The Council for Secular Humanism is a transnational organization based in the United States. It exists parallel to and independent of national Humanist organizations in various countries and is a specialist member of the IHEU. The Council was founded in 1980 (as the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism, or CODESH) and has continually published Free Inquiry, the largest-circulation Humanist magazine published in the English language.

At the time of the Council’s founding, secular Humanism was being condemned by leaders of America’s religious right as “public enemy number one.” Philosopher Paul Kurtz, the author of Humanist Manifesto II, felt the time was ripe for an organization that would stand up for a specifically secular Humanist agenda anywhere in the world. The Council’s first act in 1980 was to publish “A Secular Humanist Declaration,” a statement signed by 58 prominent thinkers (later signed by hundreds) which attracted broad media attention. Publication of Free Inquiry began immediately thereafter.

Driven by an entrepreneurial method and governed by a compact, self-perpetuating board, the Council hoped to pursue specific objectives more nimbly than groups whose agendas might face annual adjustment by voting memberships. Over the years CODESH gave rise to a broad range of programs, many of which were subsequently taken over by a supporting organization, the Center for Inquiry. In its early years CODESH successfully sued to end tax-funded publication of an annual prayer anthology compiled by the chaplain of the U.S. Senate. It sponsored an undercover investigation of U. S. faith healers’ practices, revealing that evangelist Peter Popoff received clandestine radio transmissions from his wife backstage which formed the basis of his startling, seemingly prophetic healing declarations. (This disclosure sidelined Popoff’s ministry for several years and inspired a major motion picture, Leap of Faith starring Steve Martin.) Also during this period, Council principals offered courtroom testimony and a legal brief that helped to prevent the U. S. court system from categorizing secular Humanism as a religion.

A 1985 conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the University of Michigan refocused scholarly attention on the long-dormant issue of whether Jesus was a historical figure. The conference, which attracted a “who’s who” of secular religious scholars, has been cited as a possible catalyst for the formation of the well-known Jesus Seminar by scholars Robert Funk and John Dominic Crossan.

Other early initiatives included purchasing and restoring the birthplace of 19th century agnostic orator Robert Green Ingersoll, which has operated since 1993 as America’s only freethought museum; catalyzing the founding (by one of its local groups) of the first U. S. summer camp for nonreligious children, now the independently-operated Camp Quest; creating the International Academy of Humanism, an elective body of 80 world-famed Humanist thinkers and activists; and forming Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS), the world’s largest wholly non-religious self-help recovery movement for alcoholics and other addicts.

Throughout this period, the Council conducted its own independent Humanist development program, helping to spark the formation of numerous Humanist groups, especially in eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa, many of which became members of the IHEU.

In 1996, under executive director Matt Cherry, the Council shortened its name to its present form. The original name, Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism, had sought to differentiate the organization from persons and organizations on the global left with Marxist commitments; following the fall of Communism in Europe this agenda was less urgent and consequently the shorter name “Council for Secular Humanism” was adopted.

Also in 1996, the Council launched a nationwide movement for atheist and Humanist college students, the Campus Freethought Alliance, which grew to include student groups on hundreds of campuses. (This program now operates as Center for Inquiry / On Campus). These student groups complemented the Council’s long-established network of independent local secular Humanist groups, from time to time numbering as many as 150 across the United States.

By this time the Council was housed in a 20,000 square foot headquarters campus, the Center for Inquiry / Transnational, which hosted frequent public lectures, a variety of adult education programs, a television studio, and the world’s largest atheist and Humanist library. Many of the projects housed at this location were originally conceived and launched by the Council, though most are now operated under the auspices of the Center for Inquiry. (In 2005 the headquarters campus was expanded again, now comprising nearly 40,000 square feet.)

In 1999 the Council released Humanist Manifesto 2000, a successor to Humanist Manifesto II and A Secular Humanist Declaration authored by Paul Kurtz. This manifesto ultimately attracted the signatures of hundreds of leading thinkers and activists.

