At our program earlier this month with Greg Epstein, the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard and MIT, he mentioned that he was writing an opinion piece for The Boston Globe on humanism and the important role that nonreligious voters played in the 2020 Presidential election result. Here is that opinion published March 14. He calls for President Biden and his administration to reach out directly to the nonreligious.
A truly inclusive vision of America recognizes the nonreligious, too
” . . . Democrats should ask whether liberal secular and religious “values voters” could unite into a consistently winning coalition. Notre Dame political scientist David Campbell, an expert on religious demographics and values, says the answer is “unequivocally yes.””
“It would be nice if Democrats and progressives pushed back harder on the use of so-called godlessness as a slur, not to mention give nonreligious Americans more positive acknowledgment in a political environment in which identity and representation matter.”
“Calls for “unity” framed largely around religion not only erase nearly one-third of the country but ultimately denigrate us by suggesting traditional faith is necessary to cope with the nation’s problems. This is a loss for all of us, because in the wake of the Trump presidency, the notion of true inclusiveness — and President Biden’s obvious passion for it, albeit imperfectly executed at times — are among the most compelling aspects of this new administration.”
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Published March 16, 2021 at 8:48 PM