This is a paragraph from Jen McCreight
on her Blag Hag blog:
"Why keep atheism as the label, then?
Well, for one, the atheist movement is the one I most associate with,
and progressive atheists interested in social justice are already a
growing group within the atheist movement. It seemed natural to focus
my efforts there. But also, “atheist” is still seen as a dirty,
confrontational word, while “humanism” is often a softer way to
dodge the drama…since most people don’t really know what humanism
means. Trust me, I used to use the label “secular humanist” a lot
when I lived in Indiana and was too scared to out myself. No one had
a clue what it meant and never wanted to appear stupid by asking me
to explain. But now I want to keep using the word atheist until it
becomes destigmatized."
Jen was talking about why she wanted to
create a new label Atheist+ in prior posts. It was obvious to me
that secular humanist was a good label for what she wanted to do. I
had documented the substantial decline in the use of humanism and
secular humanism in our language with numerous WASHline articles.
Note what she is saying here:
“since most people don’t really
know what humanism means.”
“No one had a clue what it (humanism)
meant and never wanted to appear stupid by asking me to explain.”
This is an authentic report of the
views of a younger secular woman. It accurately reflects the
consciousness of her generation. The implications for WASH are
obvious.
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