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| Harvard Chooses Atheist as Head ‘Chaplain’ (Page 1/3) |
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sourmash
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SEP 02, 09:25 AM
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I'm calling this POLITICS because there is no SOCIAL ENGINEERING option to select. This is the latest globalist move in US social engineering. Remove God in all ways from your life.
https://www.breitbart.com/t...ement-head-chaplain/
Harvard Chooses Atheist Who Teaches About Progressive Movement as Head ‘Chaplain’
Harvard Chooses Atheist Who Teaches About Progressive Movement as Head ‘Chaplain’
Greg M. Epstein, Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University, giving a speech at the World Humanist Congress 2011 in Oslo.Arnfinn Pettersen/Flickr
DR. SUSAN BERRY27 Aug 202132,610
5:00
Harvard University’s more than 40 chaplains have unanimously elected an atheist to be the new president of its chaplains’ organization.
Greg Epstein, 44, a humanist who was raised in a Jewish household, will begin as president of the Harvard chaplains this week.
“There is a rising group of people who no longer identify with any religious tradition but still experience a real need for conversation and support around what it means to be a good human and live an ethical life,” Epstein, the author of Good Without God, told the New York Times.
“We don’t look to a god for answers,” he said. “We are each other’s answers.”
Epstein, who also serves as humanist chaplain at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has served as Harvard’s humanist chaplain since 2005 and, according to the Times, has been “teaching students about the progressive movement that centers people’s relationships with one another instead of with God.”
According to his bio, Epstein’s special areas of interest include “ethics in technology; meaning and purpose beyond religion; existentialism and humanism in literature and popular culture; developing healthy masculinity from a feminist perspective; secular humanistic Judaism; racial justice and healing; and the philosophy and practice of interfaith work.”
Margit Hammerstrom, Harvard’s Christian Science chaplain, told the Times electing an atheist “works” at the school.
“Greg is known for wanting to keep lines of communication open between different faiths,” she said.
The Times reported Epstein mentors “dozens of students” who “have found a source of meaning in the school’s organization of humanists, atheists and agnostics,” as young people in America have grown increasingly secular.
“Greg’s leadership isn’t about theology,” Charlotte Nickerson, 20, an electrical engineering student, said. “It’s about cooperation between people of different faiths and bringing together people who wouldn’t normally consider themselves religious.”
A recent survey from the Cultural Research Center (CRC) at Arizona Christian University found young Americans are reshaping the country with a philosophy of life that rejects faith in God and organized worship.
The American Worldview Inventory (AWVI) 2021, an annual survey that examines the perspectives of adults aged 18 and over in the United States, found that while 57 percent of Millennials (born 1984-2002) consider themselves to be Christian, 43 percent “don’t know, care, or believe that God exists.”
These young people define success and morality in terms of personal happiness and economic social justice, the survey found, observing only 48 percent of Millennials say one should “treat others as you want them to treat you.”
Greg Epstein, left, the humanist chaplain at Harvard University, poses with students after a group meeting on campus in Cambridge, Mass., Friday, March 6, 2009. Harvard students, from left, are sophomore Kelly Bodwin; sophomore Lewis Ward; sophomore Andrew Maher; and sophomore Greta Friar. Epstein envisions local humanist centers nationwide that perform many of the community-building functions of a church, only in service of the humanist creed, which he sums up as a commitment to living ethical, personally fulfilling lives while serving the greater good. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
Greg Epstein, left, the humanist chaplain at Harvard University, poses with students after a group meeting on campus in Cambridge, Mass., Friday, March 6, 2009. Harvard students, from left, are sophomore Kelly Bodwin; sophomore Lewis Ward; sophomore Andrew Maher; and sophomore Greta Friar. Epstein envisions local humanist centers nationwide that perform many of the community-building functions of a church, only in service of the humanist creed, which he sums up as a commitment to living ethical, personally fulfilling lives while serving the greater good. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
Epstein, reported the Times, often counsels students who are struggling with both personal and theological issues, helping them cope with anxiety about everyday issues, such as job-hunting, family arguments, and the pressures of dealing with social media.
Some of the students who are attracted to Epstein’s humanist group have left their traditional faiths.
Adelle Goldenberg, 22, the Times observed, was raised in the Hasidic community in Brooklyn but found herself drawn to Epstein’s humanist group. She described being mentored by Epstein as almost like having a secular rabbi.
“When the pandemic hit I was like, ‘Greg, do you have time to talk about the meaning of life,’” Goldenberg said. “He showed me that it’s possible to find community outside a traditional religious context, that you can have the value-add religion has provided for centuries, which is that it’s there when things seem chaotic.”
Fox News reported, however, that the election of an atheist as head chaplain at Harvard has drawn some criticism.
One Twitter user said, “Completely missing the point of the role of a chaplain,” adding as well the election makes the Harvard label “less prestigious”:
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rinselberg
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SEP 02, 03:58 PM
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Copying and Pasting (or Cutting and Pasting) can make you go blind.
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82-T/A [At Work]
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SEP 02, 04:15 PM
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Completely absurd and totally ridiculous. And reading most of the positive comments... you can tell they are from very sheltered people who think they know everything, but have never experienced anything.
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2.5
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SEP 02, 04:17 PM
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"There is a rising group of people who no longer identify with any religious tradition but still experience a real need for conversation and support"
Sure, duh, but start something new. Not sure the need to replace what the chaplain was meant for. (agenda)
Such is the future, though.
| quote | Originally posted by sourmash:
..This is the latest globalist move in US social engineering. Remove God in all ways from your life. |
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That, and disintegrate families I believe were the first steps.
