|
|
Article: Who Are Secular Humanism's Clergy? How Are They Ordained?
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- March 28, 1987
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
|
Once in a great while, James J. Kilpatrick, for all his
intellectual brilliance and verbal gifts, really fumbles the ball, as
he regrettably did in his op-ed column March 14. The fact is:
secular humanism (whatever that is) isn't a religion, and neither
Kilpatrick nor Judge W. Brevard Hand can make it a religion by
calling it one.
True, secular humanism was once described by one Supreme Court
justice as a religion. But to suggest, as some have, that "secular
humanism has been declared to be a religion by the U.S. Supreme
Court" is simply untrue.
What really happened was as follows. In 1961, in a footnote to
an opinion in Torcaso v. Watkins, Justice Hugo Black made the
comment: "Among ...