of selves religious accept the fundamentalist The same conclusion is suggested when religious Jews. I cannot believe that there creed. They select those teachings that are religious fundamentalists try to explain away are many—or any—who, on reflection, are in accord with standards of good and evil the problem of evil. They either end up by prepared to regard it as an act of justice. If that are autonomous of the Bible. It is these denying that what we in an ordinary moral there are, then they are also beyond the standards that define a common universe of context regard as evil is really evil, or they reach of the considerations of reason and moral discourse. • try to interpret it, despite the absence of any evidence, as a necessary part of a greater Free Inquiry Conferences in Book Form good. Evil in a world controlled by a loving God either does not exist or is a blessing in Jesus in History and Myth the disguise of apparent evil. edited by R. Joseph Hoffmann and Gerald A. Larue What is remarkable about Rabbi Hom- Was there a person by the name of Jesus who lived in Palestine in the first century A.D.? Do the Gospels and letters of the New Testament really nick's contribution is the extent to which he attest to the actual existence of a Messiah, or were these documents is prepared to go to regard as an act of written by clever propagandists for the faith rather than by objec- justice an event that in its moral awfulness tive historians? These and other intriguing questions are ex- plored in this absorbing collection. Based on Free Inquiry's has been considered unprecedented, at least 1985 Conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan. in scale, in human history. 1 refer to the Biblical vs. - holocaust of six million Jews by Hitler and 217 pages ISBN 0-87975-332-3 Cloth $21.95 Secular Ethics: his followers. Accustomed as I am to reading The Conflict the tortured exegeses of religious funda- edited by mentalists trying to square the revelations R. Joseph Hoffmann of the Bible with common sense, reason, and Gerald A. Larue and the vestiges of a common universe of What weight should be given to Scripture moral discourse, I could hardly believe that when facing the real moral dilemmas of life? I was seeing the words correctly: A distinguished group of social philosophers, biblical scholars, and ethicists met at the University of Richmond in the fall of 1986 at Free Inquiry's an- Especially is the Holocaust a proof of nual conference to address this question. The essays in God's justice, coming as the climax of a this important new'volume are the provocative result! Par- century in which the vast majority of Jews, ticipants include: R. S. Alley, J. Barnhart, J. L. Blau, L. S. Feuer, after thousands of years of loyalty in exile, J. Fletcher, R. J. Hoffmann, P. Kurtz, G. Larue, M. Smith, and decided to cast off the yoke of the Torah. others. 210 pages The Holocaust—an act of a just God, ISBN 0-87975-418-4 Cloth $22.95 an act of justice? Rabbi Homnick cannot Please send me the following books: mean by "just" or `justice" what any moral person means. He cannot be unaware that My check/M.O. is enclosed for Add $2.00 for postage and handling. NYS residents the vast majority of the Jewish victims of add applicable sales tax. the Holocaust were as Orthodox as he is Or charge my D MasterCard D VISA and were still living under "the yoke of the Torah" in their settlements. And even if they Account # Exp. date Name constituted only a minority of world Jewry, Address where is the justice in their punishment or Signature City/State Zip in that of their wives and children? And what a punishment! Prometheus Books 701 East Anther,t Street, Ru11;110, N;, York 14 2 15 To order call toll free 00-42 1-0351. In NYS call 710-437-2475. Fall 1987 31 dition they might otherwise call into question. This way one can give expression to personal ideas without threatening conven- The Challenge of Literalism tional patterns of belief or the institutions that are sanctified by them. Of course the claim that allegorical readings actually do reveal more about the meaning of scripture than any literal account might discover cannot be dismissed out of Harry White hand. But what we are dealing with here are interpretations that are held to be convincing not for what they reveal but for what they deny. Theologians like Maimonides have repeatedly argued, with varying degrees of candor, that one needs to be dissatisfied with literal interpretations of scripture not be- he confrontation between critical meanings." cause they fail to make good sense but Tthought and religious myth that first Thus the pivotal issue among intelligent because the sense they do reveal challenges occurred in ancient Greece produced a pro- men and women is not whether holy writ is traditional belief. What one gleans from found division in the way men regarded their literally true, since almost everyone concedes these allegorists is not, therefore, a literary culture. Plato's charge in the second book that it is not—certainly Maimonides agrees theory of interpretation. Instead, they offer of The Republic that Homer and Hesiod with Plato and Nietzsche on this point. The a fairly consistent theory of reinterpretation had lied about the gods characterized the more practical and fundamental issue is how that defines the conditions under which a position of critical philosophy that, up to one responds to literature that one recog- literal reading must be judged unacceptable our own age, has been to reject as false nizes to be untrue but that society reveres in order, in practice, to discover scriptural whatever the individual intelligence finds un- as sacred. In other words, it is not the evidence for traditional belief where such reasonable and lacking good sense. As absence of critical understanding that makes evidence is not literally available. Moreover, Nietzsche wrote in our own age, "If we have for the kind of allegorizing Maimonides a modern theologian like Rudolf Bultmann even the smallest claim to integrity, we must exemplifies. To the contrary, without this carries the reinterpretive intent of allegoriz- know today that a theologian, a priest, a type of understanding one could not perceive ing to its ultimate extreme, openly acknowl- pope, not merely is wrong . . . but lies" the untruth that initiates the search for more edging that one's devotion to religious tradi- (Nietzsche 611). palatable interpretations. What gives rise to tions and institutions must finally remain But the development of critical thought "allegoresis" is the way critical intelligence unaffected by both the lack of supporting did not in itself emancipate philosophy from combines with the pious presumption that evidence and the perceived falsehood of holy myth or the individual from the religious "the sages did not speak nonsense" ("Helek" scripture. community. Maimonides (1135-1204) studied 409). Bultmann's proposal that we "abandon philosophy and understood as perceptively Allegory has thus played an indispensable the mythological concepts of scripture pre- as any the competing claims exerted by reli- role in securing the link that critically intelli- cisely because we want to retain their deeper gion and philosophy. Those who follow their gent men try to maintain with conventional meaning" (Jesus 18) has all the earmarks of intellects, he acknowledged, would likely re- faith. By exposing the literal untruth of the traditional allegorical practice of sacri- ject religious law as founded on "imaginary scripture, allegoresis provides certain indi- ficing scripture to save faith. However, the beliefs" (Guide 236-7). But he contended that viduals with the means of distinguishing their influence of the last two hundred years of this perplexity—Should one renounce one's understanding, and by implication their own biblical scholarship has not only undermined intellect or one's faith?—resulted from un- intelligence, from the simple faith of those many of the literal foundations of belief but derstanding the sages only in "their simple superstitiously enthralled by religious myths also has discredited the easy substitution of literal sense." He therefore proposed that, —or what Maimonides called "imaginary one meaning for another that has charac- whenever the sages speak of "things that beliefs" and Plato and Nietzsche called "lies." terized allegorical interpretations from the seem impossible," their words must be un- Yet while the allegorist would demonstrate first. Thus the modern "demythologizer," as derstood to contain "a hidden meaning" the superiority of his judgment with respect Bultmann called himself, is perforce an alle- ("Helek" 408=9), a solution that may strike to superstitious belief, he stops short of gorist by half. He retains the critical features us as unsound but does not necessarily in- following his intellect to the extent of declar- of allegory, questioning literal readings of dicate an intellect inferior to Plato's or ing, on his own authority, that the myths the text, but he seems reluctant to offer Nietzsche's. Indeed, many other, if not most, society upholds as sacred are actually false- point-by-point illustrations of just where critically aware individuals do not reject reli- hoods and lies. The critical features of alle- these deeper meanings can be recovered from gious scripture simply because they find it goresis are employed to distance oneself the words of the text themselves. literally untrue; but, like Maimonides, they from the literal believer but not to elevate Without a literal or an allegorical inter- take its perceived untruths as evidence for one's views above the wisdom of the sages. pretation he or his audience can be fully the presence of "higher truths" and "deeper The reputed discovery of deeper truths hid- comfortable with, the modern demytholo- den within the literal expression of the sages gizer is left to argue not so much for any Harry White is professor of English at provides the allegorist with a method for one specific reading as for the acceptance of Northeastern Illinois University. locating the philosophic truths at which he those assumptions that have regularly guided has individually arrived within the very tra- allegorists, all of which come down to this:

32 FREE INQUIRY Even if the sages appear to be speaking Allegorists tend to slip willy-nilly in and presenting themselves as trustworthy men foolishness and falsehoods, one's own piety out of allegory as it suits them. For example, of integrity, not easily fooled either, because need not be diminished by that fact. directly after Young presents a fictionally they now acknowledge as courageously as relevant Adam for our consideration in her anyone that their faith is incredible, that it We do not know whether Moses received essay "A Cloud of Witness," she informs us does not matter to them whether its central any or all of the Torah on Sinai. It hardly that God created and sustains the world and tenets are true or not: we know that the matters. (Rubenstein 127) continues to share our grief (36)—statements "Torah is not, as normative Jewish tradition that must now be understood literally in has claimed, a unitary work communicated The story of Adam remains meaningful order to make sense, just as the canonical by God directly to Moses"; nevertheless, we even though I accept that it is extremely story of Jesus makes sense only if one be- need to "assert the unity of Torah because improbable that Adam ever existed or that lieves he actually existed. So our key prob- only thus can the essential continuity of all men are descended from one ancestor. ... There are many areas where Christians lem with allegorists is this: They rarely indi- Jewish religious and historical identity be habitually use stories that were once be- cate what the limits of allegory are and at maintained" (Rubenstein 113, 122). And lieved to be fact but are no longer. (Young what point literal belief must necessarily where Rubenstein dismisses the theophany 36) begin. Their concern is to limit the literal on Sinai, Reverend Bultmann has denied the truth of scripture so that it will not encroach Resurrection ("Case" 60). This "new integ- One could argue easily enough that it upon traditional piety. They therefore accept rity" among contemporary theologians was matters tremendously to both Orthodox as literally true whatever in holy writ con- perhaps best characterized by Dostoyevsky. Jews as well as atheist critics whether the forms to and will corroborate contemporary Writing from Omsk prison in 1854, he ad- Torah was divinely given, or that the most belief; and, when necessary, they use an in- mitted that if he found Christ to exist outside significant biblical stories, like the passion, terpretive principle that has guided them for the truth he "would prefer to remain with death, and resurrection of Jesus, do not con- centuries: sacrifice the truth of scripture to Christ than with the truth." vince in the same way or make the same traditional faith if a conflict occurs between What distinguishes philosophy from the- claims on our belief that ordinary fictional them: ology may be inferred from these examples. narrative does. Both Judaism and Christian- A philosopher like Nietzsche will define ity, as well as Islam, are historical religions Whatever in the Divine Word [i.e., the identity in terms of intellectual integrity, whose central tenets are grounded in epi- Bible] does not pertain ... to the truth of whereas contemporary theologians seek sodes that, however extraordinary, are be- faith you must take to be figurative. identity in adherence to traditional belief lieved not as literary metaphors but as actual (Augustine 88) systems that they personally recognize and events that occurred within human history. now often publicly acknowledge to be To de-mythologize is to reject . . . the fundamentally untrue. And if they state that Paul, for one, was no demythologizer. If world-view of Scripture, which is the "Christ has not been raised," he contended, world-view of a past epoch.... To de- these traditional systems are in all prob- "then our preaching is in vain and your faith mythologize is to deny that the message ability untrue, it is rarely with such force is in vain" (1 Cor. 15:14). Of course Paul ... of the Church is bound to an ancient that their pronouncements jeopardize the also preached that "God chose what is fool- world-view which is obsolete. (Bultmann, status they, as rabbis, reverends, or co- ish in the world to shame the wise" (1 Cor. Jesus 35-6) religionists hold within the community. The 1:27); exegetes like Bultmann and Ruben- mark of true philosophy is not simply in- stein, however, do not wish to appear fool- Bultmann's readiness to cut the church tellectual integrity, but, along with it, the ish. Though remaining faithful adherents, loose from a world-view he believes could courage to risk setting oneself at odds with they want nevertheless to be recognized as sink it and his willingness to abandon the the conventional wisdom of society. Few wise men of the world. original meaning of scripture in order to men who have wished to be recognized as preserve faith in the institution of the church thinkers have ever had the courage to be so n any event, to enter into extended echo Rubenstein's belief that scripture honest. I debate over the critical issues people like "hardly matters" and Augustine's reinterpre- Frances Young raise would allow that there tation of literally impertinent passages in the References is indeed a critical issue at hand, when in scripture; all three writers deliberately dis- Augustine. fact allegorizers and demythologizers rarely miss possible meanings of the text. On Christian Doctrine. Tr. D. W. Robertson, Jr. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, undertake a critically considered—an intel- Why do devoutly intelligent men treat 1978. lectually honest—analysis of scripture. This scripture this way? Because they are among Bultmann, Rudolf. "The Case for Demythologiza- fact is often obscured by their appropriation the first to recognize just how devastating tion." Myth and Christianity. New York: of various literary, poetic, and mythic the- the literal meaning of scripture can be. What Noonday Press, 1958. differentiates men like Bultmann and . Jesus Christ and Mythology. New York: ories of interpretation in support of their Scribner's, 1958. methods. In practice, though, the basic posi- Rubenstein from Augustine and Maimonides Maimonides, Moses. Guide for the Perplexed: A tion they regularly adopt—as Rubenstein so is that they can't claim ignorance in these Maimonides Reader. Ed. Isadore Twersky. forthrightly puts it—is that it hardly matters matters. As Nietzsche remarked, theologians New York: Behrman House, 1972. what scripture says or means. In the final in this age are no longer able to innocently "Helek: Sanhedrin." Reader. Nietzsche, Frederick. "The Antichrist." In lie. And, in fact, these modern theologians The analysis what matters is one's fidelity, not Portable Nietzsche. Tr. Walter Kaufmann. to scripture, but to established religion. The don't. Applying the most sophisticated New York: Viking, 1968. faithful, according to this view, are free to historical-critical methods, they readily Rubenstein, Richard L. "The Meaning of Torah reinterpret scripture in whatever manner demonstrate the literal untruth of scripture. in Contemporary Jewish Theology." After Auschwitz. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1981. befits their piety. The meaning of holy writ Perhaps with the loss of a publicly credible Young, Frances. "A Cloud of Witness." The Myth can finally be deemed inconsequential to innocence, they need to find new ways of of God Incarnate. Ed. John Hick. Philadel- their faith. outflanking their critics, and they do so by phia: The Westminster, 1977. •

Fall 1987 33 Is the Sexual Revolution Over? A FREE INQUIRY interview with Sol Gordon and Rob Tielman

Paul Kurtz: We're going to deal with this question of sexual Kurtz: But surely there has been, since the World War II, a morality in the modern world: What is the humanist response? loosening up of sexual phobias, a tendency for laws to be There have been widespread pronouncements that the so-called liberalized on abortion, women's rights, divorce, gay rights, "sexual revolution" is over. A large number of sociological and and so on. So, in one sense, there has been a kind of change. political factors have combined with the growing fear of disease, You don't think it's deep enough, I take it. You think it was notably AIDS, to lead to this reaction; and many people are only superficial. worried. Maybe the first question should be: Was there ever Gordon: No one should consider the impact of the women's such a thing as a "sexual revolution"? movement, the growth and development of gay liberation Sol Gordon: This is a question I have often been asked. I groups, and the reduction of fears and phobias as merely super- would say no. Ours could be more accurately described as the ficial. These are key developments. But we are still finding that age of the "anti-sexual revolution," where people use sex to young people are not well informed. A gross amount of ig- avoid intimacy rather than to express it. What we have ex- norance and mythology still pervades sexual thinking. We perienced is a great deal of sexual exploitation and immor- haven't, for example, seen a reduction in rape, unwanted preg- ality not forgetting, of course, the more positive things that nancies, or sexual manipulation. Nor has there been any im- have happened, especially the accomplishments of the feminist provement in marriage—half of all marriages break up within and gay revolutions. Their gains have been genuine. But, over- five years. We've seen some positive political changes in our all, in terms of sexuality, I haven't seen anything that would society; but attitudes toward sex, as an issue in education and constitute a revolution in the sense of moral development, in among sexual partners, are still in need of enlightenment. the sense of improved relationships between the sexes—espe- Kurtz: You said you don't think that sexual liberation has cially not among young people. What we have seen is chil- been accompanied by moral development. For a humanist, dren—twelve-, thirteen-, and fourteen-year-olds—having sex. liberation is not sufficient; morally responsible attitudes must And, not only that, but virtually no young person having sex be encouraged at the same time. You don't think this has been for the first time will use any reliable form of contraception. done? So, each year we have experienced an increase in unwanted Gordon: No. We're still saying dumb things to kids like "If pregnancies among teenagers. We haven't driven home the mes- you have sex before marriage there will be no surprises in sage that there is an important difference between sex and marriage." Well, my response is, "If that's the only surprise in love, between sex and intimacy. If I were to think of the ten marriage, don't marry." You've got to be an idiot to marry for most important things in a relationship, I would say the first sex. We have to put this whole thing in an deeper perspective, and most important is intimacy, caring for another human into a framework of people caring for each other and people being. The second is a sense of humor. (I advise people not to relating to each other intimately. have adolescent children unless they have a sense of humor!) Kurtz: Rob, what do you think? Have we had a sexual The third is communication; people today don't talk to each revolution? other. I would put the sexual aspect of relationships at about Rob Tielman: Well, there are a lot of differences between number nine, followed by the sharing of household tasks. the various countries. And when I speak of the Netherlands, its quite clear to me that the human right of self-determination is Sol Gordon, professor emeritus of Syracuse University's Insti- stronger in our society. People are also better informed about tute for Family Research and Education, is the author of sexuality and are freer to have the relationships they want. But, Raising a Child Conservatively in a Sexually Permissive again, it's indeed true that freedom is something different from World, When Living Hurts, and several other books. Rob simply the absence of behavior being imposed on people. And Tielman, co-chairman of the International Humanist and freedom consists of more than just accurate information. You Ethical Union, is professor of sociology at the University of also need the opportunity to develop personalities and nourish Utrecht, Netherlands. Paul Kurtz is editor-in-chief of FREE friendships. And I think that, at this moment, sexual freedom INQUIRY. in the Netherlands is greater than in any other country. I would prefer to call what has happened the "sexual emancipation

34 FREE INQUIRY movement." There is a tendency toward emancipation, espe- I once asked a hundred college-bound high-school students the cially among women and gays, less so among heterosexual meaning of "abstinence"—not a single one knew. Some of them men. But I think the focus on sexuality has been too narrow- thought that "abstinence makes the heart grow fonder." Others minded. Friendships, relationships, and intimacy are very nodded and said they shouldn't eat meat on Friday. We are important—but they are often forgotten. One of the problems playing games in this country. The whole issue of morality, is that the struggle for freedom is often seen as a fight against however, is a very important one. And, in our society, the rules rather than as a positive process. You can only grow by humanists have been the real moralists. We are taking the lead, developing an attitude in which ethics plays an important role, as we should be in this issue. and there has been confusion between a moral approach and a Kurtz: On this point there is a tremendous clash. Conserva- moralistic approach. There is an important distinction. When tives and orthodox religionists maintain that they have the you employ a moralistic approach, you're trying to impose better moral posture and that humanists have contributed to your moral strictures upon others. A moral approach, however, the moral decline in America. Our philosophy, they claim, is requires tolerant interaction. "anything goes." The burden of proof is thrown upon the Kurtz: Sol, you're well known in the United States for humanist. What kind of moral and sexual values are we pre- railing against moralism, which you consider to be a kind of pared to defend? self-righteous indignation, an offshoot of the Puritan ethos. Gordon: Well, that's the real issue, because I don't know of Gordon: Yes. First I want to comment that the situation in any humanist—or indeed, any sex educator in America—who the Netherlands and the United States is very different. In the says, "If it feels good, do it." The moralists have created a Netherlands they have mandated sex education in the schools generalization about us that is simply and wholly false. We are for more than fifteen years. the people who are opposed to exploitation. We're the ones But here our current estimate is that less than 10 percent of who say the way to judge a society is to look at the poorest, American schoolchildren are exposed to anything approaching the most deprived, the most underprivileged. Our position is comprehensive sex education. Sex education in American that we strongly believe in the life-affirming values of the schools is a course in plumbing—a relentless pursuit of the democratic society we live in. As a consequence, I favor moral fallopian tubes! Some schools that claim to have sex education sex education in the schools. may provide a couple of classes on menstruation (for girls Kurtz: What values are you referring to? only) and show a Walt Disney film. God forbid that any child Gordon: The highest aspirations of the society we live in. should ever be exposed to the human mind. And so, for the We're opposed to sexism. We're opposed to racism. We're for most part, we don't have sex education in American schools. equality of the sexes. These are our values, and these are the Three or four states have mandated good sex education, but values that have to be taught. It's not difficult to say to a they have just started. Because Holland has excellent sex educa- group of young people, "You know, it's not a good idea for tion programs and easily accessible contraception, the serious you to get pregnant." But you better not add, "If you have sex consequences of exploitative sex and sex that is outside the before marriage, you're going to go to hell." That's moralistic. context of intimacy are not present. You have, for example, Kurtz: Do you think there ought to be sex before marriage? very few cases of unwanted pregnancy among teenagers, and Gordon: That's irrelevant. there's been a great reduction in abortion and venereal disease. Kurtz: But that's the question that's asked. What if two Moreover, you ought to mention that the incidence of AIDS kids want to have sex? in Holland is also relatively low. Let me emphasize that in this Gordon: I don't think teenagers should have sex. country we have a tendency to deal only in moralistic issues. Kurtz: Not any sex? Not even petting or kissing? No You know the great thrust now to solve all problems is to "just orgasm? say no." This is obviously a simplistic solution to very compli- Gordon: No, I'm not talking about orgasm, mutual mastur- cated problems; it's a way to avoid issues like poverty, sexism, bation, or anything like that. I'm talking about sexual inter- and racism. To stress "abstinence" is ludicrous. course between teenagers who are under eighteen. In my