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FieroSTETZ
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SEP 02, 04:50 PM
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What's the actual problem?
It sounds, at a macroscopic level, like having a person who isn't biased towards any specific religion or denomination is in a very good place to provide equitable support to a student population that may experience spiritual crises. He's not there to push them in any specific direction, just to provide support. If you had a catholic chaplain, but a significant muslim and jewish, etc. population then there would be a potential bias (and in academia, a LOT of complaining). Having a non-biased person there whom exists solely to support students in crisis seems like a completely reasonable move. The alternative would be hiring a person representing each major faith, then getting sued by members of less popular faiths, and so on and so forth. Ultimately that person exists to help bring stability to a tumultuous time during a young person's life, and to do it regardless of the student's religious status. It doesn't at all read like a malicious action or some "grand plan", or like it's trying to push anyone in a particular direction - it's picking exactly the least biased person possible to do a job and benefit the greatest number of people.
As religion becomes less prevalent in society, someone with no specific denominational bias is simply someone that more people are going to want to talk to. I'm not biased in any specific direction myself, I just see that it looks like they are using a "universal tool" instead of a hyper-specialized one to help the broadest contingent of students possible. There's been a noticeable, documented decrease in the number of adults identifying as religious - so the college is adjusting to their current and future demographics. It's also important to be aware of how quick students (or their parents) are to sue an educational institution for any perceived slight, real or imagined (or fabricated). I can absolutely say with confidence, if they had a catholic chaplain, they'd be sued immediately until every other major (and some minor) religions had equal representation.
This allows them to hire just one person and nobody can make a claim that one religion is represented more than another - so no lawsuits, no needing to hire chaplains or chaplain-equivalents to represent other religions, just one person to provide the support that young people need - without chasing away some people that might just be tired of constant attempts at indoctrination, or afraid to ask a denominational chaplain for help because they're gay or feel in some other way stigmatized by the church. There are religious advisors that exist and students seeking that out are free to pursue it, nobody is stopping them, but this is literally the most broadly inoffensive way to serve the greatest number of constituents.[This message has been edited by FieroSTETZ (edited 09-02-2021).]
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williegoat
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SEP 02, 05:10 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by FieroSTETZ:
What's the actual problem? It sounds, at a macroscopic level, like having a person who isn't biased towards any specific religion is in a good place to provide equitable support to a student population that may experience spiritual crises. He's not there to push them in any specific direction, just to provide support. If you had a catholic chaplain, but a significant muslim and jewish, etc. population then there would be a potential bias (and in academia, a LOT of complaining). Having a non-biased person there whom exists solely to support students in crisis seems like a completely reasonable move. The alternative would be hiring a person representing each major faith, then getting sued by members of less popular faiths, and so on and so forth. Ultimately that person exists to help bring stability to a tumultuous time during a young person's life, and to do it regardless of the student's religious status. It doesn't at all read like a malicious action, or like it's trying to push anyone in a particular direction - it's picking exactly the least biased person possible to do a job. As religion becomes less prevalent in society, someone with no specific denominational bias is simply someone that more people are going to want to talk to. I'm not biased in any specific direction myself, I just see that it looks like they are using a "universal tool" instead of a hyper-specialized one to help the broadest contingent of students possible. There's been a noticeable, documented decrease in the number of adults identifying as religious - so the college is adjusting to their current and future demographics. It's also important to be aware of how quick students (or their parents) are to sue an educational institution for any perceived slight, real or imagined (or fabricated). I can absolutely say with confidence, if they had a catholic chaplain, they'd be sued immediately until every other major (and some minor) religions had equal representation. This allows them to hire just one person and nobody can make a claim that one religion is represented more than another - so no lawsuits, no needing to hire chaplains or chaplain-equivalents to represent other religions, just one person to provide the support that young people need - without chasing away some people that might just be tired of constant attempts at indoctrination.
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I agree that this should not be a big deal. Harvard has over thirty chaplains of various faiths, so a student should be able to find someone who is knowledgeable in his chosen faith.
I am not sure I would characterize Epstein as unbiased, no more or less so than any other chaplain they might have chosen. But I don't really think it matters.
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FieroSTETZ
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SEP 02, 05:13 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by williegoat:
I agree that this should not be a big deal. Harvard has over thirty chaplains of various faiths, so a student should be able to find someone who is knowledgeable in his chosen faith.
I am not sure I would characterize Epstein as unbiased, no more or less so than any other chaplain they might have chosen. But I don't really think it matters. |
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Yeah he's basically there as a catch-all for anyone that might not be comfortable going in another direction. Many kids in college now are experiencing hardship for possibly the first time in their entire lives, and they're probably distant from friends and family - so they need someone as unbiased and supportive as possible. A muslim student might be afraid of asking for help from a jewish chaplain, or a gay student might be scared of talking to a catholic one, but this (unfortunately named) guy, as long as he's not a [butt head] is probably pretty inoffensive and easily approachable regardless of the student's upbringing and beliefs.
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2.5
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SEP 02, 05:17 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by FieroSTETZ:
It's also important to be aware of how quick students (or their parents) are to sue an educational institution for any perceived slight, real or imagined (or fabricated). I can absolutely say with confidence, if they had a catholic chaplain, they'd be sued immediately until every other major (and some minor) religions had equal representation.
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Another symptom.
Do they indeed have one for each "religion", as in, all of them?
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FieroSTETZ
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SEP 02, 05:21 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by 2.5:
Another symptom.
Do they indeed have one for each "religion", as in, all of them? |
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No, so an unaffiliated nondenominational individual that exists solely to advise and provide comfort and stability is absolutely ideal 
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williegoat
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SEP 02, 05:22 PM
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