- ThinkProgress -
by Jack Jenkins
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religion, paving the way for the non-theistic community to obtain the
same legal rights as groups such as Christianity.
On Thursday, October 30, Senior District Judge Ancer Haggerty issued a ruling on American Humanist Association v. United States, a case that was brought by the American Humanist Association
(AHA) and Jason Holden, a federal prisoner. Holden pushed for the
lawsuit because he wanted Humanism — which the AHA defines as “an
ethical and life-affirming philosophy free of belief in any gods and
other supernatural forces” — recognized as a religion so that his prison
would allow for the creation of a Humanist study group. Haggerty sided with the plaintiffs
in his decision, citing existing legal precedent and arguing that
denying Humanists the same rights as groups such as Christianity would
be highly suspect under the Establishment Clause in the U.S.
Constitution, which declares that Congress “shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion.”
“The court finds that Secular Humanism is a religion for Establishment Clause purposes,” the ruling read.
community, which has tried for years to obtain the same legal rights as
more traditional religious groups while simultaneously rebuking the
existence of a god or gods. But while some Humanists may chafe at being
called a “religion,” others feel that the larger pursuit of equal rights
trumps legal classifications.
“I really don’t care if Humanism is called a religion or not,” Greg
Epstein, Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University and author of Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe,
told ThinkProgress. “But if you’re going to give special rights to
religions, then you have to give them to Humanism as well, and I think
that’s what this case was about.”
Humanism has grown — at least in terms of organization — rapidly over
the past few years, with members establishing official Humanist
chaplaincies at Harvard University, American University, Columbia
University, and Rutgers University. Atheists — one of the many titles
for a diversity of nonreligious Americans, which includes Humanists —
have also successfully fought for the right to offer invocations at government meetings: Kelly McCauley, a member of the North Alabama Freethought Association, opened a City Council meeting
in Huntsville, Alabama in September with an invocation that did not
mention God but extolled the virtues of “Wisdom, Courage, Justice, and
Moderation.”
“Nonreligious people are just one of the large groups in American
society today,” Epstein said. “Increasingly, we need to be recognized
not just for our non-belief, but also as a community, and this decision
affirms that.”
Despite these successes, the movement to obtain legal rights for
Humanists has also encountered stiff resistance. Atheists and Humanists
are disproportionately underrepresented in Congress,
for instance, and the American Humanist Association is currently in a
lengthy battle with the U.S. military to establish formal Humanist
chaplains for nonreligious soldiers. In June, the U.S. Navy rejected the application of Jason Heap for a commission as a chaplain.