Fall 1987 35 opinion, in the kind of society we live in, with virtually no sex Kurtz: So you would not necessarily object to sexual inter- education, with it being very difficult for young people to get course among teenagers? appropriate contraception, it's not a good idea for teenagers to Tielman: Intercourse with the use of condoms. If there are have intercourse. There has to be some disadvantage in being no condoms available I fully agree that sexual intercourse at young, you see? In my opinion, they're too young, too vulner- this age is quite a dangerous thing. But if good condoms are able, too readily available for exploitation. They don't know available—in our country the state controls their quality—and that the first experience of sex is grim. No teenage girl has an if teenagers know how to use them, then I have no problem orgasm, and the boy gets his orgasm three days later when he with teenagers being free to have intercourse. But, again, if you tells the guys about it. Furthermore, they tend not to use con- talk about freedom and nothing more, you're being irresponsi- traception. So I don't think they should have sex. But 70 per- ble. The humanist tradition has always connected freedom with cent of all American children will have sex, sexual intercourse, responsibilities. before they finish high school—whether I like it or not and Kurtz: Does responsibility mean genuine loving affection whether they like it or not. So we have to send a second and temperance rather than indiscriminate promiscuity? message, a double message, that says, "If you're not going to Tielman: Promiscuity, as such, from the humanistic point listen to me, or your parents, or your ministers, or anybody, at of view, is neither good nor bad. If you're talking about con- least use contraception, use protection." That's the message. senting adults, I don't see any problem with promiscuity. The message is a double message. Kurtz: When is the age of sexual majority? Eighteen? Kurtz: You've been attacked all over the country, particu- Tielman: In the Netherlands, it's sixteen. But for those who larly in the past decade, for advocating the distribution of are between the ages of twelve and sixteen there is a lot of condoms and other contraceptives to high-school students. sexual freedom in the Netherlands, as there is in Scandinavia. Many thought you were leading the young astray. Kurtz: Is this true in other European countries as well? Gordon: Let's take an example. There's a Chicago high Thielman: Well, the situation in the southern countries is school where about 70 percent of all the girls become pregnant less open. In Holland, however, there are many possibilities for before they finish. Most of the boys drop out of the school. Yet young people to have sexual experiments. It's wrong to assume anti-sex educators are saying that if you establish a school that giving sexual education to children—showing them how health clinic or distribute contraceptives you'll encourage to use condoms, and so on—will stimulate the irresponsible promiscuity. I mean, could it get any worse? Where we have use of sexuality. It's the other way around. Looking at our introduced school health clinics and made contraception avail- country you can see that there is a clear relationship between able, the pregnancy and the birth rates have been reduced sexual education and the decline of abortions, just as there is a between 30 and 50 percent. The availability of contraception clear relationship between drug education and the decline of doesn't increase promiscuity, it decreases it; it makes behavior the use of drugs among young people. I might also mention more responsible. But, so far, only sixty high schools in this that the use of "soft" drugs is not illegal in our country. For country have such clinics. example, we have found that the assumption that marijuana Kurtz: Some people think that, because young people reach leads to hard drugs is just not true. Take another example: puberty at thirteen or fourteen, it's cruel to deny them any Hyperdermic needle exchange, where sterile needles are made sexual outlet before the age of eighteen. available, is an alternative to needle-sharing, which is very Gordon: But we're not talking about any sexual outlet. I'm dangerous and related to the spread of AIDS. This program talking about sexual intercourse. has proved to be very successful. The use of hard drugs hasn't Kurtz: What about masturbation? grown, and the incidence of AIDS among intravenous drug Gordon: We have to remove the taboo from masturbation. users is very low. Masturbation is a healthy, normal expression of sexuality. It's Gordon: I think you're correct. What right do we have to certainly better to engage in mutual masturbation or self- deprive people of experimentation? Morals have nothing to do masturbation than to risk pregnancy, venereal disease, or AIDS. with "community standards"—there are whole communities that Young people are not ready for sexual intercourse in this are immoral, that are anti-black, or anti-Semitic, for example. country. Should racism be taught in their schools? Kurtz: The Supreme Court moved away from "community The European Outlook standards" in a recent decision. They now talk about reasonable standards. Gordon: That's right. There are immigrant communities Kurtz: What about the European attitude? that don't believe women should have any rights. We can't Tielman: Well, there's indeed a big cultural difference. Sol agree with that. We're for rational moral standards that support has been talking about the United States, a country with an the democratic purpose of our society. Because democracy has anti-sexual tradition, whereas the tradition in Northern Europe a high moral commitment, the public schools are compelled to is more enlightened. But it's not just a matter of freedom; it is address many critical and controversial subjects. If you're going also a matter of being capable of taking the responsibilities to deal with a controversial subject in a multi-ethnic, multi- related to this freedom. There should be opportunities for sex- religious society, public-school teachers can't take a particular ual experiment as long as people are well informed and know point of view and proselytize it. With a volatile issue like abor- what the risks are. tion you have to present several points of view.

36 FREE INQUIRY Kurtz: Many don't want their children to discuss contro- fight and argue all the time—yet they're totally monogamous. versial issues in school, because they fear that teachers and And, I know partners who have been loving and caring, who other students will undermine the values of their children. adore each other, yet there've been some incidents, or sometimes Gordon: If their values are so feeble that they can be under- even mistakes, from which they've been able to recover. There's mined by discussion, they are not values at all. Parents clearly a difference between having an affair and having a brief en- should always have the right to teach their values to their counter or an incident. When you have an affair, your priorities children. But how can parents be the exclusive sex educators of shift. Your energy and your finances switch from one relation- their children? They would have to wrap them in cotton wool, ship to another; and that certainly interferes with a marital not let them watch TV, listen to the radio, read any books, relationship. On the other hand, there've been any number of have any friends, or go to any public bathroom in the United loving couples who give each other not exclusivity so much as States. That's the only way you can be an exclusive sex educator priority. Once you shift priorities, you destroy the essence of of your own child. intimacy. We're not talking about isolated brief encounters that may be experiments but don't mean very much. Outside Marriage We're talking about sex as a part of meaningful, committed, moral relationships. Kurtz: What about extramarital sexuality? What about adul- Kurtz: Absolute monogamy, we know, is very difficult for tery? Humanists for a long time have believed in marriage, but many people to live up to. Let me raise a controversial point they have also recognized that, under certain conditions, there here. Some maintain that brief encounters have a lot of meaning may be a breakdown of affection or sexual satisfaction. When for them. Experiments can be fulfilling—they're a way to learn this happens, is extramarital sexuality permissible from the to stretch boundaries—physically, socially, even aesthetically. humanist standpoint? Perhaps we could admit that there is a powerful inner desire to Tielman: From an ethical point-of-view, I would say essen- engage in "brief experiments," that they make life fuller and tially it's what people mean to each other, what they do with even more human, and that they are not "wicked," as conserva- each other, and whether they consent to what they do—but tives say. not whether they are married or not. In the humanist movement Gordon: I don't think they're wicked either. But I try to be in Europe marriage is not as important as it was. In fact, you very pragmatic in what I am willing to publicly advocate. I can say that at this moment there is a lot of extramarital sex don't want my authentic message to get spoiled. I'm not afraid among humanists. It's very popular. to come out and admit that extramarital liaisons, even anony- Kurtz: Is it common among others as well? mous ones, can be important and even beneficial. I just don't Tielman: Oh yes, it's widespread. The Netherlands is an in- want to stress it so much. teresting case. Many people live together without marriage, Tielman: Cultures in Europe find affairs to be very usual. and 25 percent of the marriages are unsuccessful. France's "mistress" system is practically institutionalized. The Kurtz: You mean they end up in divorce? essential point for us must be whether all people involved are Tielman: Yes. In the United States, however, where the informed and consenting. I stress this because critics often pressure to be married is more intense, the figure is higher, 50 assume because of their own background that these things are percent. The freedom not to be married is essential. To allow never talked about with one's partner. sexuality only in marriage implies, in a way, that you are Kurtz: They consider any sex out of marriage to be evil? marrying primarily for physical pleasure. Indeed, sexuality is Gordon: Perhaps because most sexual encounters in our one of the reasons to be married, but it's not the most important society take place outside of marriage, in secret. Secrecy tends one. to preclude consent. Kurtz: I've always felt that when a couple lives together Kurtz: Is this immoral? and there's commitment, trust, and responsibility, adultery is Tielman: What you should stimulate is not the condemna- immoral and impermissible. Of course many marriages break tion of secretive adultery but the reflection of how and why down, when partners aren't sexually compatible, for example. things happen like this between partners, and why in their Under these conditions, adultery might not always be wrong. primary relations they cannot talk about it. Tielman: If you have an agreement to be monogamous and Gordon: If the motivation is to find relief from the relation- you're not faithful to your agreement, that's wrong. But I think ship, then obviously its exploitative. But I think eventually we you need not have such an agreement. What is essential, I will reach a point where we'll understand that it's possible for think, from the humanist approach, is that people are informed even friends to be sexual with each other without destroying and give consent. the basic need for marriage. But we haven't reached that point. Gordon: If you have a committed relationship where from Kurtz: What about now? The "open marriage" movement a basis of trust and intimacy partners agree not to have sexual emerged about fifteen years ago, but it has failed. People who relations out of marriage, then one should make every effort to had open marriages and talked freely about their affairs and sustain that commitment. On the other hand, I think one has encounters most often got divorced. to appreciate that single incidents do occur, mistakes occur. I Tielman: Speaking about failure, we did research on open mean none of us is perfect, and to assume that a single incident marriages, comparing heterosexual and homosexual couples, is totally destructive to a committed, meaningful relationship is and the interesting thing is that there is a clear difference be- absurd. I know of relationships where couples hate each other, tween lesbians and gay men. Generally speaking, lesbians tended

Fall 1987 37 to want monogamous relationships, whereas gay men tended for quarantine and for the prohibition of prostitution. What is to have open relationships. our response to those who say that we have to crack down on Kurtz: What about heterosexual couples? sexual liberty because of its danger to the health and welfare of There were some who could manage open mar- Tielman: the community at large? riages, but they were few. Ten percent of the relationships we Tielman: First of all, not every sexual encounter can trans- studied in the Netherlands were successful open relationships. mit the virus. We are so obsessed by those sexual techniques The vast majority of heterosexual couples pretended to be that can transmit the virus that we are not looking at others, monogamous, but most of them were not. Men, especially, like mutual masturbation. Another thing: It is simply impossible sought extramarital sex. In any case, we found that people to put all people under quarantine. Nations would become who can deal with jealousy had the best chance of having a concentration camps. And, again, there's a very simple alterna- lasting open marriage. I think, however, that one should not tive: just treat everybody as serum positive, and that will be generalize on this issue. You cannot speak about "failure" or enough. "success." Some people can, some people cannot. Kurtz: In other words, everyone has to be responsible and think what counts is the motivation. Why do Gordon: I practice safe sex. people want that kind of relationship? We have failed to recog- Tielman: Yes. nize that most marriages not only break up but most marriages Kurtz: In any case and every case. That may not happen. are not monogamous. We have this colossal pretense. Gordon: The American Medical Association has suggested that prisoners and immigrants be tested. What's your view A Right to Privacy? about that? Tielman: It doesn't approach the problem rationally. It's Kurtz: What about the issue of privacy and disease. Consenting clear to me that what's wrong, in this case, is the American adults ought to be allowed to pursue their lifestyles—hetero- prison system. In the Netherlands prison system, each prisoner sexual, homosexual, bisexual, and so on—without regulation is given his own room. And there's no rape. AIDS is simply by the state. Humanists have been in the forefront for years in not spread through contacts in the prisons. But, if you have promoting that principle of privacy. But now, with the problem large and often uncontrolled communities of people living to- of sexually transmitted diseases, there are powerful voices gether, it's quite clear that the virus will spread rapidly. arguing that the right of privacy is no longer applicable. The Kurtz: In your country are partners able to visit prisoners state, they say, has a right—indeed, a duty—to intervene and and have sex? regulate sexual conduct. Tielman: Yes. Tielman: I strongly disagree with that view, not only as a Kurtz: That's not often true in the United States. It is matter of ethics but as a matter of what's effective in a practical considered wicked and evil to think that prisons would condone sense. You have to be aware that there are two people involved. this. It's not only one person infecting the other one. Two people Tielman: But, again, it has proved to be an effective method participate in the sexual relations and two are free and respons- of preventing the spread of the disease, especially in Scandinavia ible to do so or not to do so. If you're only focusing on the one who is responsible for the transmission of the virus and not looking at the other, who is allowing transmission, then you don't have a picture of the whole issue. I oppose mandatory testing for AIDS. It's expensive and it's an invasion of privacy. A better solution is to treat everybody as a "serum positive." That's the only way to avoid the transmission of AIDS as well as other sexually transmitted diseases. Both partners need to be aware of the risks of some sexual activity; so, if there is transmission, it's the mistake of both. But it's quite another thing if one partner asks the other whether he or she is infected and is then given the wrong answer. Then, ethically speaking, his or her partner is wrong. Kurtz: The person lies? Tielman: Yes. People often aren't comfortable talking about things related to sex. They behave but they don't reflect; they won't speak about it. And the key to sexual relations is the capability to communicate on sexual issues. And that's what we are trained to do in our schools. For example, in the Nether- lands it's not a matter of moralistic preaching; it's a matter of training people to communicate on issues like this, to speak Rob Tielman: "The focus on sexuality has been openly about sexual techniques, the risks of AIDS, and fidelity. too narrow-minded. Friendships, relationships, Kurtz: Because AIDS continues to develop as a major and intimacy are often forgotten." health issue in many Western countries, there are voices calling

38 Fall 1987 and the Netherlands. Another issue that you brought up is the you have your first sexual experience" entertain the illusion of testing of immigrants. I must say—now maybe I'm criticizing going back to the "good old days." What were the good old the United States too severely, but I must say I think the days? Women didn't vote, blacks were persecuted, one-third of AMA's notion is quite extraordinary. The United States is an the population was poor. Is that what we want to go back to? exporter, not an importer, of the virus. So, if anything, the No. The feminist revolution is here. It will not change. Half of policy should be the other way around. all women are working; they're not available for exploitation as they used to be. Gays are demanding their rights. But, you Parenthood see, the real sexual revolution will occur only when people see sex in perspective, in terms of a moral life, as an aspect of Tielman: There is a discussion going on now in the United intimacy. States on legalizing gay and lesbian parenthood. We've had a lot of experience with that, because these are legal in the Men and Women Netherlands. There are many gay foster parents. And work European researchers have done in this field shows, as a matter Kurtz: What about your other point about sexuality, that the of fact, that there's no difference in capability between hetero- main thing in a relationship is cooperative, shared experience. sexuals and homosexuals in educating or bringing up children. Doesn't the humanist say that sex in itself is good, that it can It's very strange that people who can "make" children, so to contribute significantly to happiness? speak, have been assumed to be capable of raising them, Tielman: Not necessarily. whereas people who do not make them have been assumed to Kurtz: It is a high human value, certainly. be incapable. Gordon: Well, yes. But, you see, there are people who Kurtz: Biological capacity and sexual preference have no confuse sex with love. You can be sexually attracted to parts of bearing on someone's capabilities. Parenthood is something people. "Look at the ass on that one!" Well, you can't have a else. Looking ahead to the effects of the new technology— conversation with an ass, even if its a smart ass. The point is, surrogate motherhood, artificial insemination, in vitro and in we haven't helped people understand that confusion. vivo reproduction—parenthood is no longer connected to sexu- Kurtz: But you said there should be commitment, sincerity, ality. and trust. Tielman: Is it really so important for people to have their Gordon: All of which have very little to do with sex. That's children biologically related to them? There are starving children the point. You can be in love—a mature and healthy love—but all over the world. What is our priority here? I think it's more share an unsatisfying sex life with someone. important to save children than to make new ones. Should we Kurtz: What about sex without love? Passion without love? continue to develop all kinds of technologies when we can't Gordon: Then there's no commitment. take care of the children who are already here in our world? Kurtz: You say, as a humanist, that's wrong? Kurtz: But can we stop producing children? Gordon: No, I'm just saying that if it's part of a deception, Tielman: Sure. if it's part of an exploitation, it's wrong. But I don't have any Kurtz: Do you think people in Western countries should objections if people want to have brief encounters, experiments, adopt children from poorer parts of the world? without love, as long as it's a mutual experience. I don't think, Tielman: Yes. If a couple really wants to have children, you by the way, that children are capable of this kind of sex. have to confront them with this option. I think it is a real Kurtz: No. But between adults it becomes recreational sex issue. Another issue is whether one should use these technolo- or play. gies to prevent children being born who would be severely Gordon: If its nonexploitative, then it's none of my business. handicapped. I see no ethical problem in preventing human The principle is privacy. Men and women have different beings being born who are in very very bad shape. agendas in this country. Men are socialized to have sex because Kurtz: You're talking about abortion—after amniocentesis of the possibility of sex. But women are socialized to have sex has indicated gravely defective fetuses. because of the possibility of love. These cross-purposes lead to Tielman: Yes. an incredible amount of exploitation. Kurtz: I think that humanists would agree that's a reflective Kurtz: Now, in rejecting the traditional moralism about choice that can be made. sex—no sex out of marriage, no premarital intercourse—you Tielman: In general, the technology you've mentioned is want to move on to a humanist definition of morality where neither good nor bad, as such. It's the way you deal with it. you have openness, free choice, and responsibility as the basic The view of the Vatican, in contrast, is that all human activity framework. What about recreational sex—sex without commit- in this field is wrong. Nature, it says, must follow its own ment—does that fit into this framework; or is it to be con- process. Human intelligence shouldn't intervene. demned? Kurtz: Are you concerned about those who want to use Gordon: If there's no deception, there's no problem. political power to turn back the clock, who would circumscribe Kurtz: Except in the hands of the critics of humanism, who the domain of human reason? will accuse us of "promiscuity." There are of course intemperate Gordon: Yes, indeed. Sex and religion have become politics men and women who have recreational sex and nothing else, in this country. Those who say "Wait until marriage before one-night stands and nothing else.

Fall 1987 39 its not in the curriculum. It's taught nowhere in the United States. Kurtz: Some sex educators maintain that masturbation is a part of normal human sexual development. Gordon: You're talking about something else. I'm talking about the once-you-start-you-can't-stop theory. No school challenges it. I speak to large numbers of high-school students. I ask them to imagine this scene: A boy says to his girlfriend, "Honey, great news, we can make out at my house; my mother is going out of town." She says, "Fabulous!" Then she remem- bers that she's only fifteen years old, so she says, "I really love you and really want to make out with you, but I'm not ready for sex yet." And how does he respond? "Don't worry." (Here's a rule: If anybody ever tells you not to worry—worry.) So they're making out and having a great time and enjoying themselves. They're touching each other's—if you'll excuse the Sol Gordon: "Most sexual encounters in our expression—"private parts" (an expression coined, by the way, society take place outside of marriage, in secret. to talk about sexual molestation without talking about sex). Secrecy tends to preclude consent." Finally, the boyfriend says to her, "Oh my god, it's too late! I can't stop! I'm coming in." All she has to say is "I think I hear Tielman: What many of these people want is intimate your mother coming." So much for boys who can't stop. You relationships, but they cannot develop them. tell that story to a thousand kids, and not one boy will ever use Gordon: There are large numbers of people who are sexual that line again. addicts. Sex is their number one priority. It's a neurosis. Kurtz: How do you handle the people who say don't start. Tielman: If you talk about addiction, people tend to focus Gordon: Don't start? You're talking to the wilderness. on the addicted person. But you also have to talk about the Kurtz: They're going to start no matter what? But they can surroundings that stimulate this addiction. stop. That's your point. Gordon: The social context is very important. For example, Gordon: That's a critical point, but it's not included in sex we have socialized a significant number of males to prefer rape education. to masturbation. Kurtz: Looking ahead, what will be the most important Kurtz: The machismo image. sexual issue? Gordon: In my judgment, if we eliminated pornography Tielman: The AIDS danger. Countries where sexuality has tomorrow, we wouldn't reduce rape, sexual molestation, or always been treated in a bad way will treat the disease, and its sexual dysfunction by one percent. We might even increase victims, in a worse way. This will be a real problem. I am not them. But if we legitimized masturbation, as we mentioned afraid about Scandinavia and the Netherlands, but I am very before, as a healthy and normal expression, we would probably much afraid about the United States and other parts of the reduce such things by 10 to 15 percent. world. However, a disease like AIDS can be thwarted. It need Tielman: The very low image of masturbation damages our not be a disaster. Fear and apprehension can be replaced by culture. responsible, intelligent attitudes. Kurtz: It is condemned as part of the Judeo-Christian tradi- Gordon: I certainly agree. Humanists can do a lot to create tion—"spilling the seed on the ground." Masturbation is often an environment of moral responsibility. It's up to us not to be considered the most evil and wicked of all sexual activity, intimidated by extremists. There are a lot of people who are particularly among some Roman Catholic theologians. using religion, for example, as a subterfuge for their own Tielman: There's no question that this kind of Christian bigotry and belligerence. There are people who say that AIDS injunction encourages the kind of culture in which rape would is a punishment from God. We have to expose that kind of be common. nonsense. And as long as people are making statements about politics, or trying to impose their particular point of view on The Future others, we have a right to respond. We have a duty to challenge the kind of anger and ignorance that creates the homophobia Kurtz: What's the most prevalent myth about sex? we have, that creates the kind of hostility our culture has Gordon: That once a male starts he can't stop. It's the toward minorities. We have a duty to challenge them as background for all rape, acquaintance rape, and sexual moles- humanists, as thinking and social people, as people who believe tation. The assumption is, "Why did you get me started? Don't in morality. you know that a guy can't stop? Once you start a guy he'll get Kurtz: You said earlier that sexual freedom has not been blue balls." Imagine blue balls as a disorder instead of coercion, achieved. Do you believe it's still a worthwhile and possible pregnancy, or AIDS! We humanists have to spread the word goal to pursue? that once a boy starts he can also stop. And if he doesn't want Gordon: Absolutely, when it's accompanied by responsi- to have blue balls, he can masturbate. It's an instant cure! But bility. •

