What is The Humanist Institute and why should you consider applyinging to join the new class, starting in August? As they say on the website, "Find out what you don’t know about Humanism". Here is more detail:

The Humanist Institute offers a Certificate in Humanist Studies. Students are enrolled in a small class (a maximum of 15 people) convening for eight sessions over two and half years. Classes meet in March, August and November. Prior to and in-between sessions, students prepare for class sessions through independent distance study and online discussion guided by the Assistant Dean and faculty.

Year One

The Humanist Institute does allow individuals to take just one year of it’s graduate-level program. This option allows students to gain an understanding of the Humanist life stance, values, and principles as well as Humanism in relation to others.

As our movement grows, we need more people with the skills needed to advocate for Humanism and become community leaders. Now may be the time for you to take on the challenge. Read more about Apply Now to The Humanist Institute »

They’ve been hung from the rafters of a 19^th Century barn hosting a progressive dinner dance in rural Michigan, paraded by youth for the plenary delegates at General Assembly in Providence, held by parishioners as a “living ribbon” at the close of several UU Sunday services around the country, and have welcomed customers from the walls of a neighborhood Starbucks as part of a local art walk on the south side of Chicago.   As this is written, the twenty six fabric art panels that comprise Ribbons Not Walls, a UU Humanist sponsored project on immigrant rights and culture, grace the walls at the UU Congregation of Las Vegas, for a month long program titled “Borders and Boundaries.”  It is the 50^th venue for “Ribbons” since the spring of 2012, and will raise the number of viewers who have directly interacted with the art to over 8,000.

“Ribbons” began as a half dozen yard-wide panels, mostly reflecting themes and cover art from books by Hispanic authors, (see separate article on the “Banned Books” project) taken from Tucson classrooms when the State of Arizona banned “Ethnic Studies” courses.  Then the youth of the Navigator (coed, inclusive) Scouting group from Countryside UU Church in Palatine, IL contributed four batik style panels, reflecting aspects of the immigrant experience.  More contributions from a total of forty artists, working individually and in groups, were added, including depictions of humanist and UU immigration justice projects.

Of particular note are panels by the youngest and the oldest contributors – “The Wall” a rich dark acrylic on muslin rendering by 14 year old Alayana Vesto, and “Banned Books,” human figures bannered with book titles against a traditional quilt pattern, by 94 year old Gloria Weberg.  

Two panels by Linda Lee, lead artist for the Lake Apopka Farmworkers Memorial Quilt titled “Scenes from the Muck – labor and leisure” done in traditional primitive piece quilting style, toured as part of our exhibition for a year.  They have now been returned to Linda with our profound thanks - photographs of her pieces remain in the exhibition catalog.  The full farmworker quilt is known for its 128 + depictions of farmworker life, and for appearances throughout southern states at union rallies and social justice gatherings.  

The latest additions to the collection are two Commemorative panels for victims of the Los Gatos plane crash, subject of the Woodie Guthrie song “Deportee.”  For decades, activists have worked to uncover the names of the twenty eight braceros who died following their legal work on the California harvest.  Just last year the last identities were uncovered, and a new engraved headstone bearing all twenty eight names, marks the place where they were buried anonymously.  Much of the work was done by author and performance artist Tim Hernandez.  UU Humanists is proud to partner with Tim and others who worked on the 28 Deportees Memorial, by gathering small fabric panels of handprints (a sign of support) and leaves (from Guthrie’s line “Who are these Friends, all scattered like dry leaves?”) made by UU and Humanists children and adults around the country.   These are being stitched into panels, each one bearing one of the names. 

Ribbons Not Walls is an artistic response to a highly complex political issue.  In the finest humanist tradition, we use the emotional and intellectual impact of the artist’s vision, to ask audiences to engage the culture and the struggles of immigrant communities and individuals.  We do not ask you to take a particular stand (though several of the individual artists clearly do), but simply to be open to letting the works speak to you.  

The growing “Ribbons” collection will go from Nevada to Florida for at least two winter appearances, and then back north in March to be displayed at the Ohio Meadville/St. Lawrence District Meeting in Niagara Falls, NY, and then at the MidAmerica Regional Meeting in Naperville, IL.  You can also see the collection at the UU Humanists booth at the UUA General Assembly in Portland, next June.

If none of these venues are on your itinerary, perhaps you’d like to bring the Ribbons exhibit to your congregation or Humanist group.   Contact curator Roger Brewin at Rabrewin@aol.com or call him at 773 881 4028, or cell 773 551 8540 to make arrangements. Read more about Ribbons Not Walls Reaches Fifty! »

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, October 19, 2014, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by James Croft, Guest Speaker.

What is the point of Humanism?

"To safeguard human dignity while maintaining intellectual integrity. To put people first."

[Editor's note: Mike Werner, author of Regaining Balance: The Evolution of the UUA, recently taught a class for SecularActivism.org called "Humanism and Unitarianism". Here are his "final words" to the class as it wrapped up. What are your thoughts?]

