by Stephanie Kirmer<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Humanism in the United States has issues to face that are quite unique among countries in the first world. The control of religion over culture and government is worrisome, but it is also bounded by the paradox of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, prohibiting government sponsorship of religion. When asked, I find it extremely difficult to reconcile these two aspects, but I know that religion is a predominant and sometimes overwhelming force in American government, because I see the effects of it every day. From the fierce debate over reproductive rights, with most of the opposition coming from the fanatical religious right, to the alteration of the national motto to read “In God We Trust”, to crises in state governments over the teaching of evolution in schools, the religious right is running amok in much of the political realm in the US.

The organization I represent, the Secular Student Alliance (SSA), tackles issues where religion oversteps its boundaries and infringes on the rights of students in high schools and universities. We also encourage students to organize local groups to provide community and support for Humanists in their area. While the SSA is not the only American organization whose intention is to support secular student groups on campuses, it is the only independent national organization run by students and recent students that exists for this purpose in the US. The SSA was founded in Spring 2000 by a group of students in order to create an organization to both work with local student groups and to represent students within the national movement, separate from other, non- student organizations.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 17% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 describe themselves as secular – that is four times the proportion of secular citizens older than 65. By no means all of this group will want to be involved in the organized Humanist movement, but this statistic reveals the importance of the student movement in the US. Most of the membership of American Humanist organizations is over 40 years old. This means that young people of secular inclination are not being attracted to the movement in adequate numbers, so organizations like the SSA are that much more important.

We have a set of core values that govern the activities we take part in. For example, we’re interested in making sure there is no stigma attached to positive, humanistic, secular world views, and we want mutually respectful relationships between theists and non-theists. We would like to create more understanding of non-theistic viewpoints among our mostly theistic communities. We also believe very strongly in cooperation between organizations of the secular community to achieve our goals, and we wish to put any historic animosity between freethought groups behind us. As a minority population in the US, we know that we will accomplish much more working together than we can individually. And finally, we wish to influence public policy to make the US more tolerant and even welcoming of its secular citizens.

Activism is of course our top priority, and we are always taking steps to provide better services and assistance to students. Our full-time Campus Organizer, Robert Nekervis, works closely with university student groups to encourage stability and growth among them, though they are far outmatched in number and budget by Christian evangelical groups on US campuses. The college organizing budget of the Campus Crusade for Christ, with over 1600 groups in US campuses, is estimated at being $250 million per year. Nevertheless we feel optimistic that we can accomplish much with Rob’s help. SSA activities include mailing Humanist literature to high school students, providing free internet resources to student groups through a cooperative project with the Institute for Humanist Studies, and distributing grants to student groups for local activism and event hosting. Groups are encouraged to network with other student groups, local adult groups, and national organizations like American Atheists, Council for Secular Humanism, the American Humanist Association, and the Institute for Humanist Studies, as well as international organizations including IHEU. We also host an annual conference, and have so far conducted three. Our fourth will be in 2004 in Washington, DC. Our most important plan for the future is the Broad Base programme, which entails bringing the number of active secular campus groups up from 100 to 250 by Spring 2006. We have created a system by which we quantify the levels of function of individual groups, which allows us to provide support for groups at risk of failing. We also hope to expand web-based support for groups and group leaders.

I hope this overview of the SSA gives a taste of the energy and effort to get things going. With such enthusiasm and dedication, student Humanism in the US surely has a great future ahead!

Stephanie Kirmer is a Board member of the Secular Student Alliance and a sophomore in European Studies and Sociology at the University of Kansas.