40 FREE INQUIRY The Imagination: A Double-edged Sword Piercing to the Marrow of Religious Dogma

Linda S. Emery

grew up in a large, poor, and neurotic family. We had no of games: Hide-and-Seek, Grandmother-May-I, Grandmom- social contact other than the public school system and the Says— I Nazarene church. Being a precocious reader, I learned early on that literature was my ticket out of there—the only Don't you know that book is worldly? That it's leading you ticket available to me. I spent most of my time on flights of away from Jesus? There are many, many fine Christian books fancy, mental vacations away from the real world. I thought in this house. Why don't you read them? Fill your mind with everyone did this. I realized that most of the kids at school purity and goodness. Someday, when you're wiser and stronger seemed to hate reading and that television was the entertain- in the Lord, you'll feel sorry about the sinful books you've ment focus at home, but I figured some folks simply preferred read, and the Lord will help you develop a taste for His doing it in private—late at night or while locked in the bath- literature. room. I couldn't understand why I was always being told to "Quit reading! Get up off your fat butt and do something!" I The Lord's Literature. For all the Grandmoms of the world will admit that I was indiscriminate, even promiscuous, as far —that is, hard-line "fundamental" Christians, henceforth known as reading material was concerned. For example, I might read as HFCs—that means books that deal solely and absolutely the Pentateuch (King James Version, including the "begats") with the H FC experience and that are generally sold only in one day and Candy (the whole thing, not just the good parts) Christian bookstores. To be sure, in recent years there has the next. been some marketing crossover. It is not unusual to find a rack So, perhaps Mom was right to send me to stay with Grand- of "inspirational" books at the supermarket or drugstore, and a mom for six months of spiritual reconditioning, and perhaps few books have had a fair showing in both Christian and Grandmom was right to methodically bait her entire house secular markets—like Chuck Colson's autobiography or The with little piles of Christian books and magazines. Imagine her Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. However, I dare you to distress, then, when after a week under her tutelage she dis- come up with a single crossover example that is not either covered me reading a secular novel, W. Somerset Maugham's biographical or a children's book, as are my two examples. Of Human Bondage. The scene is vivid in my mind as the first The reason for this lack is the first cutting edge of that double- and last time I have ever actually seen a woman "wring her edged sword mentioned in my title: HFCs are scared shitless of hands." You see, she couldn't do a thing about it. The book the Imagination. had been inexplicably given to her as a birthday gift just a few "Well, now, wait a minute," my more competitive readers days before my arrival by her own dear mother-in-law, a saintly will be thinking, stuck back on that dare. "What about some of woman of such advanced age that she already had one foot in the books we read in high school, like Hawthorne's The Scarlet the River Jordan. Out of respect for the lady's age and wisdom, Letter? Or, more recently, what about Matthiessen's At Play in the book had been placed, unread (the binding popped the first the Fields of the Lord, or even Updike's A Month of Sundays? time I opened it), on the coffee table. Of course, Grandmom They all deal with religion, with a moral dilemma, with the had "inadvertently" covered it with back issues of Herald of interplay of good and evil. What about them?" Tch. Tch. No Holiness magazine. This ploy did not work. I'm a connoisseur; respectable HFC would read more than a few pages of At Play I always peruse the entire menu before making my selection; or Sundays before gasping and throwing it down as a work of there it was, the last and most appetizing item available. the devil. They are much too explicit in their descriptions of It took me weeks to read Maugham's grand book. Weeks spiritual doubt and sexual sin. Sin, especially the sin of a purported Christian, must only be alluded to in the Lord's Literature. An HFC might finish The Scarlet Letter and accept it as passable worldly literature, but it would never be recommended on a general HFC reading list, because it is not Linda Emery, a reformed HFC (RHFC), teaches English at Boise adamant enough about the need of each person to accept Jesus State University. Christ as his or her personal Savior. Obviously, At Play and Sundays would not fit this criterion either. So, I leave you with

Fall 1987 41 a double-dog dare to come up with even one crossover example stands, they have a cutting edge facing that direction. No matter of HFC fiction. Now, remember, it must be adult fiction. HFCs which way they turn, they can find scriptural references to are allowed to read about spiritual doubt, sexuality, etc., within back up that particular position. An unbiased and/or liberal the context of reality, of a direct retelling of actual events, as Bible reader might see the paradox inherent in the holy text as long as the story-line leads to an epiphany in Christ, which, in indicating the flexibility of God's involvement with humankind. HFC autobiography/biography, is a foregone conclusion. Well, For example, if He is a God of wrath, a consuming fire, on while you think about it, let me take you back for one more one occasion, and a gentle, loving Savior on another, then brief visit with Grandmom. surely His nature encompasses all points in between and beyond After she realized I was not going to quit reading Of Human these extremes, making him capable of a fair response under Bondage, Grandmom decided on a different tactic, a compro- all circumstances. This is not the way HFCs view the para- mise: "Will you at least read a good Christian novel, too? One doxical nature of Scripture. Instead of seeing the entire broad that has been a great blessing to me every time I've read it?" It spectrum, they see only ultraviolet and infrared. Scriptural was called In the Twinkling of an Eye, a phrase that the more paradox, for them, justifies an either/ or paradigm of thinking. discerning of you will recognize as a quote from the New For example, they interpret the aforementioned dual nature of Testament. The use of scriptural texts as titles is common God like this: In the Old Testament He is a God of wrath; in among HFC writers. The plot centered around the relationship the New Testament He is a loving Savior. Therefore, unless between a drunken bum heathen and his HFC wife. No matter you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you how much he beat on her she never complained, just kept will be dealing with the God of wrath, who is going to kick quoting scripture at him and praying out loud for his soul. your butt into Hell the first chance He gets. Then, one day, when he's just about to wallop her a good one Thus, imagination cannot work for both good and evil; up the side of the head with a tire iron, she disappears. Whoosh! and, since there is even a question about its purposes to begin Just like that she's gone, and he realizes that "the garbage" with, it is best simply to throw it into the evil pile once and for she's been spouting about the Rapture, the Second Coming, or all. It is this type of thinking that led to the Calvinist ban on Whatever You Choose to Call It, is true. The last chapter finds music (it might stir more than the soul), to Jonathan Edwards's him on his knees begging for God's mercy. The moral of the denunciation of the Novel as a genre of literature, and to the story is obvious, cut and dried, black and white. It's Heaven Nazarene church's proscriptions against dancing, coed swim- or Hell, honey; there ain't no in-between. ming, movies, theater, and drinking coke (people might see Notice that the book's plot hinges on a point of fantasy— you from a distance and imagine you were drinking beer and the Rapture. It is only through the Imagination—that fright- might begin drinking beer themselves since it's apparently okay ening, indefinable, uncontrollable process—that one can con- for you to do it, all of which might eventually lead to alco- ceive of a Rapture, a future event that has no correlative in the holism, misery, and an eternity in Hell). past or present. For other points of dogma as well, whether In the hands of others, any paradox is a threat to HFCs. It explicitly or implicitly stated in HFC fiction, readers must rely hurts them deeply (actually it pisses them off; but, since anger on the imaginative process. The Creation, the Virgin Birth, is a sin, they react as if hurt) when someone questions them Christ's rising from the dead, His Spirit living in the Christian's about the absurdity of being both predestined and a possessor heart, Satan, Hell—all of these concepts become real to the of free will, say. Or about the fact that Jesus Christ, a poor, HFC through the power of the Imagination. Here, then, is the humble man who never asked for a shekel from his followers, second sharp edge of that double-edged sword: HFCs must has as disciples rich, gloating men and women who regularly rely on the Imagination for a functional framework on which plead for beaucoup bucks without an iota of embarrassment. to hang their brand of reality. Yet, the imagination is the root And, to a question about the imaginative paradox—the manip- of all sin, is sin in many cases. We all remember when Jimmy ulative use of the imagination by HFCs in spite of the fact that Carter, a famous semi-HFC, publicly confessed to the sin of they consider it to be terrifyingly evil—they might answer some- "committing adultery in his heart." That means he imagined thing like this: himself having sex with someone other than Rosalynn. Simply imagining himself in a sinful position put him in as much It bothers me to hear you talk about the mysteries of the danger of hellfire as actually doing IT. This shows how strongly church as if they are imaginary. It is true that Christian speakers HFCs feel about the negative power of the Imagination. What and writers often use a carefully constructed imaginative ap- a paradox, then, that it is an imaginative process—a conjured proach to present the realities of the spiritual world, but that image of Hell—that brings people to their knees in the "funda- does not make these realities any less real. mental" religions and that keeps them there for the duration of We do not fear the imagination. After all, in all things we their earthly lives. HFCs are playing with a sharp sword indeed. are victorious through Christ. We simply know that it is matters of the mind and heart that are most often used by Satan to lead people astray; therefore, we encourage the average Chris- t is important to note that HFCs are not afraid of paradox tian to simply stay away from such temptation. I as such. In fact, they revel in their interpretations of the many paradoxes found in the Scriptures. HFCs do not see Of course it is readily apparent to all but the most blind ambiguity in their own hands as a drawback; they see it as an HFC leaders that it is impossible to keep "babes in Christ" advantage, as a weapon. No matter on what side their opponent away from secular entertainment entirely. In our society, read-

42 FREE INQUIRY ing is essential to survival. At an early age everyone at least attempts to learn how to do it, and we have a strong tradition the story of a band of of using secular rhymes and fairy tales as first readers. Although believers who tried to follow there has been some effort by HFCs to supplant this secular IN HIS STEPS tradition with Christian rhymes and stories, it has been largely unsuccessful. To be sure, HFC parents ply their children with Bible stories, but they also use traditional books like Mother Goose and Aesop's Fables. In fact, it is in the realm of children's literature that HFCs are most tolerant, as is evidenced by the wide acceptance of the fantastic Chronicles of Narnia. For whatever reason, the best fiction currently being written by Christian writers is in the area of children's literature. Katherine Paterson, the only writer to win two Newbery awards (the equivalent of two Pulitzers for juvenile fiction) twines a theme The most widely read of Christianity through her books, including the award win- religious novel of all time. Over 8,000,000 copies sold ners—Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved (note: Scripture as title). HFC fiction is strictly a pious affair, the end never in doubt. It is wonderfully amusing to see what HFCs do about the most predominant form of secular entertainment around—the world. But, more than that, they want it to be read. As nonfic- movies. Often they are actually addicted to watching films tion. Unfortunately, in the case of public schools, the Bible is (mainly on TV) and have a hard time justifying this to them- allowed to be taught formally only in classes with names like selves. To do so, they must come up with silly, Christian inter- "Bible as Literature." Now, here's a paradox for you: When pretations of the movies they really like. Several HFC denomi- HFCs speak of the Lord's Literature they do not refer to the nations have endorsed certain hit movies as being Christian in Bible. "Bible as Literature" is anathema to them. "The Bible is theme or tone—the Star Wars trilogy, E. T (excluding the "penis not literature. It is fact," Grandmom would say. In HFC schools breath" line), etc. Also, a few Christian groups have formed the Bible is taught as simply that—"BIBLE"—within a lesson their own production companies that make feature-length films plan that most closely resembles what might be used in a and show them in major theaters across the country rather secular psychology class. The Bible is seen as the definitive text than in church fellowship halls. Billy Graham Enterprises has on human behavior, its motivations and consequences, written turned out several creditable HFC movies in recent years, al- by the Great Master Himself (God, not Freud). though it is significant to note that they have all been based on You will only rarely hear an HFC extolling the beauty of autobiographical books—The Hiding Place and Joni are two biblical language, a main occupation of those "Bible as Litera- examples. Needless to say, HFCs everywhere were thrilled a ture" teachers. Instead, you will hear phrases like "Let's prayer- few years back with Chariots of Fire. No excuses or rationale fully consider what God is trying to tell us in this passage" or necessary, they simply sat their butts down and watched it "Let us not remain babes in Christ, feeding only on scriptural again and again. And, imagine, it came from a secular produc- milk; let us feed on the meat of the Word." In other words, tion company! they spend a lot of time complicating things, trying to contort Still, as far as adult-fiction reading material goes, HFCs are Scripture to cover every conceivable human dilemma. This has severely limited. In the Twinkling of an Eye is quite representa- reached the point of absurdity with certain topics, like mastur- tive of what is generally available, although the highest caliber bation, which simply aren't addressed in the Bible. The closest of writing can be seen in Eugenia Price's historical romances. appropriately condemnatory passage for masturbation they She manages to push the quality of her books several notches could come up with is the one dealing with Onan's spiteful use above that of the generic romances sold in the grocery stores; of coitus interruptus as a means of contraception. The part but, due to the sublime Christian theme she ties herself to, her where it says "he spilled his seed on the ground" makes it stories never come close to the height of the genre attained by sound sufficiently masturbatory, I guess. Mary Stewart and Daphne du Maurier. And, of course, her As everyone knows by now, HFCs believe in a literal inter- books appeal to women only. (I hope. Can you imagine some pretation of the Bible. It is not allegorical. They even take guy getting off on Christian historical romances?) Christ's parables literally. "Why should Jesus make something up when he knows everything? Of course these events actually sn't it about time one of you took me up on that double- occurred." Because of this literal stance, HFCs are hard put to I dog dare? There is one book that fits the bill, you know. deal with certain passages in the Bible. I have never heard or The biggest best-seller of all time! The Holy Bible! Now, if you read any reference to the fact, as stated in the book of Genesis, thought about it but didn't mention it because of a problem that, after the Sodom and Gomorrah episode, Lot spent several with the wording, specifically with the term fiction, then you months in the hills drunkenly fucking his two daughters, even- understand the HFC mind very well indeed. HFCs want to tually producing children/grandchildren, with nary a word of exploit the fact that the Bible is the best-selling book in the disapproval from God. And, of course, the Song of Solomon world, the greatest example of crossover marketing ever. They gives them fits. How to explain this sensual love song! "Well, want to see it in every motel, every home, every school in the it's referring to the kind of relationship the believer should

Fall 1987 43 CATCH UP ON WHAT YOU'VE MISSED!

B.F. Skinner Use Card to Order. Fr" 1,93. 1411, 11. r1. m~n. .,r,n Lame Be rie uur Censorship swm sap.anW

The Mormon Chore Seventh-day sLerlIng Nit Wolin FREE INQUIRY Adventist Church The Antl-Science K «8r,- - vogue Pad baeunW Back Issues IMP

ow. maw

(A 20% discount will be given on orders of 5 or more copies of the same issue; 40% on orders of 10 or more.)

