Instead I prayed, oh Lord, let me be something useful and unpretentious.
— Mary Oliver, “More Beautiful than the Honey Locust Tree Are the Words of the Lord”
It would appear that someone has been trolling my FaceBook page in search of ammunition for my opponent to use against me. In particular, someone is using a picture that I posted from an atheist website in support of marriage equality to paint me as some kind of immoral person. For this reason, I want to take a moment to set the record straight about my religious affiliation.
I identify as a humanist. If you are unfamiliar with the term, a humanist is a non-religious person who looks to science, reason, empathy, and compassion in order to live an ethical and meaningful life. Humanists look to the here and now for meaning. We place the responsibility for ethical behavior upon ourselves. Kurt Vonnegut, Walt Whitman, and Thom Yorke could all be considered humanists.
I was raised Catholic. In fact, I attended Holy Cross Academy in Miami for a time. I would add a link to the school’s website, except that it was shut down after a monk-in-training killed a nun. The monk claimed to have been sexually abused by two priests (my former teachers) prior to the murder. I learned at an early age that religious affiliation was no guarantee of morality.
Most of my family are still practicing Christians. My mother attends a Southern Baptist church and my father is a Presbyterian. Some of my relatives are evangelical Christians and many are Roman Catholic. While we do not always agree about theology, we still love one another.
My wife was raised as a protestant Christian and has been a member of both Methodist and Presbyterian churches. The fact that Beverly has different religious views from me has never been a problem in our relationship. While we lived in Chicago, for example, she was on the staff at a large Presbyterian church for six years. I never joined the church, but I did ring in the handbell choir and I had many sublime moments listening to the music of Messiaen and Bach played on the church’s pipe organ. I even accompanied Beverly on a mission trip to Cuba. While I do not share her faith, I have deep respect for her. We share a common belief in the inherent dignity and worth of all people, regardless of belief.
After we became parents, Beverly and I sought out a faith community that would welcome both of our religious viewpoints. We joined Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois in 2011 and became members of the Unitarian Universalists of the Big Bend after we moved to Alpine.
One of the wonderful things about America is our freedom of religion. We do not have to share the same faith to get along.