What can we learn from the Unitarian Universalist experience that can be applied to building humanist communities of the future?

1) Once you lose your focus; your market brand it is hard to regain it. Trying to be all things to all people does not work. People want their religion narrowly focused and meaningful. Every study puts being with like mind people as the main reason to be in our movement, not to be with people vastly different than them. If Humanist groups defocus their energies in supporting the merely humanistic, rather than the naturalistic humanists, the humanism within it is lost eventually.

2) Postmodernism’s poisonous ideology of radical relativism undermines all of progressive liberalism. We may not have certainty, but science provides us tools to explain, make prediction and control the world. Science is true because it works despite the fact that is gives us knowledge that is fallible, tentative, and probabilistic.

3) Always keep a balance of our highest values and don’t let any of them become secular god. Tolerance, reason, justice, love, compassion are all great values, but never have any of them overwhelm all the others.

4) There is no single model of a humanist community that will work. We need multiple models and even within our communities we more than ever need a “cafeteria” of alternatives. Many of the most successful atheist communities are merely social gatherings, or “Drinking skeptically” as some are known. Most of the atheist youth are not involved with organized groups and seek the blogosphere and social media for their community. How do we capture that?

5) Professional leadership may actually harm a group’s growth. You can tell the inflection point in a religious denominations growth curve when professional leadership comes on board. We don’t understand all the reason for this, but the religious ministerial model may not work in the future. What may work is professional leadership that acts more as a coordinator, educator and manager than a minister.

6) The UUA does community real well and humanism very poorly. It used to do both well. The humanist communities, by and large, do humanism very well and really fall short on skills to build intentional communities. How do we do both?

7) Many young people enter the UUA when their children start asking questions. Parents want a liberal community for their children that nurtures, educates and lets the children know they are not alone in their beliefs. The UUA cannot hold onto children because they don’t provide an evocative grounding. Hodding Carter is famously quoted saying, “There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.” We do great on the wings, but the children are left to fly direction-less which is possibly why the UUA has the lowest retention ratio of any denomination at only 12%.

8) Be careful with words. Words have the power to create meanings or destroy them. I think it is more than time to withdraw from the religious redefinition game. Even John Dewey saw his use of religious language as metaphor as an evolutionary technique not a revolutionary one. While many may think the language of reverence is inclusive, that it is not for the vast majority of humanists.  Millenials, in particular, have a great distaste for the religious redefinition game.  It decidedly favors the theistic point of view.

9) Lastly, Humanism is a blend of both the Enlightenment and the Romantic projects and a full humanism embraces both the heart and the mind, reason and compassion.

I originally asked you why you are here. I think you and I are here because we want a better world. We want a better world, but we believe that secular values, indeed Humanist values will make a better world. This isn’t just about the “right-ness” of our cause, but the practical effects. There is something more though.

Our hearts long for an integrated whole view of life that matches with reality. We long for a vital center to our lives that both grounds us and inspires us, a vision of grander authenticity to our lives and not just smaller truths. All of us long for an evocative whole story and higher vision that lifts our hearts, moves our society, pushes us to higher meanings, and ennobles our lives. Some may find that integrated story is already there in the balanced humanist secular life of here and now, of heart and mind, reason and compassion, accepting the exhilarating challenge of moving toward a responsible search for truth and meaning.

The humanist lifestance is based on our values, not our beliefs, where open-minded critical thinking, science, justice, freedom, tolerance, democracy, compassion, human rights, inherent worth and dignity, and human flourishing hold our web of belief together.

We can’t afford the luxury of just critiquing religion. We must tell our alternate story so that those contemplating change know there is an alternate worldview that can support, inspire, and comfort them; that the knowledge of science, while tentative, is surely firmer than blind faith; that the exhilaration of focusing on the here and now is more meaningful than otherworldliness; that hope and love are certainly better than hate and divisiveness; that compassion and responsibility can be balanced with self-interest and freedom. That ambiguity that is inherent in all our value/ethical/political choices we spoke of earlier need not paralyze us, but it does make it even more important we reflectively consider all our choices.

Humanist ethics derives its power by affirming the inherent worth and dignity of all people and realizes that if justice is to be given only we can give it. If love is to be given only we have the power in this moment and in this hour. By not doing so, the opportunity is lost forever. Suffering not relieved is real suffering, not washed away by the hand of a loving god when we die. This world is all and enough. Enough to fill us with joy and wonder and hope and awe that is our natural birth right.

Now is our time and now is our chance to move society toward reason and the good life. Now is our time to move society out of the dark ages of theocratic and ideological control toward human fulfillment. We cannot falter in the face of certain hostility, our own inherent ambiguity, and we cannot stand idly by hoping for a secular society to automatically shape itself. It is our duty to show that a secular world need not end in nihilism, but we can build communities that embrace a progressive, humanist, ethical worldview of human and global good. Read more about Humanism and Unitarianism: Final Class Words »