Summary of Major Articles

Winter 1980/81, Vol. 1, no. 1 — Secular Humanist Declaration. Democratic Fall 1982, Vol. 2, no. 4 — An Interview with Sidney Hook at Eighty, Paul Humanism, Sidney Hook. Humanism: Secular or Religious? Paul Beattie. Kurtz. Sidney Hook: A Personal Portrait, Nicholas Capaldi. The Religion Free Thought, Gordon Stein. The Fundamentalist Right, William Ryan. and Biblical Criticism Research Project, Gerald Larue. Biblical Criticism The Moral Majority, Sol Gordon. The Creation/Evolution Controversy, and Its Discontents, R. Joseph Hoffmann. Boswell Confronts Hume: An H. James Birx. Moral Education, Robert Hall. Morality Without Religion, Encounter with the Great Infidel, Joy Frieman. Humanism and Politics, Marvin Kohl, Joseph Fletcher. Freedom Is Frightening, Roy Fairfield. The James Simpson, Larry Briskman. Humanism and the Politics of Nostalgia, Road to Freedom, Mihajlo Mihajlov. $3.50 Paul Kurtz. Abortion and Morality, Richard Taylor. $3.50 Spring 1981, Vol. 1, no. 2 — The Secular Humanist Declaration: Pro and Winter 1982/83, Vol. 3, no. 1 — 1983—The Year of the Bible. Academic Con, John Roche, Sidney Hook, Phyllis Schley, Gina Allen, Roscoe Freedom Under Assault in California, Barry Singer, Nicholas Hardeman, Drummond, Lee Nisbet, Patrick Buchanan, Paul Kurtz. New England Vern Bullough. The Play Ethic, Robert Rimmer. Interview with Corliss Puritans and the Moral Majority, George Marshall. The Pope on Sex, Vern Lamont. Was Jesus a Magician? Morton Smith. Astronomy and the "Star Bullough. 0n the Way to Mecca, Thomas Szasz. The Blasphemy Laws, of Bethlehem," Gerald Larue. Living with Deep Truths in a Divided World, Gordon Stein. The Meaning of Life, Marvin Kohl. Does God Exist? Kai Sidney Hook. Anti-Science: The Strange Case of Paul Feyerabend, Martin Nielsen. Prophets of the Procrustean Collective, Antony Flew. The Madrid Gardner. $3.50 Conference, Stephen Fenichell. Natural Aristocracy, Lee Nisbet. $3.50 Spring 1983, Vol. 3, no. 2 — The Founding Fathers and Religious Liberty, Summer 1981, Vol. 1, no. 3 — Sex Education, Peter Scales, Thomas Szasz. Robert Alley. Madison's Legacy Endangered, Edd Doerr. James Madison's Moral Education, Howard Radest. Teen-age Pregnancy, Vern Bullough. Dream: A Secular Republic, Robert Rutland. The Murder of Hypatia of The New Book-Burners, William Ryan. The Moral Majority, Gerald Larue. Alexandria, Robert Mohar. Hannah Arendt: The Modern Seer, Richard Liberalism, Edward Ericson. Scientific Creationism, Delos McKown. New Kostelanetz. Was Karl Marx a Humanist? articles by Sidney Hook, Jan Evidence on the Shroud of Turin, Joe Nickell. Agnosticism, H. J. Blackham. Narveson, and Paul Kurtz. $3.50 Science and Religion, George Tomashevich. Secular Humanism in Israel, Summer 1983, Vol. 3, no. 3 (special issue) — Religion in American Politics Isaac Hasson. $3.50 Symposium: Is America a Judeo-Christian Republic? Paul Kurtz. The First Fall 1981, Vol. 1, no. 4 — The Thunder of Doom, Edward Morgan. Secular Amendment and Religious Liberty, Sen. Lowell Weicker, Sam Ervin, Leo Humanists: Threat or Menace? Art Buchwald. Financing of the Repressive Pfeffer. Secular Roots of the American Political System, Henry Steele Com- Right, Edward Roeder. Communism and American Intellectuals, Sidney mager, Daniel Boorstin, Robert Rutland, Richard Morris, Michael Novak. Hook. A Symposium on the Future of Religion, Daniel Bell, Joseph The Bible in Politics, Gerald Larue, Robert Alley, James Robinson. Bibli- Fletcher, William Sims Bainbridge, Paul Kurtz. Resurrection Fictions, ography for Biblical Study. $5.00 Randel Helms. $3.50 Fall 1983, Vol. 3, no. 4 — The Academy of Human__m. The Future of Winter 1981/82, Vol. 2, no. 1 — The Importance of Critical Discussion, Humanism, Paul Kurtz. Humanist Self-Portraits, Brand Blanshard, Barbara Karl Popper. Freedom and Civilization, Ernest Nagel. Humanism: The Con- Wootton, Joseph Fletcher, Sir Raymond Firth, Jean-Claude Pecker. Inter- science of Humanity, Konstantin Kolenda. Secularism in Islam, Nazih view with Paul MacCready. A Personal Humanist Manifesto, Vern Bul- N. M. Ayubi. Humanism in the 1980s, Paul Beattie. The Effect of Education lough. The Enduring Humanist Legacy of Greece, Marvin Perry. The Age on Religious Faith, Burnham Beckwith. $3.50 of Unreason, Thomas Vernon. Apocalypse Soon, Daniel Cohen. 0n the Frank Smith. The Historicity of Jesus, Spring 1982, Vol. 2, no. 2 — A Call for the Critical Examination of the Sesquicentennial of Robert Ingersoll, Bible and Religion. Interview with Isaac Asimov on Science and the Bible, John Priest, D. R. Oppenheimer, G. A. Wells. $3.50 Paul Kurtz. The Continuing Monkey War, L. Sprague de Camp. The Winter 1983/84, Vol. 4, no. 1 — Interview with B. F. Skinner. Was George Erosion of Evolution, Antony Flew. The Religion of Secular Humanism: A 0rwell a Humanist? Antony Flew. Population Control vs. Freedom in Judicial Myth, Leo Pfeffer. Humanism as an American Heritage, Nicholas China, Vern and Bonnie Bullough. Academic Freedom at Liberty Baptist Gier. The Nativity Legends, Randel Helms. Norman Podhoretz's Neo- College, Lynn Ridenhour. The Mormon Church: Joseph Smith and the Puritanism, Lee Nisbet. $3.50 Book of Mormon, George Smith; The History of Mormonism and Church Authorities: Interview with Sterling M. McMurrin. Anti-Science: The Irra- Summer 1982 Vol. 2, no. 3 (special issue) — A Symposium on Science, the tionalist Vogue of the 1970s, Lewis Feuer. The End of the Galilean Cease- Bible, and Darwin: The Bible Re-examined, Robert Alley, Gerald Larue, Fire? James Hansen. Who Really Killed Goliath? Gerald Larue. Humanism John Priest, Randel Helms. Darwin, Evolution, and Creationism, Philip in Norway: Strategies for Growth, Levi Fragell. $3.50 Appleman, William Mayer, Charles Cazeau, H. James Birx, Garrett Hardin, Sol Tax, Antony Flew. Ethics and Religion, Joseph Fletcher, Richard Taylor, Spring 1984, Vol. 4, no. 2 — Christian Science Practitioners and Legal Kai Nielsen, Paul Beattie. Science and Religion, Michael Novak, Joseph Protection for Children. Rita Swan; Child Abuse and Neglect in Ultrafunda- Blau. $5.00 mentalist Cults and Sects, Lowell Streiker. The Foundations of Religious FREE INQUIRY Back Issues (continued) Liberty and Democracy: A Symposium, Carl Henry, Paul Kurtz, Father Shamans, Philip Singer; On the Relative Sincerity of Faith-Healers, Joseph Ernest Fortin, Lee Nisbet. Joseph Fletcher, Richard Taylor. Biblical Views Barnhart; Does Faith-Healing Work? Paul Kurtz. God Helps Those Who of Sex: Blessing or Handicap? Jeffrey J. W. Baker. Moral Absolutes and Help Themselves, Thomas Flynn. The Effect of Intelligence on U.S. Reli- Foreign Policy, Nicholas Capaldi. The Vatican Ambassador, Edd Doerr, A gious Faith. Burnham Beckwith. $3.75 Naturalistic Basis for Morality, John Kekes. Humanist Self-Portraits, Summer 1986, Vol. 6, no. 3 — The Shocking Truth About Faith-Healing: Matthew les Spetter, Floyd Matson, Richard Kostelanetz. $3.50 Deceit in the Name of God: What Can Be Done? Paul Kurtz; Peter Popoff Summer 1984, Vol. 4, no. 3 (special issue) — School Prayer, Paul Kurtz, Reaches Heaven Via 39.17 Megahertz, James Randi; Peter Popoff: Miracle Ronald Lindsay, Patrick Buchanan, Mark Twain. Science vs. Religion in Worker or Scam Artist? Steven Schafersman; Behind the Scenes with Peter Future Constitutional Conflicts, De/os McKown. God and the Professors, Popoff, Robert Steiner; W. V. Grant's Faith-Healing Act Revisited, Paul Sidney Hook. Armageddon and Biblical Apocalyptic, Paul Kurtz, Joseph Kurtz. Further Reflections on Ernest Angley, William McMahon, James Edward Barnhart, Vern Bullough, Randel Helms, Gerald Larue, John Priest, Griffis. Salvation for Sale: An Insider's View of Pat Robertson's Organiza- James Robinson, Robert Alley. Is the U.S. Humanist Movement in a State tion, Gerard Straub. Belief and Unbelief Worldwide: Religious Skepticism of Collapse? John Dart. $5.00 in Latin America, Jorge Gracia; Science, Technology, and Ideology in the Fall 1984, Vol. 4, no. 4 — Humanist Author Attacked, Phyllis Schlafly, Sol Hispanic World, Mario Bunge; Religious Belief in Contemporary Indian Gordon. Humanists vs. Christians in Milledgeville, Georgia, Kenneth Sala- Society, M. P. Rege; Humanism in Modern India: An Interview with V. M. din. Suppression and Censorship in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church: Tarkunde, Tariq Ismail. The Revolt Against the Lightning Rod, Al Seckel, Ellen White's Habit, Douglas Hackleman; Who Profits from the Prophet? John Edwards. $3.75 Walter Rea. Keeping the Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls, John Allegro. Fall 1986, Vol. 6, no. 4 — Humanist Centers: New Secular Humanist Health Superstition, Rodger Pirnie Doyle. Humanism in Africa: Paradox Centers, Paul Kurtz; The Need for Friendship Centers, Vern Bullough; and Illusion, Paul Kurtz. Humanism in South Africa, Don Sergeant. $3.75 Toward New Humanist Organizations, Bob Wisne. The Evidence Against Winter 1984/85, Vol. 5, no. 1 — Are American Educational Reforms Reincarnation: Are Past-Life Regressions Evidence for Reincarnation? Doomed? Delos McKown. The Door-to-Door Crusade of the Jehovah's Melvin Harris; The Case Against Reincarnation (Part I), Paul Edwards. Witnesses: The Apocalypticism of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Lois Randle; Protestantism, Catholicism, and Unbelief in Present-Day France, Jean The Watchtower, Laura Lage. Sentiment, Guilt, and Reason in the Manage- Boussinesq. More on Faith-Healing: CSER's Investigation, Gerald Larue; ment of Wild Herds, Garrett Hardin. Animal Rights Re-evaluated, James An Answer to Peter Popoff, James Randi; Popoffs TV Empire Declines, Simpson. Elmina Slenker: Infidel and Atheist, Edward Jervey. Symposium: David Alexander; Richard Roberts's Healing Crusade, Henry Gordon. Is Humanism Is a Religion, Archie Bahm; Humanism Is a Philosophy, Thomas Secular Humanism a Religion? A Response to My Critics, Paul Beanie; Vernon; Humanism: An Affirmation of Life, Andre Bacard. $3.75 Diminishing Returns, Joseph Fletcher; On Definition-Mongering, Paul Kurtz. $3.75 Spring 1985, Vol. 5, no. 2 — Update on the Shroud of Turin, Joe Nickell. The Vatican's View of Sex, Robert Francoeur. An Interview with E. O. Winter 1986/87, Vol. 7, no. 1 — The New Inquisition in the Schools, Paul Wilson, Jeffrey Saver. Religion and Parapsychology: Parapsychology: The Kurtz. Naturalistic Humanism, Corliss Lamont. God and Morality, Sidney "Spiritual" Science, James Alcock; Science, Religion and the Paranormal, Hook. Secular Humanist Center Founded, Tom Flynn. FREE INQUIRY'S John Beloff. The Legacy of Voltaire (Part 1), Paul Edwards. The Origins of Fifth Annual Conference. Anti-Abortion and Religion, Betty Christianity, R. Joseph Hoffmann. $3.75 McCollister. A Positive Humanist Statement on Sexual Morality, Robert Francoeur. The Growth of Fundamentalism Worldwide: A Humanist Summer 1985, Vol. 5, no. 3 — Finding Common Ground Between Believers Response, Paul Kurtz. Unbelief in the Netherlands, Rob Tielman. Dutch and Unbelievers, Paul Kurtz. Render Unto Jesus the Things That Are Humanism, G. C. Soeters. Belief and Unbelief in Mexico, Mario Mendez- Jesus', Robert Alley. Jesus in Time and Space, Gerald Larue. Interview How the Old Testament Was Written, Gerald Larue. The Case with Sidney Hook on China, Marxism, and Human Freedom. Evangelical Acosta. Against Reincarnation (Part 2), Paul Edwards. $3.75 Agnosticism, William Henry Young. To Refuse to Be a God, Khoren Arisian. The Legacy of Voltaire (Part 2), Paul Edwards. $3.75 Spring 1987, Vol. 7 no. 2 — Personal Paths of Humanism: What Religion Fall 1985, Vol. 5, no. 4 — Two Forms of Humanistic Psychology, Albert Means to Me, B. F. Skinner; Biology's Spiritual Products, E. O. Wilson; Ellis. Psychoanalysis: Science or Pseudoscience? Grünbaum on Freud, Frank Meeting Human Minds, Steve Allen; The Night I Saw the Light, Gina Sulloway; Philosophy of Science and Psychoanalysis, Michael Ruse; The Allen; An Evolutionary Perspective, Paul MacCready; Testament of a Death Knell of Psychoanalysis, H. J. Eysenck; Looking Backward, Lee Humanist, Albert Ellis. Psychology of the Bible-Believer, Edmund Cohen. Nisbet. Jesus in History and Myth: New Testament Scholarship and Chris- Biblical Arguments for Slavery, Morton Smith. The 'Escape Goat' of Chris- tian Belief, Van Harvey; A Liberal Christian View, John Hick. The Winter tianity, Delos McKown. Free Thought and Humanism in Germany, Renate Solstice and the Origins of Christmas, Lee Carter. $3.75 Bauer. The Case Against Reincarnation (Part 3), Paul Edwards. CSER's Faith-Healing Project Update: The Happy Hunters, David Alexander; An Winter 1985/86, Vol. 6, no. 1 — Symposium: Is Secular Humanism a Encounter with Pastor David Eppley, Kate Ware Ankenbrandt. $3.75 Religion? The Religion of Secular Humanism, Paul Beanie; Residual Reli- gion, Joseph Fletcher; Pluralistic Humanism, Sidney Hook; On the Misuse Summer 1987, Vol. 7, no. 3 — Japan and Biblical Religion, Richard Ruben- of Language, Paul Kurtz. The Habit of Reason, Brand Blanshard. An stein. Was the Universe Created? Victor Stenger. Science-Fantasy Religious Interview with Adolf Grünbaum. Homer Duncan's Crusade Against Secular Cults, Martin Gardner. The Relativity of Biblical Ethics, Joe Edward Barn- Humanism, Paul Kurtz. Should a Humanist Celebrate Christmas? Thomas hart. The Case Against Reincarnation (Part 4), Paul Edwards. Personal Flynn. On Being a Pedestrian, Robert Wisne. $3.75 Paths of Humanism: A Secular Humanist Confession, Joseph Fletcher; Anne Nicole Gaylor; Surrender to Life, Rita Mae Spring 1986, Vol. 6, no. 2 (special issue) — Faith-Healing: Miracle or Free from Religion, Ashley Montagu; Growing Up Fraud? The Need for Investigation, Paul Kurtz; "Be Healed in the Name of Brown; As If Living and Loving Were One, Agnostic in Argentina, Mario Bunge. Letter to a Missionary, Ronn Nadeau. God!" James Randi; A Medical Anthropologist's View of American The Cult of Objectivism, Nathaniel Branden. Tyranny of the Creed, John Allegro. $3.75

Secular Humanist Bulletin Back Issues of the Secular Humanist Bulletin, published quarterly and free with a subscription to FREE INQUIRY, are also available. Each additional copy is $1.00, plus $.50 for postage and handling. Discounts are available on bulk orders. FREE INQUIRY • Box 5 • Buffalo, NY 14215-0005 • Tel.: 716-834-2921 have with his Lord," they'll say. "Oh, really," I say. "I'm sup- is easier for everyone concerned to believe it was True rather posed to let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for his than the awful alternative—that it was False, a manifestation love is better than wine' and I should 'seek him by night on my of Satan. HFC bigwigs intuitively understand this aspect of the bed'?" HFC rationale and use it for all its worth. You get the point. These HFC folk disdain emotion. One of their favorite jingles goes something like this—"The three t is a rare HFC, indeed, who can step back and dispassion- Fs: Fact, Faith, Feeling. In that order. God says it; I believe it; Iately observe reality, his own or any other. And, of course, someday I might feel it," they chant. An emotional response to it is even more rare for such an HFC to be an artist, specifically, the Godhead is of lowest priority to HFCs. So—and here's the a writer of fiction. In her essay "The Church and the Fiction funny part, the laughable paradox—why are their church Writer," Flannery O'Connor, a Catholic writer whose stories services almost always oriented around a feverish emotional often deal with the HFC mentality, gives her viewpoint of what pitch to get people to accept Christ and empty their pockets? being a "religious artist" entails. Because her analysis fits the If you don't know what I'm talking about, turn your cable HFC writer as well as the Catholic writer, I have taken the channel to one of those Christian stations and take a quick liberty of substituting "HFC" where she writes "Catholic." peek. The men and women you'll see there are not isolated masters of the technique—this type of thing goes on every The HFC writer, insofar as he has the mind of the Church, week in thousands of little churches across the country. I can't will feel life from the standpoint of the central Christian mys- tell you the number of "moving" sermons I have sat through in tery: that it has, for all its horror, been found by God to be my life. Certain plots are more popular than others: agonizing worth dying for. But this should enlarge, not narrow, his field renditions of missionaries being killed by savages always work of vision. The HFC who does not write for a limited circle of well, and so do the ones about ministers who have fallen into fellow HFCers will in all probability consider that he is writing for a hostile audience, and he will be more than ever concerned sin (read: adultery). The endings are varied to elicit a specific to have his work stand on its own feet and be complete and response from the audience. For instance, if at least one of the self-sufficient and impregnable in its own right. When people killer savages subsequently accepts Jesus Christ as his personal have told me [for example] that because I am an HFC, I Savior, then the minister is mainly trying to get money for the cannot be an artist, I have had to reply, ruefully, that because church's missionary effort. I am an H FC, 1 cannot afford to be less than an artist. (Mystery In spite of a dearth of good adult fiction, HFCs do have a and Manners, p. 146) story-telling tradition. It's just not in book form. It's an oral tradition. Listen to Jimmy Swaggart, one of the top draws of O'Connor does not downplay the difficulty of combining reli- video evangelism. Goodness, the guy is an incredible storyteller, gion and fiction. Further on in the same essay, she says: a true Romancer. He serves up flat characters, moral dilemmas, and symbols of the eternal struggle with every sermon. Weeping Many well-grounded complaints have been made about reli- and wailing, he mesmerizes his audience with fantastic tales of gious literature on the score that it tends to minimize the immoral lives culminating in deathbed conversions and of importance and the dignity of life here and now in favor of life reprobates (read: Jerry Lee Lewis, his cousin) hounded by the in the next world or in favor of the miraculous manifestations Holy Spirit. of grace. When fiction is made according to its nature, it should Some of the stories these romancing ministers tell verge on reinforce our sense of the supernatural by grounding it in con- the grotesque. It made national news several years ago when crete, observable reality. If the writer uses his eyes in the real Oral Roberts informed his audience that he had been visited by scrutiny of his Faith, he will be obliged to use them honestly, and his sense of mystery, and acceptance of it, will be increased. a 900-foot-tall Jesus who had just dropped by to inform him To look at the worst will be for him no more than an act of that his financial problems would soon be solved. Needless to trust in God; but what is one thing for the writer may be say, the prophecy came true: Oral received a total of five million another for the reader. What leads the writer to his salvation bucks in mail-in contributions the month following his Giant may lead the reader into sin, and the HFC writer who looks at Jesus story. Many of you are probably unaware of the in- this possibility looks the Medusa in the face and is turned to credible frequency with which appearances are made by spiritual stone. (pp. 148-49) beings to HFCs, particularly those in positions of leadership. Why, an HFC minister in my own town had repeated en- Or, to use the biblical allusion of my title instead of O'Con- counters with the Archangel Michael, I believe it was, a few nor's Medusa metaphor, the writer will be brought up short by years ago. Maybe it was just an ordinary seraphim, I can't "the word of God, [which is] quick, and powerful, and sharper remember. Anyway, he wrote a book about it that greatly than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder increased the membership of his church just prior to his un- of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a timely death. discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews Now, how seriously do you think you or I would be taken 4:12). Neither of us is insinuating that the aware Catholic/ HFC if we told such tales? So how do these guys get away with it? writer is doomed to a type of death—i.e., permanent writer's Because the Imagination is either Good or Evil, remember? block. But, certainly, a realistic assessment of life accompanied For an HFC, a vision of Jesus, or whatever, is either True or by a healthy astonishment before the incredible variety of form False, capital letters. There is no room for a lower-case excuse and substance present here on earth should leave the religious of it just being "his imagination" or, even lower, "a lie." And it writer humbled. Prone to insightful Imagination. •

46 FREE INQUIRY Peter Popoff's Broken Window

FREE INQUIRY readers first got a close look at Peter Popoff in our Summer 1986 issue, in which James Randi and other researchers reported that Popoff was receiving secret radio transmissions from his wife that enabled him to "call out" members of his audience. The Reverend Popoff had claimed that he received the often astonishingly in-depth information direct from God. FREE INQUIRY's exposé was effective: The national media quickly picked up on our exclusive, and within four months the California- based preacher was no longer able to draw large crowds on his faith- healing tours; more important, public pressure and dwindling donations forced Popoff off television completely. Popoffs problems, however, are far from over. As this article by David Alexander shows, it is now clear that Popoffs deceptions broke legal as well as ethical bounds.

David Alexander

n May 12, 1985, Peter Popoff aired his regular evan- Friends, believe me, we can feel your needs. The devil not only gelical program, but with a special, last-minute addi- attacks you, he attacks us.... Jesus felt the needs of those 0 tion. Viewers were shown a large hole in a broken who were hurting, those who were sick, those that couldn't glass door at the Upland headquarters of the Peter Popoff help themselves. And 1 feel your needs. Elizabeth feels your Evangelistic Association (PPEA). Standing next to the door needs. We feel the pain that you feel. And right now at this and looking dismayed was the Reverend Popoff. "Originally," moment, as we both are in a state of shock, we can feel your he said, "I was going to do something else this week, but I needs, you see, because we suffer, we suffer with you; we hurt. want to show you what the devil has done. Will you come with I feel a hurt in the pit of my stomach. me?" He led the cameras through the door into his print shop. At the end of the program the camera again focused on There he stood beside his wife, Elizabeth, surrounded by Popoff and his wife, their faces wet with tears, as they made a hundreds of small Russian-language Bible tracts that were scat- fervent pitch for money and support. Their insurance, Popoff tered on the floor and soaked with water. "While you were in said, would never cover what had been destroyed. Indeed, their church, our headquarters were vandalized. We've been experi- loss was so devastating, Popoff claimed, that he and Elizabeth encing Satanic opposition. But friends, I never expected the were going to borrow $500 on their Visa and lend it to Jesus devil would come right into our headquarters, smash our "to get this ministry going again." The appeal continued for premises—and I don't believe this was a coincidence. He came eight to ten minutes, with Popoff continually stressing his right for the Word of God." Popoff pointed to the sodden ministry's need for money. Bible tracts and his voice quavered with emotion and outrage. Popoff followed up the television show by sending a letter These Bibles, he said, were going to be sent to the Russian to the 100,000 individuals then on his mailing list. He wrote: border, but now his ministry had come to a complete "stand- still." Our warehouse and printing plant were vandalized. My heart sank as I walked in on Monday morning and saw all of the Popoff did his best to engender sympathy in his viewer's Bible portions that we were going to airlift to the Russian hearts: border scattered everywhere. Destruction was all around me. The vandals didn't destroy our equipment. All they did was try to destroy God's Word. After scattering these Bible portions everywhere, they took a fire hose and soaked them with water. Our van was also smashed. David Alexander, a special consultant to CSER, and former Our insurance can never cover what's been lost. private investigator, is currently a publisher and editor. Popoff then described a phone conversation he had had

Fall 1987 47 enough foreveryoneonhislist. an already-much-solicitedfaithful.Thisappeal,however,was with hisfather,"atruemanofGod,"whoisusedbyGodat Near theendofletterPopoffintensifiedhardsell: and ElizabethPopoffwereinducedbyonions. had toorderanadditionalshipmentoftractsinhave because onlytenthousandhadbeensoaked,hewouldhave and livingallowances.SoPopoff'sprofitwasalreadyimmense. audience andthepeopleonPopoff'slargemailinglistfor and corroboratedevidencewasunearthedthatduringlateApril that momenttodeliveramessagethefaithful. criminally conspiredtopresentthisfictionthetelevision indeed special:Itwasbasedonacompletefabrication. Scientific ExaminationofReligion(CSER),plentifulpositive directly linksPopofftotheconspiracy. cash donationstakenathiscrusades.Histotalmonthlyintake included Popoffssalary,hisMercedesBenz,andhousing ing atleast$1millionamonth.Thisfiguredoesnotinclude the participantsandhaveobtainedvideotapedevidence that 1985 PeterPopoffandsomeofhisemployeesassociates operation. Atthetimeofbogusbreak-in,PPEAwasgross- purpose ofpullinginmorefundsforanalreadysuccessful stack ofBibles.Theyhiredme outtowet'em.Tosoakthemin in theprintshop,helpedproducePopoff'sradioshows, and was ageneralassistanttoPeterPopoffduringhisthree years who beganworkingforPopoffinJuly1983.Delaneyworked total expensesneverexceeded$550,000amonth—afigurethat may occasionallyhavereachedashigh$3million.Butits and vandalssoakedtheBibles." Hecontinued,"Iwastoldto come intotheofficeandsoak theboxesofbooks.Ibroughta with PPEA. friend andcameintotheoffice afterhours.Iwaspaidfifty T dollars. They came inthenextdaytoshoot thevideo.Iwas water. Theyshotvideotape saying theofficewasbrokeninto Rod [RodSherrill,Popoff's televisionproducer]hadsetupa 48 some willprovemeaccordingtoMalachi3:10.Thosethat enclose itinsidethislittlewater-soakedRussianGospel. send anEMERGENCYRESTORATIONofferingtostop Satan inhistracks.Somewillgivetwenty,somefifty, open mygoodtreasureuntothem. obey theleadingofmyspiritnowshallseethatIwillliterally I knowyouwilltaketheverylargestofferingpossibleand My son,Iammovinguponthosethatwillinthisurgenthour Popoff encloseda"vandalized"tractineachletter.But, The tearsthatflowedsocopiouslyfromtheeyesofPeter There werenovandals. There wasnobreak-in. In aninvestigationsponsoredbytheCommitteefor Our firsteyewitnesstothedeceptionwasMikeDelaney, I haveinterviewedandtakentapedstatementsfromtwo of During myinterviewwithhim,Delaneysaid,"Peterand he televisionspotandfundraisingletterweremasterful performances, certaintoelicitadditionaldonationsfrom The firstwasacopyofwhatairedalloverthecountryin the portionsofprogramthatwereeditedout.Popoffis middle ofMay1985.Thesecond—anddamning—tapecontains heard talkingtohisthen-VicePresident,VolmerThrane,and next toanopenmicrophone. everything outofplaceinsidetheprintshop." then toldbyRodSherrilltovandalizetheplace.Iknocked Rod Sherrill.Theywereallevidentlyunawarethatthey and dosometapingoutthere.[TheprogramshowsPopoffs children, "neartears,"gazingattheirvan'ssmashedwind- come inandtapethem,we'llwanttogetoutbythevan shield.] Popoff: No,wecan'tcleanitupnow.Weneedtoletthekids Liz: Whattimeisthewindowguycoming? Popoff: Four. is oneshot.Volmer,whichwindow'scracked? Volmer: He'llbehereabitearlier,butthat'llallright. Volmer: We'renotgoingtobreakit`causeI'mmake a [Elizabeth Popofflaughsaudiblyatthatcomment.] Popoff: Okay.That'lljusttakeaminute.Allwe'regoingtodo ventilation systemoutofit.I'lljustbustoneinthedoor. Volmer: That'llbefine.It'llsuchamesstocleanup.I'll Delaney alsogavemetwo-three-quarter-inchvideotapes. Popoff: Okay. have topulleverythingout. Volmer: Ithinkwe'llgetthepoint acrosswiththedoor. signaling thathe isreadytobegintaping.] [Rod Sherrillsayssomething atthispointlike"Allrighty," Popoff: Okay. Popoff: Okay.Ithinkso,too. Peter Popoff:"Areyougoingtohelpmebustthisdoor?" FREE INQUIRY

