balisongsong

I think many non-believers on the secular web would call themselves 'Humanists".
As a person who believes in God I too describe myself a humanist.
Would any one attack the claim that religious persons are also humanists?

MOJO-JOJO

No. It's well known and oft discussed that there are 'religious humanists' and 'secular humanists'. The religious humanists simply hold on to a supernatural ideology, while the secular humanists abandon all notions of supernatural events.

Examples of religious humanists are such people as Bishop John Shelby Spong, Harry Emerson Fosdick, and many of the Fellows at the Westar Institute (the Jesus Seminar).

Sojourner553

A religious humanist is an individual who agrees there is NOT enough certainty in religious authority to demand their views be imposed on others (ie thus stripping them of their socio-political freedoms/rights). That is, they hold the principles of human dignity and freedom higher than the commandments/interpretations from religious authorities.

Fundamentalist Christians, by contrast, would like to deny various groups their rights of freedom within our society--because they have a "higher" authority -- ie THEIR God. Fortunately, hey have lacked the political power to enforce their views on the entire nation.

Thus all Christians who agree to the importance of secular laws over biblical laws (the latter defined as "what God really wants") are to a certain degree religious humanists.

Sojourner

[ September 21, 2002: Message edited by: Sojourner553 ]</p>