In 2006, the Council responded to the global controversy over a Danish newspaper’s late-2005 publication of twelve satirical cartoons purporting to show the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Free Inquiry became the first nationwide U. S.-based magazine to publish a selection of the cartoons, launching a notable controversy. Borders, one of the two largest U. S. bookstore chains, withdrew the issue featuring the cartoons from its shelves, attracting widespread criticism for perceived censorship. Perhaps more humorously, the largest Canadian bookstore chain censored the issue following the issue containing the cartoons, attracting criticism and ridicule from Canadian media. When the squabbling was over, Free Inquiry had gained additional newsstand circulation and its offices remained un-bombed. Shortly thereafter, the influential Harper’s Magazine (members of whose staff had been in touch with Free Inquiry staff during the censorship controversy) published a cover story in which all 12 of the “Muhammad” cartoons were reprinted and insightfully analyzed by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish-American graphic novelist Art Spiegelman.

The Council also has a proud history of legal activism. In the middle 90s it created a small national network of volunteer church-state attorneys, the First Amendment Task Force. Now connected to the Center for Inquiry, the First Amendment Task Force has contributed amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs in most of the most important church-state cases considered by American courts over the past several years. For its part, the Council for Secular Humanism is now involved as a litigant in an ongoing legal challenge to a program under which the U. S. state of Florida channels public funds to Christian organizations that deliver openly sectarian social services.

In 2009 and 2010, the Council will observe its thirtieth anniversary. Volume 30, Issue #1 of Free Inquiry will be published in November 2009, featuring the magazine’s first overall redesign since 1997. On October 7-10, 2010, the Council will hold its thirtieth anniversary conference at one of the grandest hotels in Los Angeles, the art deco Millennium Biltmore Hotel.

Since its founding, the Council’s executive directors have included Jean Millholland (well known to IHEU old-timers), Tim Madigan, Matt Cherry, Ed Buckner, David Koepsell, and (in 2009) Tom Flynn. Ms. Millholland is now retired; Dr. Madigan now teaches philosophy at a college in Rochester, New York; Mr. Cherry is now International Representative of the IHEU; Mr. Buckner is now president of another U. S. organization, American Atheists; and Dr. Koepsell now teaches at a university in the Netherlands. Free Inquiry’s editors over the same period have included Paul Kurtz, Tim Madigan, Lewis Vaughn, and (since 2000) Tom Flynn.

Since its founding the Council has always been closely identified with the views and policies of its founder, philosopher Paul Kurtz. It is thus worth noting that between June 2008 and June 2009, the boards of directors of the quintet of organizations including the Council for Secular Humanism and its supporting organization, the Center for Inquiry, have established a new governance model designed to prepare the organizations for a lengthy future. Paul Kurtz has been named Chair Emeritus; while he continues to serve on the board of directors, he is no longer the final arbiter of policy. The new Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Inquiry and the Council for Secular Humanism is Ronald A. Lindsay, a philosopher and attorney who has been active with the Council since its early legal campaigns during the 1980s.

Many of the programs launched under the Council’s auspices over the last twenty-nine years are now operated by the Center for Inquiry, including the libraries, adult education project, student outreach project, television studio, and others. But the Council maintains a significant portfolio of activities under its own auspices. It continues to publish Free Inquiry and an associate membership newsletter, Secular Humanist Bulletin. It operates the International Academy of Humanism, SOS, African Americans for Humanism, and a small charitable outreach that seeks to aid victims of natural disasters (“acts of God”). It continues to operate the Robert Ingersoll Birthplace Museum and has become a leading interpreter of radical reform history in the area surrounding the Museum site (see www.freethought-trail.org). After a brief fallow period, it has reactivated its local groups program across the United States. And its Web site, www.secularHumanism.org, will undergo a complete update and redesign in late 2009 or early 2010.

Tom Flynn is Executive Director, The Council for Secular Humanism