Rick Seymour strewn around on the exterior. When contacted, Thrane, our Popoff: Volmer, are you going to help me bust this door? second eyewitness, corroborated this story. (Thrane, Popoff's Volmer: Yeah, I'll be back down. gardener before he became his Vice President, left the ministry in 1985 because, he says, he was having "second thoughts" Popoff: Come back down in five, ten more minutes—we'll be about Popoff's honesty. Others say Thrane was an inept done. manager and left "by mutual agreement," having thrown Popoff's financial records into disarray.) t is quite clear from the broadcast that the glass entry door I made several attempts to contact Peter Popoff in order to I was broken after the scene of "vandalism" inside the print get his comments on my investigation. I called and left a shop had been taped. Indeed, as Elizabeth Popoff's question message with his parents; a few moments later my phone rang. about the "glass man" indicates, and as statements made to me When I answered it there was a disconnect. I then twice called by Volmer Thrane and Mike Delaney attest, the glass replace- Popoff's new office, People United for Christ, in Upland, Cali- ment for the door was ordered several days before the glass fornia. The first time, I was hung up on when I identified was actually broken. According to Delaney, Thrane attempted myself. When I called back I was tersely told by an unidentified to break the door with a rock. He tried three times but was male voice that Popoff was not interested in any communica- unsuccessful. At this point Rod Sherrill stepped in and broke tion with me. the door from the inside. A careful viewing of the tapes shows The evidence that this investigation has uncovered is being that the glass was broken from the inside out, with the remain- shared with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. ing glass being bowed toward the outside and glass fragments Justice Department. • James Randi and The Faith-Healers

aging through the galleys of his uncovered the facts that 1 include in of decency in them," he says, "but Pnew book, The Faith-Healers, the my book. That these people often they've managed to conceal it very, very principal investigator of CSER's Faith- reached into their own pockets to cover effectively. No one in the investigation healing Investigation Project doesn't their expenses makes me all the more had envisioned that these people would sound like an author in the final stages appreciative of their dedication and be involved in such sleazy, reprehensi- of the publication process. James "The devotion." ble, underhanded, immoral, and, in Amazing" Randi is too filled with curi- Do any television-evangelists sin- many cases, illegal activities." osity and indignation to be fatigued or cerely believe they have faith-healing Although the Faith-Healing Investi- relieved. For the winner of a MacArthur powers? "Some might get fooled by gation Project has succeeded in dras- "genius" grant, this eagerly awaited their own chicanery," Randi says. "And tically reducing the television audiences book may be a peak in his career as a 1 think that the feedback they get from of Peter Popoff, W. V. Grant, and other magician and author, but it's not the their supposed 'healees' comes back to faith-healers, Randi is a bit dismayed culmination. "The project," he says, "is them in a positive way. People believe that law-enforcement agencies haven't never-ending. Faith-healers are the un- they have been healed of various things begun their own investigations. Perhaps sinkable rubber-ducks of television. when they've only undergone some psy- "religion" is too hot for them to touch, They are always there. The only possible chological placebo effect, or perhaps a he says. But, Randi warns, religion will cure lies in informing people—and that's reduction of immediate symptoms— continue to impinge not only upon our what my book is intended to do." which is not a cure but merely tem- culture but upon the political process "When I began my investigation," porary relief. But, because faith-healers as well, whether we like it or not. He Randi says, "I had no idea that it would don't follow up on their supposed suc- hopes his chapter on Pat Robertson will involve me emotionally, physically, and cesses, they never learn that their sub- alert those who are still curiously obliv- financially as thoroughly as it did. I jects are just as badly off afterward— ious to the CBN-founder's faith-healing had no idea that there was such a vast not to mention quite a bit poorer as practices. "At one time," Randi says, amount of money being used and mis- well." "Robertson actually believed that he used by faith-healers for their own ends, The massive amount of money taken could raise from the dead a twelve- funds that were supposed to have been in by these evangelists is only now com- year-old girl who had already been em- used for 'God's work.' " The scale of ing to light. Randi writes that W. V. balmed. And apparently he was naive the deception, and the research required Grant often spent as much as $15,000 enough to think that God would not to expose it, was daunting. So the in- to $20,000 in one day on oriental objects only resurrect the young girl as he vestigation expanded, eventually involv- of art, purchased an expensive mansion prayed over her but replace the em- ing "twenty to twenty-five very active across the river from Cincinnati, where balming fluid with blood of the right people," Randi notes, "and another he first had his headquarters, and main- type. And this man wants to be presi- thirty to forty people, at least, who did tained a $2,500-a-month penthouse in dent." The Faith-Healers will be re- some important work. I must say, had Cincinnati. leased by Prometheus Books, Buffalo, it not been for the dedication of people Understandably, Randi is filled with New York, in October ($18.95 cloth). like David Alexander, who was a major scorn for the characters populating The —Robert Basil investigator, I could not possibly have Faith-Healers. "There may be a shred

Fall 1987 49 Personal Paths to Humanism

FREE INQUIRY continues its series of personal testaments, in which distinguished humanists reflect on the moral and ethical bases of their lives.

Human and World Care

Benjamin Spock

got my most basic beliefs—in the sense the small children carrying lighted candles child of a mother who devoted her life to I of unthinking attitudes rather than led the march, my mother's face would turn children, for the oldest is apt to make a rational credos—from my stern, moralistic, red as a tomato, and tears would stream particularly close identification with parents unyielding mother. She wasn't all grim, down her cheeks. We Spock children hardly and to go into one of the so-called helping though. She had a great sense of humor, dared look at her because all of us would professions. I changed diapers, gave bottles, was a hilarious mimic, and was as invariably then weep, too, sensing that this symbolized and rocked the baby carriage for my sisters charming to outsiders as she was severe with the positive bond between us. Of her six and brothers. her children. Her scorn was withering. When children, five went into child psychology or During my pediatric residency, I got the during World War 1 my parents decided school teaching. idea that I should have some kind of psy- that, to help conserve wool, I should wear Like my parents, I have never been a chological training in order to give mothers one of my father's cast-off suits, almost regular church member or churchgoer. It sound advice. (No doubt this idea came in black, floppy, cuffless, the exact opposite of doesn't seem plausible to me that there is part from a feeling that there must be easier, what youths were wearing, 1 cried out, the kind of God who watches over human more pleasant ways to rear children than "Everybody at school will laugh at me." My affairs, listens to prayers, and tries to guide my mother's rather tyrannical discipline.) mother said fiercely, "You ought to be people to follow His precepts—there is just But I found there was no such training ashamed of yourself for worrying what peo- too much misery and cruelty around for that. designed for pediatricians. So, for lack of ple will think. Don't you know that it doesn't On the other hand, I respect and envy the anything better, I took a year's residency in matter what people think as long as you people who get inspiration from their reli- psychiatry. Taking care of adults with know you are right?" Of course, at age gions. schizophrenia and manic-depressive psycho- fifteen, when peer pressure is enormous, I I am deeply impressed by the potentiali- sis gave me not one glimpse of how to didn't believe her. Nevertheless, 1 got some ties of human beings—to love generously, answer mothers' questions about thumb- comfort from her words fifty years later to dedicate themselves to causes, to be loyal sucking and nail-biting, but I did come to when 1 found myself indicted for my opposi- and honest, to forgive, to create beauty in realize that the staff members who found tion to the Vietnam war. all the arts and to appreciate them, to make meaning in the patients' actions and speech My mother was totally devoted to her experiments and discoveries. What wonder- were the psychoanalysts. So the following children. She particularly loved and enjoyed ful creatures! Yet, of course, humans can year (1933), as I started pediatric practice, I babies because, I think, she didn't have to also be cruel, vengeful, ungrateful, deceitful, also started part-time psychoanalytic train- watch them suspiciously to squelch any signs and greedy. Child psychiatry tells us that ing. I gave my own analysis during evening of evil (especially sexual) or rebelliousness, our good and evil traits come mainly from seminars twice a week for five years, and 1 as she did when they were a little older. the way we were treated as children and also gave the analysis of a patient under Basically, she was deeply moved by the from the examples we had in our parents. supervision. This gave me much valuable trustfulness, the lovingness, the eagerness, When I entered medical school, I did background theory about emotional de- the idealism of children. Every year at the not have any broad vision of contributing velopment in children, but it still gave me Easter ceremony at Sunday school, when to a better world through preventive pedi- no answers for mothers. And there were no atrics and child psychiatry. I just thought in people for me to ask. No other pediatricians terms of helping my share of patients. I had taken the training I had. Child psychi- worked as a counselor in a small home for atrists and child analysts were preoccupied Benjamin Spock's Baby and Child Care, crippled children during my undergraduate with the treatment of major neuroses, not which has sold more than thirty million summers and gradually came to the decision with the common problems of feeding and copies, celebrated its fortieth anniversary that I'd like to be a children's doctor. This toilet-training. Every day in the office I gave last year. choice must have been strongly influenced the best advice I could figure out, on the subconsciously by my having been the oldest basis of theory. Then, on the baby's next

50 FREE INQUIRY visit, I would eagerly ask the mother how tional relationship with the people they are stead of dog-eat-dog competition, of living the advice had worked out. It was a slow, training to deal with. simply instead of ostentatiously. anxious process. I reached retirement age at Western Re- In 1968, much to my surprise, I found After five years of pediatric practice, an serve in 1967. But back in the late 1950s I myself, along with four other people, includ- editor from Doubleday came to my office had received two invitations to join the ing the chaplain of Yale University, William to ask me to write a book for parents. This National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Sloane Coffin, indicted by Johnson's De- was not because I was known. In fact, I was Policy. At that time it was primarily con- partment of Justice on the charge of con- unknown and having great difficulty making cerned with the need for a nuclear test ban spiracy to counsel, aid, and abet resistance a living for my wife and first child in those treaty with the Soviet Union. I had declined to the military draft. We were tried, con- Depression days. But any publisher making because I knew nothing about radiation and victed, and sentenced to two years in jail. inquiries in New York's medical schools because I wanted to be a reassurer of We were not allowed by the judge to present would find that I was the only pediatrician parents, not an alarmer. Nevertheless, I was our defense: that the war in Vietnam was with psychiatric and psychoanalytic training. approached a third time, in 1962, and my unconstitutional, illegal, a crime against Without hesitation I said, "I don't know conscience was touched. I had to admit that peace, and full of war crimes; and that, enough." After five more years of practice, if we didn't have a treaty, while more and according to the Nuremberg principle, any- in 1943 an editor from Pocket Books came more nations tested more and more one holding these views is not only permitted to my office. He said jokingly, and without weapons, more and more children around but obligated to refuse to obey orders in much logic, that the book they wanted would the world would die of cancer and leukemia such a war. The indictment and trial were not need to be very good because, at or be born with physical and mental defects. intended to intimidate us and other oppo- twenty-five cents a copy, they could sell tens It was a pediatric issue. I joined the National nents of the war. But its effect on me was to of thousands. Now I felt more confident Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy and intensify my indignation. (The Court of Ap- about my advice. The prospect of helping became a spokesman for the disarmament peals reversed the decision a year later.) tens of thousands of families appealed to movement. I also fought against our govern- At first, as an excessively law-abiding the do-gooder in me. ment's increasing involvement in Vietnam— person, I shuddered at the thought of civil Baby and Child Care sold three-quarters arm's, money, and "military advisors." In disobedience. Nevertheless, with the example of a million copies during its first year. It 1964, I was asked by Lyndon Johnson's of others, especially the Berrigan brothers, I appealed to parents not only because it campaign committee to support the president got up my courage and found that, while it encouraged respect and kindliness toward on radio and television because he had was uncomfortable to spend a night in jail, children but because, unlike previous books, declared that he would not send Americans it was not humiliating or lethal. So I spent which tended to be condescending and to fight in an Asian war. I agreed readily; several other nights in jail. It certainly paid authoritarian, it bent over backward to be and I did enough so that Johnson called me off in media attention. friendly toward parents. A typical fan letter a couple of days after the election to thank In those years of speaking in colleges would say, "It sounds as if you are talking me and added, "Dr. Spock, I hope I prove and feeling the warmth and approval of the to me and as if you think I'm a sensible worthy of your trust." He waited only three students, my personality became much more person." months to prove that, by bombing North outgoing and affectionate. Instead of picking The new approach of the book and its Vietnam and starting the buildup of fighting my words cautiously, I learned to say what popularity promptly brought invitations to troops that eventually reached half a million was in my head—or in my heart—and it join research and teaching centers. For four men, he didn't deserve the trust of anyone made more sense. I changed my politics and years, I worked at the Rochester (Minnesota) who voted for him as a peace candidate. I came to see that political activity is an essen- Child Health Project, which, supported by was alarmed and outraged at Johnson's be- tial part in the solution of our problems. the Mayo Clinic, was trying to develop a trayal, and 1 quadrupled my anti-war activi- It was by becoming involved in the op- preventive program in physical and emo- ties. position to the war in Vietnam that I became tional health for all the children of the town. So, on retirement in 1967, I went from convinced that the United States is an im- Next I organized a program in child psy- being a professor to being a full-time politi- perialist nation, that our government re- chiatry and child development at the Uni- cal activist. When I was not on vacation, I sponds to the desires of industry more than versity of Pittsburgh Medical School. The was on the road six days a week, speaking to the needs of our people (because industry last twelve years of my teaching career were mainly at universities and colleges at the pays most of the election bills), and that the at Western Reserve Medical School in invitation of the undergraduates. I often Democratic party fails us almost as much Cleveland, where the curriculum was being made five appearances a day. as the Republican. So I became a socialist revolutionized. Each first-year student was It was soul-satisfying to be expressing and helped to organize the People's Party given the responsibility of being the medical my deepest convictions about peace and in 1971 out of a dozen small local inde- contact between one family with a new baby justice to audiences ready to agree. The pendent parties. At the conventions every and the medical center. It was an effort, students who came, and particularly the conceivable liberal and radical point of view very successful, to prevent the depersonaliza- members of the committee who had invited on every issue was argued vehemently. This tion of the future physician. Depersonaliza- me and escorted me, were not only interested was educational for me. I was nominated tion occurs too often in the traditional cur- in ending the war, they were also interested for president in 1972 and for vice-president riculum, where the student takes only labor- in such issues as civil rights, reform of the in 1976. atory courses for the first two formative university, an end to imperialism, and a Although there was evidence that gradu- years. I had wanted for many years to par- lessening of both materialism and competi- ally more citizens, congressmen, and senators ticipate in such an experiment, believing that tiveness. I learned from them and I was were coming into opposition to the Vietnam two keys to excellence in all medical educa- inspired by them, especially when they spoke war, there was also enough backsliding to tion are giving students responsibility and of the desirability of going to work in the keep us frustrated. Then suddenly, unex- encouraging them to focus on their emo- spirit of cooperation and brotherly love in- pectedly, Johnson withdrew as a candidate

Fall 1987 51 in 1968. It seemed like a great victory for for inspiring leadership. But the retreat in it. us. Unfortunately, he insisted that Hum- toward a preoccupation with grades and a I still believe that humanity is potentially phrey continue the war policy that had good job continued. loving, idealistic, and creative, but also po- ruined his own presidency, and Humphrey For several years my only invitations to tentially vicious, that what makes the dif- obeyed. And, also unfortunately, Nixon, speak came from university departments of ference is how children are raised and how who won the election on his pledge to find child development and child welfare organi- societies are led. Perhaps our species' in- a quick and honorable ending, found neither zations. Then came the protests against genuity that produced nuclear weapons is a quick nor an honorable solution. nuclear power into which I entered with incompatible with our species' readiness to It was a blow to me that, when American conviction. The election of Ronald Reagan believe that it is always the other nation troops were finally withdrawn in 1973, young in 1980, with his frightening beliefs in rapid that harbors the aggression. Perhaps we, like Americans stopped protesting against any- and endless escalation of the arms race, in the dinosaurs, are doomed to extinction thing, for I had hoped that a permanent the "winnability" of nuclear war, and in the because we are no longer adaptive. But I shift toward idealism had occurred. For a USSR as being "the source of all evil in the will continue to work for peace and justice couple of years 1 comforted myself that they world," caused the disarmament movement and love until I keel over or am annihilated were only waiting for a suitable cause and to become active again. I eagerly participated with all the rest. •

Hope for Living severe illness of one of our children, or who have waited at the operating room of a hospital, know the depth of that emotion. There are at least two fundamental ideas Matthew Ies Spetter contained in humanism. First, that we are not just victims of circumstances—that we can and must intervene in our lives, that we hat are the sources of our personal for him. He had recently decided, on the have choices to make. And, second, that we Wstrength? Whence comes our ability advice of his doctor, to place his wife in a are not victims of history, that there is a not only to endure after devastating things nursing home because she was stricken by potent force in us with which to engage the happen to us but to endure with some pur- Alzheimer's disease, a disease, always fatal, world, that we can empower ourselves to pose, some joy in living, some hope? that we used to call senility. It had come on build values for a worthwhile life. At dif- Humanists through the ages have done cru- very rapidly. Almost from one day to the ferent times in our lives there is an aware- cial path-breaking work in the struggle next she was a totally changed personality, ness of an inner vitality. It is a vitality we against superstition and for the free mind. often in a rage, not responsive anymore, can choose to put to work, a vitality we can But if humanism is going to be relevant endangering herself physically. They were make to function. It is justified by what we to the personal life of today's men and both in their late seventies, married for more will labor for and, if necessary, suffer for. women, we have to answer the challenge: than forty years—a good and loving mar- We need not wait for distant gods or for How do we maintain hope, hope that life is riage. How was he to live with his decision neat intellectual abstractions. The choices are worth living? Without a response to that, to put her in a confined setting? It tore him ours; we decide what to do with our lives why should people turn to us? We do not apart. His hands were trembling as he spoke through our triumphs and our failures. That have to re-engage the issues of the nineteenth to me. What could life still hold for him? is our basic assumption. century. Our issue now is how to help one How might he still give some love and As Spinoza reminds us, there are the another to rescue the sense that there is sustenance to his wife? If we believe in reci- "chains of necessity." But by a passionate something sacred within us, based not on procity and human solidarity, what have we commitment to a humane world we can illusory wishes but upon something func- to contribute out of our convictions? We learn how to become emotionally and intelli- tional and active. To help maintain for one cannot flee into generalities when a specific gently mature enough—free enough—to another as-yet-unawakened strengths—that person addresses us in his anguish. Only in come up with moral alternatives to a world is the particular humanist task. Those who the specific, in the particular, lie our affirma- in a state of perpetual mobilization. That are so engaged discover a degree of confi- tions. To hope means also to give expression requires humanist affirmations—not what we dence that we can live life more fully, what- to pain. We all question, we all suffer—but oppose, but what we stand for. We know ever the darker hours each one of us has to in what context? that we cannot produce perfection, but we pass through again and again. Let me be Humanism, to be of use to people in our can engage upon possibility. As all great specific. time, must address the human situation as constructs of thought we too have to come Not long ago a man came to see me at it is now, so that hope can be sustained. to terms with hope and despair, with the the Ethical Culture Society in order to dis- For this is what counts in the end—the paradoxes of passion and reason. That is cuss his family situation. He was not a mem- concrete commitments beyond the alienating not achieved by carping on the sidelines, ber; he just had heard me speak before. But mass-culture or beyond mere clever formula- but by human partnership. We shall have a the humanist framework was a trusted one tion. The commitment of an arm that hard time of it; we each will have to face sustains, a hand that reaches out. many absurdities. But we can learn to build Matthew les Spetter is Leader of the Those of us who have lost someone we an internal self that can affirm that life is Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Cul- love, or who have feared the loss of someone worth living, for it is we who create that ture. we love, know that complex of emotions. worth out of the very experience of our Those of us who have suffered through a humanness. •

52 FREE INQUIRY entity. The urge to resort to such a confirmation is not necessarily a mark of humility. More likely it is a confession of self-doubt. The Testament of a Humanist Deep down we do not feel competent or worthy enough to venture a confident, wholehearted, and independent judgment, and we pull back from an unequivocal Konstantin Kolenda display of joy over a happy occurrence or of mourning over an unhappy one. Our act here are two ways in which the phe- Of course, to reassure themselves that of registering, acknowledging, and affirming Tnomenon of humanity can be under- the pursuit of these ideals is not a delusion an event cannot really come off, we tell our- stood. It may be seen as fulfilling a certain or wishful thinking, people may understand- selves, unless it is first subject to a recon- preordained purpose, a design and destiny ably seize upon events in human and natural firmation or sanction from a supernatural laid down by a superhuman and super- history that, by virtue of being strange, inex- being. natural power. Or it may be perceived as a plicable, or miraculous, supposedly provide To me, this denial to human beings of form of life on earth that for the first time a confirmation of human ideals by super- the full autonomy of judgment, evaluation, in the history of the cosmos has introduced natural forces. In addition, elaborate and and celebration is a down side of religion. into it the dimension of purpose, meaning, sophisticated arguments for God's existence By deferring the real acknowledgment of and value. At some stage of maturation may be constructed by intellectually gifted values in the cosmos to an alleged super- every thoughtful person is likely to reflect persons imbued with religious fervor. Thus, natural being, we in fact are robbing our- on these two alternatives. encouraged by the appeal of human solidar- selves of unrepeatable opportunities to say For my part, the second alternative is ity, of subscribing to a set of beliefs that are an unconditional yes to these values. Our more convincing. The immediate reason that shared by a large, potentially universal com- special privilege is to generate and to give impels me to that conclusion is the realiza- munity, religion in its varied forms has be- witness to happenings that contrast with the tion that the phenomenon of purpose in the come a strong component of human culture. humdrum, monotonous, and anonymous full sense of the word, that is, as the capacity For me, however, all things considered, march of time. If, through indifference, inat- to pursue reasoned-out objectives, is observ- the belief in God has its price. One conse- tention, carelessness, or diffidence, we fail able only in human life. It is hard to avoid quence of seeking an ontological grounding to name, absorb, and appreciate significant the suspicion that, when we speak of super- for human ideals in a supernatural realm is occurrences, whether in our own lives or in natural designs or purposes, we merely mag- especially unfortunate: It deprives us of the the lives of others, we literally diminish the nify and glorify a capacity that is so centrally possibility of experiencing something truly worth of the world. at home in the human realm. The motives glorious, in comparison with which the re- The real effect of hankering after the for such an extension of human-based wards promised by a belief in God are a supernatural is to deny our own reality as meanings are complex, and not all of them facsimile, a mere shadow. Let me explain. beings endowed with the capacity to judge can be dismissed as deplorable. Because the In the presence of a genuinely significant and to evaluate. I suspect that by inventing idea of divinity is a close ally of the idea of experience—happy or tragic—a person will gods we delegate this capacity to them, sup- an ideal, it seems plausible to suppose that try to do justice to it, that is, appreciate its posing that they can do a better job at it, the impulse to postulate gods derives from significance in the fullest possible way. One and thus deprive ourselves of the exhilarat- the desire to personalize human ideals. In of the most admirable human capacities is a ing realization that it is our reactions and the early beginnings of religion, gods appear thrust toward truth and objectivity; everyone responses that prevent significant events to have been such personifications. has it in some degree, and a total loss of it from slipping unacknowledged into cosmic A close look at central concepts of great is truly dehumanizing. This capacity is not oblivion. Apart from providing a physical world religions will reveal that their content so much a fact as a challenge—we try to be framework for such events, the universe does is suffused with meanings clearly derivable truthful, fair, objective in a way that ack- not have much to brag about, the awesome from characteristic features of persons. God nowledges our fallibility and steers clear of size of galaxies notwithstanding. is the Great Agent, capable of autonomously hubris. We try to exercise this capacity not Among the creations of the human spirit performing admirable acts that also testify only with regard to factual occurrences but I would include all the cultural goods that to His absolute wisdom and power. The also with regard to events and acts that have transform human experience into something motives from which God acts promote the a mark of value on them. We hope that we previously unheard of in the annals of time, moral goods that humanity finds so impor- are perceptive and generous enough to ap- namely, the values brought into being by tant for its well-being: justice, mercy, love, preciate that value, that we can cherish the knowledge and science, by practical, poli- compassion, forgiveness, regeneration. The good fortune or the fine accomplishment tical, and fine arts—in short, by activities states of affairs at which divinity ultimately even when it is someone else's. that distinguish us from all other beings in aims are indistinguishable from those that What I want to say is that the oppor- the known universe. It is a fortunate coin- humanity has always yearned for: peace, tunity to make such judgments about value cidence for me that the institution with prosperity, harmony, beauty, blessedness. phenomena—in our experience or in that of which I have been affiliated for the greater others—must be fully autonomous, sincere, part of my life has for its motto: Letters, Kostantin Kolenda is Carolyn and Fred truly self-revealing. Such self-giving can Science, Art. To pursue these ideals, to help McManus Professor of Philosophy at Rice occur without reservations when it comes them come to light in one's daily round, is University. His most recent publication is from the depths of one's being and—here is privilege enough. The universe is made in- Cosmic Religion: An Autobiography of the my main point—when we are not looking trinsically better when, echoing a poet, Universe. over our shoulders, anxious to be confirmed everyone can at least sometime exclaim: Life and upheld in our judgment by some other here is glorious! •

Fall 1987 53 Aquinas, who so skillfully blended Christian Books doctrine with Aristotelian philosophy. In four of his five celebrated arguments for the Argument Without End? existence of God, Aquinas claimed that we are compelled to believe in God by the evidence of design about us. Aquinas al- Michael Ruse lowed that it is indeed important and of itself sufficient to believe on faith. Yet, argued the great Catholic thinker, even the The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence given us the legacy of perhaps the most com- doubter can be brought to God by reflection of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without pelling of all the arguments for God's exis- on the functioning nature of the external Design, by Richard Dawkins (New York, tence, the "teleological" argument, also world. London: W. W. Norton, 1986), xiii + 332 known as the "argument from design." This argument was compelling right pp., $18.95. Those who employ this argument invite down through the Protestant Reformation, us to look at the world, especially the living even though great dissenters like Luther and The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, by world. What is its most salient feature, we Calvin urged their flocks to retreat from John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler (Ox- are asked? The answer is loud and clear: reason and return to the simple faith of the ford: Clarendon Press, 1986), xx + 706 pp., The living world is a functioning world. It literal Gospels. Especially among the growing $29.95. is a world of order, of purpose, of ends. It number of scientists, whose activity was itself is, in short, a world that seems created or created and inspired by the Reformation and esus was not much interested in arguing, designed, not thrown higgledy-piggledy to- the Renaissance, the argument from design Jdespite the story about the young boy gether. How can this be? Again, the answer proved to be a happy point of both retreat confronting the elders. Like all of the great comes through loud and clear: The world and attack. Frequently under severe criticism Jewish religious leaders, he was more given seems as if designed because it is indeed for the supposed atheistic nature of their to laying down the law than to reasoned designed! A world of function, purpose, or inquiries, scientists were delighted to be able discussion. His followers and listeners were ends demands a thinking intelligence—a to invoke the teleological argument, claim- told what to do and what to believe, like it Designer—who planned its very being. And ing in counterattack that, by studying the or not. My sympathies have always gone this Designer is undoubtedly God. natural world, they reemphasized the exis- out to poor old Doubting Thomas, who tence and creative nature of the Lord above; simply made the very reasonable request that he argument's appeal is that it is so indeed, they were attesting to the greatness he be shown some sign that the stranger Timmediate. One does not need any of God in the secular realm no less than before him was his risen Lord. In slapping esoteric knowledge to grasp it, nor does it theologians and clerics were in the world of down Thomas in a peremptory manner, depend on verbal tricks, like the just- spirit. Jesus did no more than all the Old Testa- mentioned ontological argument. All you Yet all good things must come to an ment prophets before him, or Saint Paul have to do is look around you, or at your- end, or so it started to seem to critical after him. To the Jew, what was important self. The hand and the eye bear ample testi- thinkers of the eighteenth century. Increas- was revelation, faith, acceptance, and obedi- mony to God's creative work. Moreover, the ingly, the arguments for God's existence and ence, not philosophical discussion. argument tells us not simply of the existence nature came under attack, most notably in For the ancient Greeks, it was quite of God, but also of His (or, in these non- the posthumously published essay by the otherwise. I do not pretend that they were sexist days, Her or Its) nature. Our world is greatest skeptical philosopher of them all, better people than the Jews. They certainly so wonderful, it clearly demands a wonderful David Hume. I refer of course to the wither- were not more holy, but they did like a good deity. The God of teleology, the God of pur- ing assault on religious belief in his Dia- argument. What the Greeks liked to do was pose, the God of ends is indeed a God who logues Concerning Natural Religion. Hume to discuss points of fact and theory, of belief commands our worship, and not simply showed, backwards and forwards, that the and action. Of course this is seen (as no- worship through blind faith or naked fear— traditional arguments simply will not do. In where else) in the legacy of the great rather, the worship of upstanding, thinking particular, he showed that the argument philosophers—Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. men. from design, for all its prima facie com- What the Greeks especially liked to argue It was of course the genius of the Catho- pelling nature, is riddled with problems. One about was thé meaning of life and of the lic church that, as Dostoevsky's Grand In- could, for instance, believe just as easily in a possible existence and nature of the Deity quisitor pointed out, it did not leave committee of Gods as in one all-powerful, or Creator of all things. It is to the Greeks, Christianity to Christ. The church realized all-loving deity. moreover, that we owe most of the tradi- that the Jesus of the Gospels had provided And yet, for all of Hume's brilliance, he tional arguments for God's existence. (Ex- no suitable foundation for an ongoing edifice did not really convince. There was always ceptionally, the ontological argument—God that would command respect and rule the that little bit of worry at the end: How could exists because he exists necessarily—seems lives and souls of millions of people (not to the world be so well appointed? Hume may to have been an early medieval invention.) mention keeping a whole army of people have made his point logically, but to many, Most particularly, it is the Greeks who have happily employed). So, building and elabor- perhaps even including himself, there was ating on the story of the New Testament, still a place for psychological doubt. The Michael Ruse is a professor in the depart- the church fathers melded the Jews' legacy eye really does seem like a telescope, and if ments of History and Philosophy, Univers- of faith with the Greeks' intellectual bril- it is not a telescope designed by God, how ity of Guelph, Ontario. liance. Nowhere is this shown more power- did it come to be, and what is it instead? fully than in the writings of Thomas Thus we find, at the beginning of the nine-

54 FREE INQUIRY teenth century, Archdeacon Paley writing the sympathy of your lay audience; while sense about the nature of scientists (no one tracts arguing strenuously that the argument few people are overly perturbed by the six is more eager to believe or less willing to from design has lost none of its brilliance. days of creation or the veracity of Noah's relinquish than your average scientist), there These rapidly became standard fare for all flood, most simply "know" that the world is no question that the authors want to tip believers, at least in the English-speaking didn't happen by sheer chance. us right back into a teleological frame of world (serving as examination fare at Cam- mind. They argue that modern physics com- bridge University until after World War I). e have then, today, an interesting pels us to reassess our previously held In the opinion of many, including him- Wstate of affairs. On the one side, naturalistic perspective on the world and to self, it was Charles Darwin in his On the those of us knowledgeable about biological return to the ideas of purpose and function. Origin of Species who finally drove the nail science and skeptical philosophy see that the Fascinatingly, they attempt to do so by into the coffin of teleology. He showed what argument from design no longer works. On referring to the latest findings in modern Hume had been unable to show—i.e., just the other, just about everybody else is sure physics. We have indeed come full circle! why it is that the living world seems so that there is something to it—which brings Where once it was the soft-minded biologists design-like. Darwin argued that the world me to the two fascinating new books under who would bring us to God, now it is the of organisms functions—is integrated— review. Although they have appeared inde- biologists who try to pull us away while because it is the end product of a long and pendently, in many respects they compliment physicists tug at our coattails and implore slow evolutionary process, a process that was each other quite brilliantly, and I think that us to stay! fueled by a mechanism Darwin labeled they should perhaps be issued as a boxed Start with Dawkins: How is it possible "Natural Selection." Starting with the on- set. We have an impression today that some- to show that blind law can lead to organiza- going and ever-present potential for a Mal- how physics is the really tough science and tion and function? This is the problem that thusian population explosion in the organic all others follow on or in its footsteps. In- the Darwinian faces. If he or she cannot do world, Darwin argued that there is an inevit- deed, it is a standing joke among biologists this, the teleologist can rush right back in able struggle for existence. But, since organ- that they suffer from "physics envy." Yet, in claiming that the workings of the world isms tend to be born slightly different from these books, the roles are quite reversed. demand creative forethought. Darwin argued one another, some will necessarily do better It is the aim of Richard Dawkins in The that selection on random variation is in the battle for living space, food, and Blind Watchmaker to show the general pub- enough, but the average person simply can- mates, and these will thus be naturally lic that the argument from design is no not see how a mechanism that seems so puny picked, or "selected," to reproduce subse- longer valid. But Dawkins realizes that he could be sufficiently powerful. Always at the quent generations. Given enough time and cannot do this simply by presenting more back of people's minds there is the metaphor enough generations, there will be full-blown biology in a hard, undigested fashion. Using of the monkey typing away randomly. evolution. But more than just this, there will a brilliant polemical style and a happy sense Theoretically, the monkey could produce be an evolution of adapted beings, that is to of metaphor, he attempts in his new work Shakespeare, but we all know that in the say, of beings with features enabling them to make Darwinian theory "common sense," true world this is impossible. Dawkins sets to succeed in life's struggles because they part of the very fabric of our culture, and out to show us how misleading our intuitions are better functioning, better designed than thus subvert the teleological argument from really are; given the right circumstances— others. Hence, at one stroke, Darwin within, as it were. circumstances that do obtain in the real brought the argument from design crashing Conversely, we find two physicists, John world—he shows you how the monkey could right down. Hume had weakened it and D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler, in their in fact produce as much Shakespeare as you Darwin thrust in the mortal blow. rambling, infuriating, but always stimulating like. This, at least, is the way it seemed to Anthropic Cosmological Principle, who Or rather, to bring the story up to date, most intellectuals, particularly those who would bring the intelligentsia back to a the programmed computer can produce as took seriously the findings of science. I do teleological way of thought. It is true that at much Shakespeare as you like. Part of not say that there was an immediate con- one point they say: Dawkins's brilliance lies in the way he uses version away from the argument from design the home computer as a metaphor for our 0ne last word: the authors are cosmolo- in 1859, as soon as Darwin published the time. Today, we all know about playing gists, not philosophers. This has one very Origin, but down through the years, with important consequence which the average games on the home screen, and Dawkins the growing strength of the Darwinian syn- reader should bear in mind. Whereas phi- has had the ingenious idea of producing a thesis, the plausibility of the argument re- losophers and theologians appear to computer game that works on much the ceded. Yet it cannot be denied that the num- possess an emotional attachment to their same principle as natural selection in order ber of those capable of or prepared to hear theories and ideas which requires them to to show how such a game can produce Darwin's message has never been very great. believe them, scientists tend to regard their meaning from randomness. In particular, Among the general public, even to this day, ideas differently. They are interested in Dawkins sets himself the task of producing there have remained deep suspicion of Dar- formulating many logically consistent a specified quotation from Hamlet, winian selection and a gut feeling that the possibilities, leaving any judgement re- METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL. How garding their truth to observation. Scien- argument from design simply must be true. is one to produce METHINKS IT IS LIKE tists feel no qualms about suggesting dif- Open any issue of Reader's Digest and you ferent but mutually exclusive explanations A WEASEL randomly? There are twenty- will find arguments extolling teleology in for the same phenomenon. The authors eight characters in all (including spaces). some form or another. Get into a debate are no exception to this rule and it would Suppose the monkey is typing away ran- with creationists, as I have done many times be unwise of the reader to draw any wider domly; counting a space as one letter, there in the past decade, and very soon you will conclusions about the authors' views from is one chance out of twenty-seven of getting find those hands and eyes rebutting your what they may read here. (p. 15) the right first letter, M. There is, of course, position. Moreover, you will find at this one chance out of twenty-seven of getting point that you, the evolutionist, start to lose However, apart from this being total non- any of the other letters right as well. This Fall 1987 55 means, in all, that, if the monkey types cult art. You use the tricks of the advocate's work, almost the Tristram Shandy of the randomly, there is twenty-seven to the power trade" (p. x). I would not like to meet him natural theological world, and I cannot pre- of twenty-eight possible options—only one in court. Dawkins clearly shows that by tend to have read every page with care. of which matches Shakespeare. using principles computer buffs are using Indeed, I very much doubt that anybody, Putting the matter in another way, there every day when they set up their models, including the authors themselves, has ever is one chance out of ten thousand million programs, and games, one can generate just read the book right through. It is a book million million million million million of the the sorts of effects that nature generates that either was beyond copyediting or needed monkey typing the correct line, which means through natural selection. copyediting down to about one-quarter of you are surely going to need a lot of genera- There is more to Dawkins's book, of its length. In a way, I am glad that the pub- tions and a lot of monkeys. However, points course, than computer models. He provides lishers decided for the former option. Al- out Dawkins, suppose one builds in some an extended discussion of contemporary though you may not agree with the authors' sort of constraint, as obviously exists in evolutionary theory and offers incisive cri- arguments, and I disagree strongly, you will evolution. Set up the program so that letters tiques of various challenges, including the certainly come away from the experience are randomly chosen—or, if you like, mu- overrated paleontological hypothesis of they offer with your ideas sharpened, your tated. Now, build into the program some "punctuated equilibria." (This is the theory knowledge deepened, and your sense of the sort of constraint, so that the closer one is that argues that sometimes evolution goes fun of intellectual combat much confirmed to the required statement METHINKS IT in jumps rather than gradually. Already its and gratified. IS LIKE A WEASEL the more likely it is supporters, particularly Stephen J. Gould, that the mutation will be kept. (Note that are pulling back somewhat and allowing that arrow and Tipler offer two versions of the new letters are being generated quite by "jump" they mean a much more drawn- Bthe trendy so-called "anthropic princi- randomly. There is no forethought of de- out process than most of us would have ple": a weak and a strong version. What the sign.) Dawkins shows that very quickly one dreamed. Apparently, now "jump" is some- weak anthropic principle argues is that, since starts to generate some form of sense, and thing closely akin to what the average evolu- we humans are alive and thinking about the that in no more than forty or fifty attempts tionist would describe as "gradual.") world, there must have been certain condi- —or "generations"—one gets the required Since it's boring merely to praise people, tions leading up to us; these conditions were completed statement METHINKS IT IS let me say quite candidly that there are times necessary for us to see and think as we do. LIKE A WEASEL. One run, for example, when I wish that Dawkins had left well Given the sorts of beings we are, the world started with: Y YV, etc. Then (reporting enough alone. He is not content simply to must be the sort of world that it is. As far every tenth generation) it went through: show the plausibility of natural selection, as I can make out, this is not only an unob- but occasionally goes so far as to try to jectionable thing to say but, in many re- Y YVMQKSPF"IXWSHLIKEFV HQYSPY prove its inevitability. In particular, he spects, a very useful thing to point out. A YETHINKSPITXISHLIKEFA WQYSEY argues that no evolutionary process could lot of people still have the quasi-Christian METHINKS IT ISSLIKE A WEFSEY ever proceed except through selection; all view that our powers of observation and METHINKS IT ISBLIKE A WEASES rivals—like the Lamarckian hypothesis, insight would never deceive us (rather as if MEHTINKS IT ISJLIKE A WEASEO which proposes that acquired characteristics METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEP we were Cartesian beings backed up by can be inherited—are not just empirically Descartes's Good God). To point out that false but, at a certain level, logically or con- Finally, in the 64th generation, it reached: much of what we do and think is very much ceptually impossible. This seems to me a a function of our evolved biological features little bit like the ontological argument in METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL is a salutary reminder of the fallibility of reverse and makes me wonder whether, at human nature and of human perception. times, Dawkins is prepared to think of the must confess, 1 am not sure that the This of course is something that any follower Darwinian mechanism of selection as an I way Dawkins sets up his experiment is of David Hume will beware of and sym- exactly like natural selection, which does not empirical process or as a tautological re- pathize with greatly. The skeptical philoso- have any particular model in mind, no par- description of the facts. pher knows full well that we have no ab- ticular perfect form. To think otherwise is But, such criticisms as 1 have of Dawkins solute guaranteed pipeline into the way that to reveal a vestige of pre-Darwinian nine- at points like these are minor compared with things truly are.' teenth-century progressionism. But, certain- my great admiration for his skill at doing The strong anthropic principle seems to ly, natural selection works through con- what 1 wish 1 could do, making natural me to be altogether another thing. It is, of straints. Although new variations appear selection seem not merely true but common- course, a version of the argument from randomly—i.e., not according to need— sensical. When, and only when, one does design. And, as presented and supported by selection picks out those that function as this can one hope to break the grip that the physicists, particularly by Barrow and Tipler, one goes along. One does not have to wait argument from design has on popular for the monkey to complete the job, for it claims to show that the sorts of conditions example, before one has something to read. imagination. that obtain in the physical world, particu- In this, whatever the disanalogies, Dawkins's Unfortunately, while one is combating larly the kinds of constants that physicists computer model succeeds brilliantly in fallacious religious beliefs in the lay arena, have discovered, govern the laws and the showing how powerful a selective-like pro- those who should know better are busy com- workings of the world. The constants are cess can be. mitting all the sins of the past in the pro- what they are because, were they anything The point of course is not so much that fessional arena. I refer now to some physi- else, things could not exist. Were (say) the Dawkins is advancing our understanding of cists, particularly as they are represented by gravitational tug 981.001 cm/ sect rather than selection per se; rather, he is trying to dispel Barrow and Tipler. Let me say at once that 981 cm/ sect, life would be impossible. The the psychological or intuitive objections that I think their Anthropic Cosmological Princi- consequence of all of this, supposedly, is one has to the power of selection. In his ple is great fun, and it is a book from which that the actuality that exists is far too great preface, Dawkins says, "Explaining is a diffi- I learned a lot. It is a very long, shaggy a phenomenon to put down to mere coin-

56 FREE INQUIRY cidence, especially given all the various neither random nor the result of any Dar- can step outside of oneself and show all the possibilities that might have obtained. So, winian selection process from a myriad of range of possibilities, which one cannot do, this reasoning goes, there must be some possibilities. These, and other gross fea- the playing with probabilities that the cause behind everything about us, and this tures of the Universe, are the consequences authors advocate is simply meaningless. of necessity; they are manifestations of the cause is in some sense a divinity. I doubt, In short, I am as unconvinced by the possible equilibrium states between com- however, that even physicists could, or new version of the argument for design, call peting forces of attraction and repulsion. it the "anthropic principle" or what you will, would want to, revert to the traditional God. The intrinsic strengths of these controlling All I can say about the strong anthropic forces of Nature are determined by a as 1 am by the old version. But, having said principle is that it seems to me to have no mysterious collection of pure numbers that this, let me again emphasize that there is more plausibility, even though it is presented we call the constants of Nature. much for all in Barrow and Tipler's book, a lot less obviously, than the old-fashioned The Holy Grail of modern physics is and certainly 1 found it more than useful in argument from design that makes simple and to explain why these numerical constants clarifying for myself much of my thinking direct reference to the hands and eyes. If —qualities like the ratio of the proton and about teleology. Even when I felt that I did one claims that things must be as they are, electron masses, for example—have the not want to change my mind, at least I knew particular numerical values they do. one is making a great many unproved as- more clearly why I did not want to change sumptions about the range of possibilities my mind. But, as I bring this discussion to I could not agree more with what they say that are open. I am always very uncomfort- an end, 1 cannot but reflect on the irony of here, considering the problem in the right able with ontological arguments supposedly it all. Finally, we are at the point of breaking sense. Of course a major task for the physi- proving that one and only one state of affairs the hold the teleological argument has on cist, or for any other scientist for that matter, could obtain, particularly when it just so the public's thinking. But, as we do, those is to find out what the governing constants happens that this state of affairs actually who should be leading the way are reverting of the universe are and try to explain them to the old ways of thinking. Will there ever does obtain. The authors write: by increasingly encompassing theories. be an end to teleology, or is all our argu- However, this task is surely different from One of the most important results of twen- mentation entirely without purpose? some sort of theoretical calculation showing tieth-century physics has been the gradual that the values that do obtain are the only realization that there exist invariant pro- Note perties of the natural world and its ele- ones that logically or possibly could obtain. mentary components which render the To argue, as Barrow and Tipler do, that the I. From a somewhat different perspective, I gross size and structure of virtually all its constants we have are the only ones that we make this point in my recent Taking Darwin constituents quite inevitable. The sizes of could have strikes me as being almost as Seriously: A Naturalistic Approach to Philosophy stars and planets, and even people, are bad as the ontological argument. Unless one (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986). •

art's absolutely necessary role in all our lives. "Through the creation of poems, songs, Community Was the Curriculum paintings, and dances for special occasions, such as births, deaths, holidays, and marriages, the artist would experience a direct Robert Basil continuity between the creative act and its transmission to the community," writes Harris. The Arts at Black Mountain College, by ris—as were conventional divisions between At a time when the adjective religious is Mary Emma Harris (Cambridge: MIT Press, teacher and student, administrator and still mischievously used honorifically to 1987), 315 pp., illustrated, $50.00. field-hand. "Community was the cur- describe profound artistic and community riculum." experience, the example of Black Mountain lack Mountain College was perhaps this Despite the paltry facilities and meager demonstrates that the essential ingredient of Bcountry's noblest experiment in demo- salaries (half of which the professors rou- the experience is not adherence to a system cratic education. Founded by free-thinker tinely lent back to the college), until its of belief but individual freedom and the and classics scholar John Rice in rural North demise in 1957 Black Mountain thrived as a social feeling that nourishes that freedom. Carolina during the worst years of the center of creative avant-garde activity. It was The book's epigraph, by John Dewey, is per- Depression, Black Mountain concentrated there that musician John Cage and chore- fect: "Democracy is more than a form of on cultural and artistic programs. "Through ographer/dancer Merce Cunningham staged government; it is primarily a mode of asso- art," read the college's inaugural catalog, the first "happening"; Buckminister Fuller ciated living, of conjoint communicated ex- "the student can come to the realization of perfected his geodesic dome; poets Robert perience . . . the widening of the area of order in the world." But just as important Creeley, Charles Olson, and Robert Duncan shared concerns, and the liberation of a great as anything in the course catalog was the forged a literary aesthetic now simply known diversity of personal capacities." way the college was run—Black Mountain as the "Black Mountain style"; and Willem was wholly democratic. "The distinction de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Josef The Southern Baptist Holy War, by Joe between curricular and extracurricular was Albers, and Franz Kline invented new ways Edward Barnhart (Austin: Texas Monthly abolished," writes author Mary Emma Har- of painting—and taught students to invent Press), 273 pp., $16.95. new ways for themselves. Robert Basil is executive editor of FREE For Black Mountaineers, "avant-garde" t can be hard to remember that until recently the Baptist church did not like INQUIRY. meant more than devising ways to befuddle I the bourgeoisie; it was a reaffirmation of mixing its religion with politics. As Joe

Fall 1987 57 Edward Barnhart says in his marvelous notes, would certainly assist these leaders in is cooled severely at the seminaries. Semi- Southern Baptist Holy War, the Baptist their aim. "In Ireland the flames of religious naries have a way of raising questions that reverence for the secular tradition began conflict are fed by a system of denomina- create ambivalence and doubt. Evangelists when the church began. In the seventeenth tional schools that is largely designed to function better if those questions are never century, Baptists "had in mind to dismantle prevent the understanding of rival world- raised." the sacramental and sacerdotal monopoly views." Will the Southern Baptist Convention of Rome." With "a fresh taste for personal Baptists aren't a homogenous group, and return to its more moderate roots? Barnhart dignity and individual liberty, the Baptists many members of the Southern Baptist doubts it; the numbers of inerrantists, faith- ... advanced far beyond Martin Luther by Convention, the largest Protestant denom- healers, and other righteous visionaries are declaring baptism and the Lord's Supper to ination in the United States, share Barnhart's growing faster than the moderate contin- be not salvation-bestowing sacraments but worries that extreme fundamentalists are gent's. With a touch of bemused jadedness, ordinances of Christian celebration to be betraying the church's traditions of "com- Barnhart suggests the only hope for a rap- administered by the believers themselves," mon sense and restraint." The Convention prochement between the two factions may leaving "the priestly caste powerless." is now controlled by the "Biblical Inerran- lie in the fact that it's advantageous for them Barnhart, himself a Baptist, bemoans tists," those who believe that every word of to collect funds together. The Convention recent trends in his church, which now tends the Bible is literally true. Seminary pro- supports sixty-seven colleges, six seminaries, to be identified with demagogic leaders (like fessors who offer allegorical or anthropo- thirty-two radio and television programs, Pat Robertson) who claim that their spiritual logical alternatives to literal readings are and missions in 105 countries. "The more leadership and political agenda are God- finding themselves frantically attacked, even fundamentalism becomes the ruling theology blessed. Even more dismaying are grass-roots dismissed from their posts. "The level of of the Convention agencies the more the In- efforts to dismantle important secular insti- mistrust and suspicion is shockingly higher errancy rank and file will begin to speak tutions. "Some fundamentalist leaders," today than it was only a decade ago," Barn- movingly of cooperation and love, while the Barnhart writes, "have made it clear that hart writes. Indeed, inerrantist evangelists moderates will speak of withholding money they wish to abolish public schools"—per- are beginning to wonder whether Baptists because they cannot support what violates haps the bedrock of our democracy. Presi- ought to be in the college business at all. their conscience." • dent Reagan's tuition-tax-credit plan, he "The fervor of would-be flaming evangelists

(Letters, cons 'dfrom page 3) approach such ground? is fit for Nirvana. With each succeeding life, does not start from such an obviously scorn- the soul is supposed to gain purity and moral ful position, or you could provide balance Stephen Usher strength, growing ever closer to the ideal. by also publishing a pro-reincarnation article Hudson, N.Y. The traditional route leads from the low- by someone like Robert McDermott, pro- est life-form (or lifestyle) to the highest, with fessor of philosophy at Baruch College and Although I found Paul Edwards's articles a life of luxury as the last stop before eternal editor of The Essential Rudolf Steiner. on reincarnation to be valuable, well- bliss. If one leads an exemplary life as a Your readers should be alerted to the reasoned, and highly interesting, I must street urchin, for example, one is likely to fact that some of Edwards's arguments are point out a very unfortunate lapse. Edwards reappear as a United States Senator. real howlers. For example, he confidently writes, "How and where ... is it decided 1 believe that this concept is backward! criticizes the ideas of astral bodies and astral that in the next life [a person] will become Consider: If one wants to strengthen travel by referring to an apparent contradic- a human being rather than a roach, a man one's body by lifting weights, one doesn't tion in one particular account. George rather than a woman, an American rather begin with the heaviest weights and gradually Ritchie claims to have worn his coat on his than an Indian, white rather than black or reduce the load as strength increases. On astral trip, and Edwards argues that astral yellow, physically well rather than crippled, the contrary, one starts light and easy, and bodies can't wear coats— therefore, he con- intelligent rather than retarded, sane rather steps up the challenge as the muscles grow cludes, astral bodies can't exist. The prob- than insane?" (Winter 1986/87 p. 40). To a more powerful. lems of logic aside, Edwards's case is incredi- reader who is sensitive to English style this Similarly, if life is the soul's gym, the bly crass. Ritchie's account clearly points to sentence clearly consists of antitheses setting newer or weaker souls surely would not be a very unusual experience of a human being. "good" births off against "bad" births. The given the monumental challenge of living The question that cannot be resolved from inference to be made is the obnoxious one with poverty, disease, and despair. No, they the account is whether any part of it points that it is bad to be born a woman, an Indian, would be given lives of ease to begin with; to an encounter with an objective spiritual black, or yellow, just as it is bad to be born and, if they did good jobs at those, then the reality to which we also have access (perhaps crippled, retarded, insane, or a roach. Al- load could be increased with the next go- after we die), or whether the whole thing is though Edwards almost certainly would not round. an incredible fantasy taken for reality. Clear- endorse such an idea, I think it does appear The preference of reincarnating souls for ly, no physical coat was worn on the trip. in the article, if only subliminally, and that lives of squalor, which Edwards noted in But does it necessarily follow that the whole it ought to be exposed and corrected. his fourth essay, is thus revealed as the experience was a fantasy? equivalent of top athletes flocking to an The great occult traditions describe cer- David Schreiber advanced workout class. tain threshold experiences that teach the Toronto, Ont. Logically, it follows that Shirley Mac- seeker to distinguish between subjective fan- Laine, the rich, famous, talented, beautiful tasy and occult realities (see Steiner's Outline movie star, must have really screwed up in of Occult Science, chapter five). Could there As Paul Edwards has related, the purpose her multitude of previous lives. Otherwise, be something to this possibility? Or are secu- of karmic reincarnation is to process a soul she would surely be suffering a life of misery lar humanists too secure in their beliefs to (or self or spirit or ego or whatever) until it in the back alleys of Bombay or Beirut by

58 FREE INQUIRY now, pumping karma until she was fit for tion seemed right. chology. Not everyone in the believing cul- Paradise. The rebirth studies, for the reasons dis- ture makes the claim. Only some do. What Billy Joel, the rich, famous, successful cussed in my critique, seemed of low eviden- are the conditions under which the claim is rock star married to Christie Brinkley, must tial value. made, and what are the psychiatric- psychological-developmental characteristics have a soul that is brand-new. No one could Champe Ransom of the child (and his/ her family interactions) have made such a mess of previous lives Earlysville, Va. that he would be so coddled in his re- making the claim? So far, there has not been incarnation. Paul Edwards's series on reincarnation was enough new data on these scores to warrant Ironically, many people may be pursuing most excellent. I must say, however, that I publishing another paper on the subject. lives of kindness, tolerance, and generosity have always found the concept so riddled out of the mistaken notion that they will be with absurdity that I had no real need for Eugene B. Brody, MD rewarded by coming back as potentates or Edwards's masterly arguments. University of Maryland Club Med managers. We can now see that What, after all, can possible be meant such behavior is likely instead to earn them by saying that a person who has died is rein- Paul Edwards replies: tours as crack addicts, the better to build carnated in the body of a human being living up their psychic pectorals. now? I am delighted that Mr. Ransom read my In view of Mr. Edwards's scholarly treat- Look back on the process of becoming a articles and that he has supplied us with a ment of the issue, I can only assume that he human being. At conception, the male and brief summary of his studies. He kindly sent omitted mention of this concept because of female gametes form a human zygote, which me a copy of his report, which I hope to concern that some of our more short-sighted develops into an embryo, then a fetus, then read with care in the near future. I am re- citizens might forgo the path to Glory in a newborn. This newborn is the product of lieved to hear that Professor Stevenson did favor of temporary material comfort in the genes, DNA, intrauterine biochemical and not ask him to refrain from circulating his next life. Such misguided souls would lie, hormonal factors, as well as nutrition. Also critique. cheat, steal, or worse in an attempt to be involved are external environmental and The only comment that Mr. Hubbell's sent to "remedial gym" next time, where they familial influences. Gradually the newborn letter calls for is that there are both con- could sip piña coladas with Morgan Brit- develops ways of expressing its unique self- ceptual and empirical objections to rein- tany. hood. Thus it passes through toddlerhood, carnation. I did discuss some of the con- In view of the numbers of people we young childhood, childhood, pre- ceptual difficulties in connection with the have performing such activities already adolescence, etc. All the time it is becoming "interregnum, " but for the most part I con- (lying, cheating, etc., I mean, not the im- more and more a person in the fully mature centrated on the empirical objections. Mr. bibing with Ms. Brittany), it may indeed be sense. Silberg's delightful illustrations are worthy best not to offer an incentive for more mis- Now, are we saying—talking reincarna- of H. L. Mencken, and I can find no fault creants. However, I believe that we can trust tionist language—that at the moment of in his ingenious reasoning except that, ac- this journal's readers to be discreet. conception some perhaps-aged human being cording to Eastern views, souls have an In any case, I doubt that a bunch of —that is, the spirit or soul of that aged infinite past and hence there is no first in- self-confessed secular humanists would gain human being—enters into the human zygote carnation. The notion of an infinite series of much of an audience among those who and takes over its self-nature? If so, why past incarnations introduces all kinds of would put such knowledge to perverse ends. doesn't the baby have the aged human's paradoxes as far as moral responsibility is knowledge, ways, or attitudes? Does the concerned. Other, but by no means less Bob Silberg deceased former person suddenly resume troublesome, difficulties arise if we postulate West Hills, Calif. "zygote-hood" and develop once more a first incarnation. If we are allowed to start through gestation and childhood, etc.? in medias res, as is usually done by most I have appreciated very much Paul Ed- The entire idea is so preposterous that I reincarnationists when discussing moral rewards's article, "The Case Against Rein- suspect only "true believer" types are able sponsibility, Mr. Silberg's conclusion seems carnation," especially his discussion of Ian to give it credence. Is there any hope for the quite logical. Stevenson's- research. Edwards mentions my human race when so many are ready to Stephen Usher must have been a porcu- critique of the rebirth case studies done while believe the craziest nonsense? pine or a cactus in his last incarnation. I don't see how else one can explain his prick- I was Stevenson's research assistant in 1973. C. Lee Hubbell liness. Usher is a follower of Rudolf Steiner, Stevenson never asked me not to circulate Chicago, Ill. or publish this critique. I find it difficult to who believed that human beings have astral think that Stevenson would ever try to sup- The childhood claim of having been re- and etheric bodies. If my criticisms are valid press any writing critical of his research. incarnated occurs with sufficient frequency— then Usher's hero would be wrong, and this My experience as a research assistant at especially in cultures in which the religion possibility throws Usher into a frenzy. He the Division of Parapsychology at the Uni- (e.g. Sinhalese Buddhism) is organized calls my arguments "real howlers" but does versity of Virginia from 1970 to 1973 was around the idea of reincarnation—to be not even attempt to answer them. I pointed an interesting but painful one. Eventually, I worth investigating. The problem, as I see out that the problem of astral clothes re- became disillusioned, mostly because of the it, is not one of the actuality of whatever quires a defender of the theory to make one zealous attitude of the researchers (as op- "reincarnation" might be, but rather how or more wild assumptions, that there is no posed to a more balanced one), the defensive does it happen that this claim is so often plausible way of accounting for the syn- attitude toward outside skepticism, and the made and socially reinforced. In that sense chronicity of the astral with the regular weakness of the evidence. The more it is a problem at the borderline of anthro- body, and finally, that, even if we grant thoroughly I studied an alleged paranormal pology and psychiatry-psychology, or rather everything else, the astral body cannot serve event, the less likely a paranormal explana- a problem in cultural psychiatry or psy- as a vehicle of survival since it must have

Fall 1987 59 died of the same cause as its regular counter- response of readers to the first of Stevenson's part. I did not say that "astral bodies can't articles was unprecedented and that he had wear coats and therefore don't exist." This "three or four hundred requests for reprints is a distortion and, like everything else in from scientists in every discipline." These Jesus as a Usher's letter, insolent bluff and bluster. and other readers were ill-served by a totally Free Speech Victim I do not believe Dr. Brody's account of one-sided presentation of the subject. why he published two of Stevenson's articles I am sorry that Professor Stevenson Trial by Terror 2,000 Years Ago in the Journal of Nervous and Mental declined the invitation to reply to me. I criti- By Clifford j Durr Diseases in 1977. I think the motive was cized his views on so many fronts that it Introduction by Corliss Lamont sensationalism, pure and simple. It should would be unreasonable to expect him to A New Basic Pamphlet (No. 26) be remembered that 1977 was the year when write a full rejoinder at short notice. How- such proponents of survival as Raymond ever, I hope that he will at some time in the Very few people have thought deeply about Moody and Elizabeth Kübler-Ross were future, either in FREE INQUIRY or in some the free-speech and civil-liberties implications receiving enormous publicity. Dr. Brody tells other forum, publish a reply, assuming of in the persecution and execution of Jesus. Yet us that "childhood claims of being rein- course that I have not succeeded in con- he stands out as the most illustrious civil- carnated occur with sufficient frequency to verting him to skepticism. liberties victim in the history of religion. Clif- ford J. Durr, relying on the four gospels of be worth investigating." He is interested in In conclusion I should like to take this the New Testament, tells the story simply and the "anthropology and psychiatry- opportunity to thank the authors of the persuasively, showing that the priests, Phar- psychology" of this phenomenon. However, many private letters I received about my neither of Stevenson's articles was concerned isees, and business interests all wanted to get articles. I am sorry that I have not been rid of Jesus because of his outspoken attacks with the anthropology or "psychology- able to answer most of them, but no author upon them and his opposition to the Establish- psychiatry" of the childhood claims on which likes to be ignored and I am grateful that so ment of his day. Thus the Bible itself reveals he bases his reincarnation theory. One is many people took an interest in what I said. that the vigilante treatment of Jesus constituted entitled "The Explanatory Value of the Idea a typical civil-liberties case with the issues of of Reincarnation" and, in Stevenson's own freedom of speech, opinion, worship, and due words, it tries to show how the idea of rein- Morality and the Bible process of law all directly involved. carnation "may contribute to an improved Durr's provocative essay shows that civil understanding of such diverse matters as It should be worth noting in the discussion libertarians throughout America and the world phobias and philias of childhood, skills not of biblical morality (see "The Relativity of Bib- can claim Jesus as a fighting comrade and learned in early life, abnormalities of child- lical Ethics," by Joe Edward Barnhart [FI, dauntless hero in the great cause of free parent relationships," and much else, like Summer 1987]) that the words "moral" and speech, which today, as ever, is in serious birthmarks, congenital deformities, ... and "morality" do not occur anywhere in the jeopardy. Jesus carried on the far-famed tradi- abnormal appetites during pregnancy." entire Bible. Nor do their negations. tion established by the foremost civil-liberties There is no earthly reason why Stevenson's I am, of course, aware that the Bible martyr of philosophy, Socrates of ancient Greece. second article—"Research in the Evidence was not composed in English, and that the of Man's Survival after Death'—should have word "righteousness" pops up all over the appeared in a psychiatric journal; but, in place. But that word is just the conventional ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY any event, it does not contain one word on translation of words that really mean coin or check to the problem that supposedly interested "justice" (Hebrew's tsedek, Greek's dikai- Send 50t in Brody. If Brody were really interested in svné). The Greek word comes from an Indo- BASIC PAMPHLETS clarifying the phenomenon of reincarnation European root that means "boundary- BOX 42 memory claims he should have invited marker." An injustice is thus a trespass New York, NY 10025 Indian sociologists and psychiatrists to offer across another's boundary: rape, theft, mur- Special prices: their views. As far as I know he did not do der, perjury, etc., all of which are unjust in this. Nor did he ask Professor C. T. K. that they violate the rights of others. 10 copies $3.50 20 copies $6.50 Chari, an Indian philosopher who has writ- The Bible is also full of remarks about 50 or more copies — 40% Discount ten on this subject and whom I quote at health and cleanliness. The description of length in the fourth of my articles. If he was homosexuality as an "abomination" is fol- Endosed is my check for $ going to publish articles by a champion of lowed immediately by a similar denunciation reincarnation he should surely have tried to of eating meat that is more than two days Please send copy (copies) find out whether any kind of checks or old. Standards and knowledge about health of Basic Pamphlet No. 26. duplications had been carried out. By asking and cleanliness change, and surely have Stevenson he might have discovered the changed since biblical times. But the essence existence of the Ransom report, which, as of justice seems immutable. Although there Name we now know, was written several years are many things one might say about a earlier. To avoid the impression that rein- bizarre orgy among consenting individuals, Address carnation is either philosophically or scien- it cannot be called "unjust," since the ele- tifically respectable, Brody should have in- ment of consent means that no one's rights City vited a professional philosopher to state the are being violated. No one is trespassed numerous powerful objections to the theory against. in the same issue. In an article about Steven- State Zip son in the New York Post of November 18, Richard Sharvey 1978, Brody is quoted as saying that the Eugene, Ore.

60 FREE INQUIRY AMERICANIZING AMERICA by Frank Rood. The North American Committee for $3.00 ppd. There is hope. 611 - 2nd Street, Compete with friends interpreting dreams. Humanism invites you to participate in St. Petersburg, FL 33701. Patented game, $5.00. Rein Company, 35 Clark Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201. the NUCLEAR WAR SURVIVAL SKILLS, by Cresson Kearny, retired 0RNL nuclear ex- First National Humanist Weekend THE BILL OF RIGHTS T-SHIRT pert. New, revised updated 1987 edition November 20-22, 1987 Feel An Amendments to the C.n.lilul,on SPECIAL debunks myths of nonsurvivability, including wrestled on . O,aar TSMn 2 For $1a95.PPDr WRITE FOR Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania "nuclear winter," contains new plans for FREE CATALOGUE $9.95 Each PPD. CORONA GRAPHICS R.d/wl,ii/u. Blu./v%Xo permanent and expedient shelters, depend- B/M/L/1(L The following leaders will participate: DEPT 112 able homemade Kearny Fallout Meter, other 395 RIVER ROAD Sidney Hook, Joseph Fletcher, SPEER BOX 1084 practical aids to survival. $10.00 ppd. E. LIVERPOOL, OHIO 43920 Philippa Strum, Paul Kurtz, Howard B00KS, Box 1277, Cave Junction, 0R Radest, Roger Greeley, Sherwin Wine, 97523. Immune milk effective for many ills. FDA and many more. The theme: "Strength- Y0U MUST READ THIS B00K! The Bible: forbids research. Why? War on Milk, $4.00. ening the Humanist Message." Fact, Fiction or Faith, by Frank Morgenstern. Box 12861, St. Paul, MN 55112. For details and registration infor- 196 pages, $9.95 U.S. plus $1.50 postage. PUBLICATIONS mation, write: NACH, 28611 West It's great reading. 100% Satisfaction guaran- DEVASTATING BIBLE CRITIQUE-150- Twelve Mile Road, Farmington Hills, teed. 0rder your copy today. Arrow Books page book. Plus 1000 biblical absurdities, MI 48018; or call (3l 3) 477-1410. of Canada, Box 2448, Timmins, 0ntario P4N 8E8. contradictions, and obscenities. Also fifteen essays. Much more. $7.50. Colvin, 345 Cul- SATIRIC0N: CREATI0NISM BASHED! ver, Playa del Rey, CA 90293. Hilarious; 73 mini-chapters; 108 cartoons; CLASSIFIED aphorisms; definitions. Bookmakers, Box Bigger print now in The (Libertarian) Con- 811, Tempe, Arizona 85281. nection, open-forum magazine since 1968. ASSOCIATIONS Subscribers may insert two pages/issue free, Learn about atheist freethought and activism EDUCATION unedited. Lots of stimulating conversation. in the Midwest. FREE Information. Write PARENTS AND TEACHERS. Are you con- Eight issues (one year) $16.00. 4271 Duke, INDEPENDENT ATHEISTS, Box 4123, 0ak cerned about teenagers' lack of critical- #D-10F, Alexandria, VA 22304. Park, IL 60303-4123. thinking skills? Their prejudicial attitudes? JESUS NEVER EXISTED! Scholarly booklet We are high-school teachers interested in BERTRAND RUSSELL S0CIETY. Informa- proves Flavius Josephus created fictitious providing teenagers with relevant and dur- tion: FI, RD1, Box 409, Coopersburg, PA Jesus, Gospels. $4.00-Abelard, Box 5652- able intellectual concepts. 0ur units of study 18036. Z, Kent, WA 98064. evolved through years of interaction with our BOOKS students. For further information write to: FREE LIST. Large selection of atheist and THE TEACHERS' PRESS, 3731 Madison free-thought titles for serious collectors and HEY! IS THAT Y0U, G0D? by Pasqua) S. Ave., Brookfield, IL 60513. readers. 0ther books of libertarian interest, Schievella. 219 pp. Hard Cover: $16.95 (plus including Rand, Mencken, and anarchism. $2.00 for postage and handling). The author LEARN A F0REIGN LANGUAGE 0N Y0UR DUNN'S LIBERTARIAN BO0KS. 251 Bald- argues with "God" and proves that He (She?) 0WN! Comprehensive cassette/home-study win Avenue, Meriden, CT 06450. is the world's most colossal delusion. This courses used by U.S. State Department. Free book is a compelling and humorously irrev- catalog. 130 courses in 47 languages. Freethought Books Catalogue with over erent look at theistic faith. Sebastian Pub- AUDI0-F0RUM, Dept. 315, Guilford, CT 1,000 items. $3.00, refundable with first lishing Co., Dark Hollow Road, Box 471, Port 06437. order. American Rationalist Book Service. Jefferson Station, NY 11776. 2001 St. Clair, St. Louis, M0 63144. LITERARY SERVICES PERPLEXED by irrational fears? Read Man- FREETH0UGHT LITERATURE. We publish WRITING, RESEARCH, STATISTICS-ALL aging Your Anxiety: Regaining Control When and reprint significant secular-humanist and FIELDS. Highest quality. Reasonable rates. You Feel Stressed, Helpless, and Alone, by atheist works, past and present. Authors in- Research Services, Box 48862, Niles, IL McCullough and Mann (Tarcher/St. Martin's clude: Ingersoll, Darrow, McCabe, Gauvin, 60648-0862, (312) 774-5284. Press). Ideal book for victims of psycho- Robertson, Lewis, Fielding, Cohen, Shapiro, logical stress, phobias, panic attacks, agora- MISCELLANEOUS et al. Many selections not available else- phobia. "Excellence in the Media" award where. Reasonable prices, free bonuses. from the American Psychological Associa- LITERATE T-SHIRTS! Catalogue $1.00 (refundable). INDEPEN- Freud, Jung, Karl Marx, Kafka, Thoreau. Gandhi, tion. Recommended by Linus Pauling, Nor- Virginia Woolf, Sartre, Shakespeare, Beethoven, DENCE PUBLICATI0NS, Box 162, Paterson, Publishers Weekly. Bulk dis- Nietzsche, Bach, Rasputin, Van Gogh, Kerouac, man Cousins, Austen. Sherlock Holmes, Tolkien, Poe. Twain, NJ 07543. count to therapists, groups. Single copy Cheshire Cat. White Rabbit, many others. Sizes S, M, L, XL. T-shirt: (white, lt blue, or S0CIAL NUDISM/NATURALISM IS FUN, $9.95 (plus $1.50 shipping) from Robin red) $11.50, 4/$40. Sweatshirt (grey) $20, Distributors, Box 65, Palo Alto, CA 94302. 2/$38 Shipping: $1 per piece wholesome, and a natural way to live! The Illustrated brochure 75¢ Gallup Poll found that most Americans- (California residents, add 600.) Save this Historical Products, Box 220 x Cambridge, MA 02238 72%-approve. Roper Poll says 18% of us address. C0NFIDENTIAL MAIL, TELEPHONE MES- have skinny-dipped coed. Join the growing D0UBTING TH0MAS: 0rthodox Christian- SAGE, ADDRESS, M0NEY TRANSFER world movement in body acceptance ity is contradictory and unreasonable. Sanity SERVICES. Unique privacy books! Write! through clothes-optional values, lifestyles, and hope appear in the original scriptures. SMS-Fl1, Box 3179, Tempe, AZ 85281. and recreation. Send $5 + $3 S/H for Clothed The scholarly volume The Problem of Evil With the Sun, featuring nude beaches, timely and the Judgments of God (350 pages) ap- ARTISTS! CASH GRANTS! Available all and concise ideas, and beautiful photogra- peals to reason and the heart. Based on fields. Cash from foundations, corporations, phy. Naturalist Society, Box 132-FI, 0sh- accurately translated manuscripts. $5.50 government. Ask for free value report. WIAL, kosh, WI 54902. brings this PB volume; also a list of other Box 15240, Washington, DC 20003. fascinating publications and recordings. C0NFESSI0NS 0F A JEH0VAH'S WIT- OUT 0F PRINT B00KFINDER. 2035 FI - NESS. $4.00. Beyond Belief. Box 1651. C0NCERN F0R REALITY, Box 534, The Everding, Eureka, CA 95501. Send wants. Kailua, HI 96734. Dalles, 0R 97058.

Fall 1987 61

She erected a shrine in her home to honor the holy tortilla, and it soon became a popular religious attraction. (from wire service IN THE NAME OF GOD reports)

Raising a Question Too Much to Bear . Nuns and priests taking vows dedicating their lives to God normally prostrate them- Television evangelist Oral Roberts said that A Roman Catholic priest who preached at selves face down at the altar as a sign of he has raised people from the dead. the funeral of a boy who was killed by polar humility. But Father Prokes taught the nuns "I can't tell you about the dead people bears at a Brooklyn zoo told mourners that "that what they ought to do is lie on their I've raised," Roberts told more than 5,000 God may have allowed the tragedy to save backs" to symbolize divine impregnation, people at the closing of the Charismatic the boy's soul. one Catholic investigator said. (AP) Bible Ministries conference. "I've had to stop The Reverend Raymond Guthrie, pastor a sermon, go back, and raise a dead person. at the Church of the Holy Innocents in It did improve my altar call that night." Brooklyn, said the eleven-year-old boy, Juan Visions of the Virgin Roberts also said that God told him that Perez, had "a reputation for being a little Roberts "will be coming back with my Son wild, but he respected his elders." Wilkes Barre, Penn.—More than three hun- to reign. "(AP) "Sure, he was getting into trouble, but dred people crowded into a small residential [The Boca Raton Globe in Florida has God allowed him to enter the cave of an block in Hanover Township, Pennsylvania, issued a nationwide invitation to those whom enormous beast and lose his life to a bear, to view what they thought was a vision of Mr. Roberts has raised to tell their story. rather than lose his soul to the traps of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The six-foot-high Bernard Scott, an editor at the Globe, told Satan," Father Guthrie told the 150 people image was visible on the side of a vacant FREE INQUIRY that "no one who has re- who attended the requiem mass. house. turned from the undiscovered country has The boy was killed when he sneaked into The Reverend Thomas Cappeloni, a contacted us directly, although three people the bears' den on May 19. (Washington Post) Catholic priest who investigated the appear- have claimed they know people Oral's resur- ance, was more dubious than most. "The rected. "] figure is so indistinguishable," he told re- Flat on Their Backs porters, "it could just as well be Abraham Lincoln standing there." Parochial Students Flunk Papal authorities have asked for an investi- Notwithstanding the vagueness of the Conduct Test gation into complaints that nuns operating image, for three straight nights it attracted an abbey in rural northwestern Connecticut large numbers of people, many of whom Although the parochiaid lobby has fre- are fostering an authoritarian, cult-like sang hymns and prayed the rosary. The quently claimed that parochial schools pro- movement under the guise of offering police arrived on the first night after getting duce better citizens than public schools, a authentic spirituality to lay people... . a call from a neighbor who mistook the recent survey sponsored by the National Critics say the nuns of the Benedictine gathering for a street brawl. Patrolman Catholic Educational Association doesn't Abbey of Regina Laudis—and the priest who William Sweeney attempted to show the seem to bear that out. is their spiritual adviser, Reverend Francis congregation that the image was caused by According to preliminary findings by the Prokes—have played church authorities a reflection from a street light that had been Search Institute of Minneapolis (and re- against one another to avoid accountability. recently installed across the street. Most were ported in Education Week), parochial school unconvinced by his explanation. students were more likely than their public Father Prokes and his followers—who On the third day of the sighting, town- school peers to shoplift and abuse alcohol include "closed communities" of lay people— ship officials, worried about the commotion, and drugs. are said to have a "spiritual rigidity," re- sprang into action. They disconnected the Peter L. Benson of the Search Institute questing obedience that "borders on the power to the street light, and the vision dis- told the NCEA annual conference that he capitulation of one's free will." appeared. But this did not discourage all of had found that: Members of the lay community com- the onlookers. Said Lillian Meyers, a nearby • 45 percent of Catholic-school seniors monly are challenged to make commitments resident, "It doesn't shake my faith in the said they had become inebriated in the past that would radically change their lives. One vision if it doesn't appear tonight. Even two weeks, compared with only 39 percent couple associated with the Benedictine abbey though they took the light out, I know that of public-school seniors. quit when they were challenged to put up the image was still in the shape of our • 21 percent of Catholic-school seniors for adoption the child they were expecting, Mother. She can work through natural said they had tried cocaine, compared with the couple said. means just as easily as through the super- 17 percent of their public-school counter- A nun told them she had an inspiration natural." parts. from the Holy Spirit that their giving up Other visions of the Blessed Virgin or • 57 percent of Catholic-school seniors the child would help the marriage, the couple her son have recently been reported sighted said they had used used marijuana at least said. on the side of soybean storage tanks, on once, compared with 54 percent of public- "If you don't do what the group says, city sidewalks, on bathroom floors, and in school students. then you are disobedient to God," said the the sky. Perhaps the strangest vision was • 40 percent of Catholic-school seniors wife.... that of Mrs. Maria Rubio of New Mexico, said they had engaged in shoplifting in the Others said the groups also have an who claimed that the face of Jesus miracu- past year, compared with 29 percent of the obsession with sexual concerns and symbols. lously appeared upon a tortilla she had fried. public-school seniors. (Church & State)

62 FREE INQUIRY Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH) The Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (C0DESH) is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt educational organization dedicated to fostering the growth of the traditions of democracy, secular humanism, and the principles of free inquiry in contemporary society. In addition to publishing FREE INQUIRY magazine and the Secular Humanist Bulletin, CODESH sponsors the Academy of Humanism and the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion. The Academy of Humanism The Academy of Humanism was established to recognize distinguished humanists and disseminate humanistic ideals and beliefs. The members of the Academy, listed below, are nontheists who are (I) devoted to free inquiry in all fields of human endeavor, (2) committed to a scientific outlook and the use of the scientific method in acquiring knowledge, and (3) upholders of humanist ethical values and principles. The Academy's goals include furthering respect for human rights and freedom and the dignity of the individual, tolerance of various viewpoints and willingness to compromise, commitment to social justice, a universalistic perspective that transcends national, ethnic, religious, sexual, and racial barriers, and belief in a free and open pluralistic and democratic society. Humanist Laureates: Isaac Asimov, author; Sir Alfred J.Ayer, Oxford; Brand Blanshard, professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Yale; Sir Hermann Bondi, professor of applied mathematics, Univ. of London; Bonnie Bullough, dean of nursing, SUNY at Buffalo; Mario Bunge, professor of Philosophy of Science, McGill Univ.; Bernard Crick, professor of politics, Univ. of London; Francis Crick, Nobel Laureate in Physiology, Salk Inst.; Joseph Delgado, chairperson of the Dept. of Neuropsychiatry, Univ. of Madrid; Milovan Djilas, author, former vice-president of Yugoslavia; Joseph Jean Dommanget, director, Royal Observatory of Belgium; Sir Raymond Firth, professor emeritus of anthropology, Univ. of London; Sorbonne Fletcher, theologian, professor emeritus of medical ethics, Univ. of Virginia Medical School; Yves Galifret, professor of physiology at the and director of l'Union Rationaliste; John Galtung, professor of sociology, Univ. of Oslo; Stephen Jay Gould, Museum of Comparative Zoology, de Filosofia, Harvard; Adolf Grünbaum, professor of philosophy, Univ. of Pittsburgh; Alberto Hidalgo, president of the Sociedad Asturiana Jolé Lombardi, organizer of Oviedo, Spain; Donald Johanson, Inst. of Human 0rigins; Franco Lombardi, professor of philosophy, Univ. of Rome; Collège de France; Paul MacCready, the New Univ. for the Third Age; André Lwolf, Nobel Laureate in Physiology and professor of science, Kremer Prize winner for aeronautical achievements; John Passmore, professor of philosophy, Australian National Univ.; Jean-Claude Pecker, Sir Karl Popper, professor of astrophysics, Collège de France, Académie des Sciences; Wardell Baxter Pomeroy, psychotherapist and author; professor of law professor emeritus of logic and scientific method, Univ. of London; W. V. Quine, professor of philosophy, Harvard; Max Rood, Svetozar and former Minister of Justice in Holland; Carl Sagan, astronomer, Cornell; Andrei Sakharov, physicist, Nobel Peace Prize winner; V. M. Tarkunde, chairman, Stojanovic, professor of philosophy, Univ. of Belgrade; Thomas Szasz, professor of psychiatry, SUNY Medical School; professor of German, Univ. of Indian Radical Humanist Association; Richard Taylor, professor of philosophy, Union College; G. A. Wells, London; Edward O. Wilson, professor of sociobiology, Harvard; Lady Barbara Wootton, former Deputy Speaker, House of Lords. Deceased: George O. Abell, Lawrence Kohlberg, Ernest Nagel, George Olincy, Chaim Perelman. Secretariat: Vern Bullough, dean of natural and social sciences, SUNY College at Buffalo; Antony Flew, professor of philosophy, Reading Univ.; Sidney Hook, professor emeritus of philosophy, New York Univ.; Paul Kurtz, professor of philosophy, SUNY at Buffalo, editor of FREE INQUIRY; Steven L. Gerald Larue, professor emeritus of archaeology and biblical studies, Univ. of Southern California at Los Angeles. Executive Director: Mitchell. Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER) The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion was developed to examine the claims of Eastern and Western religions and of well- established and newer sects and denominations in the light of scientific inquiry. The Committee is interdisciplinary, including specialists in biblical scholarship, archaeology, linguistics, anthropology, the social sciences, and philosophy who represent differing secular and religious traditions. Committee members are dedicated to impartial scholarship and the use of objective methods of inquiry.

Gerald Larue (Chairman), USC at Los Angeles; John Allegro, former lecturer in Near Eastern and 0ld Testament Studies, Univ. of Manchester (England); Robert S. Alley, professor of humanities, Univ. of Richmond; Michael Arnheim, professor of ancient history, Univ. of Witwatersrand president, Fellowship of Religious Humanists; (South Africa); Joseph Barnhart, professor of philosophy, North Texas State Univ.; Paul Beattie, SUNY College at Buffalo; Joseph Fletcher, H. James Birx, chairman of Anthropology/ Sociology Department, Canisius College; Vern Bullough, Sidney Hook, Univ. of Virginia Medical School; Antony Flew, professor of philosophy, Reading Univ.; Van Harvey, professor of religion, Stanford; Delos New York Univ.; Paul Kurtz, SUNY at Buffalo; William V. Mayer, director, Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, Univ. of Colorado; Medaille College; George Smith, president, McKown, professor of philosophy, Auburn Univ.; Lee Nisbet, associate professor of philosophy, Steven L. Mitchell (ex officio). Signature Books; A. T. Steegman, professor of anthropology, SUNY at Buffalo; G. A. Wells, Univ. of London; Biblical Criticism Research Project (CSER Subcommittee) The Biblical Criticism Research Project (Subcommittee) was founded to help disseminate the results of biblical scholarship—studies in comparative religion, folklore, scientific archaeology, and literary analysis. It investigates the claim that the Bible is divinely inspired; the historical evidence for Jesus and other Bible personalities; the role of religious myth, symbol, and ritual; and the possibility of basing morality upon reason and experience instead of biblical doctrine. The Research Project's goals include compiling bibliographies of the best sources of information about the Bible, publishing articles and monographs about different facets of biblical research, and convening seminars and conferences.

R. Joseph Hoffmann (Chairman), Dept. of Philosophy and Religion, Hartwick College; David Noel Freedman, professor of Old Testament, Univ. Interdisciplinaire d'Etudes of Michigan; Randel Helms, professor of English, Arizona State Univ.; Robert Joly, professor of philosophy, Centre James Robinson, director, Inst. for Antiquity Philosophiques de l'Université de Mons (Belgium); Carol Meyers, professor of religion, Duke Univ.; Morton Smith, professor of and Christianity, Claremont College; John F. Priest, professor and chairman, Dept. of Religion, Florida State Univ.; history, Columbia. Faith-Healing Investigation Project (CSER Subcommittee) professor emeritus of physics, Univ. of David Alexander, Southern California Skeptics; Robert S. Alley, Univ. of Richmond; Luis W. Alvarez, Shawn Carlson, Lawrence Berkeley Labs; California; Stephen Barrett, M.D., consumer health advocate; Dr. Bonnie Bullough, SUNY at Buffalo; chairman, Dept. of Public Health Dr. Joseph Fletcher, professor emeritus of medical ethics, Univ. of Virginia Medical School; William Jarvis, Gary Posner, M.D., St. Petersburg, Science, Loma Linda Univ., California; Richard H. Lange, M.D., chief of nuclear medicine, Schenectady, N.Y.; Rita Swan, President, Florida; Wallace I. Sampson, M.D., Stanford; Robert Steiner, Chairman, 0ccult Committee, Society of American Magicians; Children's Health Care Is a Legal Duty, Sioux City, Iowa. Coordinating Council: Joe Edward Barnhart, Paul Kurtz, Gerald Larue, and James Randi, conjurer and principal investigator of the Project. The Affirmations of Humanism: A Statement of Principles and Values • We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems. • We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation. • We believe that scientific discovery and technology can contribute to the betterment of human life. • We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities. • We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state. • We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual understanding. • We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with eliminating dis- crimination and intolerance. • We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that they will be able to help themselves. • We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, nationality, creed, class, or ethnicity, and strive to work together for the common good of humanity. • We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species. • We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creatiVe talents to their fullest. • We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence. • We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have access to comprehensive and informed health-care, and to die with dignity. • We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences. • We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion. • We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences. • We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoveries still to be made in the cosmos. • We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking. • We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich personal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others. • We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith or irrationality. • We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable of as human beings.