Lorentz Stavrum chaired PLENARY IX - TACKLING FUNDAMENTALISM AND COMMUNALISM.

Dr. Joe Chuman of the American Ethical Union described the "Resurgence of Religion in North America".

Opening his address Joe Chuman said that to speak briefly about religion in America was an impossible task as America has thousands of religions with staggering differences in belief and practice. He would therefore talk on only three current trends.

A Brief Survey. Giving an overview of the current situation he said that it was wrong to identify all religion with fundamentalist religion and that he considered himself a religious humanist and religious liberal. Nor is it correct to see religion in a political or moral sense as a necessary enemy of humanism. "A conclusion I reach is that the movement toward autonomy evident in American religious circles reflects an implicit humanistic tendency, even as significant portions of American religion grow more conservative and politically anathema to humanistic interests."

The separation of church and state in the USA prevented the census being used to measure religion but a large private study was undertaken in 1991. This indicated that the USA remains by far the most religious society among the Western industrialized nations. 94% of all Americans profess a belief in God, and 71% life after death - although what people believe God to be is open to a broad range of interpretations. 57% belong to a religious congregation though only about 10% did when the United States was founded 200 years ago - although this affiliation is open to question. While only 4% of the French are affiliated, 5% of Italians and 13% of the Germans, 80 million or 44% of Americans attend worship services in the US every weekend, out of an adult population of about 180 million. 58% say that religion is "very important in their lives." Despite large numbers of new Asia immigrants, more than 86% of all Americans are Christians. More than 26% are Catholic. Southern Baptist with 19% is the largest of many Protestant denominations. Jews at barely 2% remain the largest non-Christian group. Muslims are 0.5%; Buddhists 0.4% and only 0.2% are Hindus. Those who claim no religion are just 7.5%. The USA remains a Christian-dominant Protestant society.

A More Nuanced View. Most people consider themselves religious, but many do not have very strong commitments to religious institutions. It is fashionable for people to differentiate between being "spiritual" and being "religious". These people are declaring that they have a very personal commitment emphasizing experience over institutional allegiance, ritualised forms and authoritarian leadership. Implicit in being "spiritual" in contrast to "religious" are the values of individualism, personal freedom and anti-authoritarianism which course through much of American religion in these times.

In the USA the churches play a wider social and sociological role than they do in other parts of the world, being the focus for much social activity that is only tangentially religious. They also help new immigrants to maintain ethnic identities and provide communal protection.

The new Autonomy. Religion in the USA has also changed in the last 20 years. It is no longer passed on with cosmic fixity from generation to generation - it has become a purchasable commodity. Today churches are the supplicants looking for members. For many there is an anxiety about the perceived breakdown of the community, people are concerned about the integrity of their families and the need to raise moral children - religion is perceived as addressing these problems. In searching for a church they ask, "What?s in it for me?" Ministers have become entrepreneurs and merchants. New types of spirituality have emerged, both inside and outside the churches, including Native-American, feminist, earth based, men?s, and Eastern including beliefs and practices appropriated from Buddhism, Taoism, Zen and Hinduism. A sense of tolerance and commitment to religious pluralism and a new interest in so called "multi-layered belief and practice" - blending practices from different traditions into something new - is evident.

Humanists should not begrudge these developments if they are in accordance with our concern for human welfare and support the ethical development of children or if the commitment to doctrine grows weaker while pragmatic concerns grow stronger. We may conclude that mainline religious groups in the USA are becoming more humanistic. As an example, many conventional and conservative churches now follow the example pioneered by humanists in fashioning their own wedding and humanist services.

Humanism has appropriately feared religious power, especially when conjoined with political power, and the evil that it can do but if personal fulfillment has become salient in religious life, and doctrinal divisions between people less important, then religion has become domesticated. Great sectors of American religion have become more tolerant and less authoritarian. As religion becomes less interested in proclaiming absolute truths, and increasingly is transmuted into matters of culture, and even entertainment, it becomes less xenophobic, less exclusive and less dangerous.

But as religion has changed, become commodified, as it imitates and sells out to the market, it deflates its ability to confront social evils; it forfeits its historical role to "speak to truth to power." Though this role was a minor one for religion it was not insignificant. Religion has gone "post-modern". The worst elements in religion have been considerably mitigated, but so have the best. If a King or a Gandhi were to appear on the American scene today the authority of their message would be quickly transmuted and lost in the celebrity of their personalities; their political missions disarmed.

The Threat of Fundamentalism. He referred to the wicked resurgence of religiously inspired nationalism in such places as Yugoslavia and Sri Lanka and said the trend exists in the USA but is not identified with violence on such a large scale. There exists a massive right-wing, Christian evangelical and fundamentalist movement in the United States - the Christian Coalition, with more than two million members, is perhaps the largest grass roots organization in American history. It is well organized, highly financed, politically sophisticated, very powerful and very dangerous. 25% of the population identify themselves as evangelical Christian. For many reasons, including a Southern evangelical (but not fundamentalist) being elected to the presidency, and growing resentment over the political and cultural hegemony held by northern liberals, southern religious conservatives entered the political fray. To a great extent they were reacting against the same liberalising forces that informed the religious shifts previously described. First as the Moral Majority, and in the last two decades, the Christian Coalition, millions of conservative Christians have become politically active. They have made "secular humanism" an explicit enemy, though humanism is more accurately an icon for a much broader range of values and issues which disquiet such politicized fundamentalists. Upset by liberalism and modernism inclusive of the empowerment of women, the loss of patriarchy, sexual issues including abortion, gay rights, and teenage pregnancy - the changing ethnic and racial character of the United States (increasingly a multi-cultural society) is very threatening to those Caucasians who feel a loss of power and control. The Christian right offers a sense of hierarchy, social order, patriarchy, stable families, clean values and the yen for a golden age, which never existed in America in the first place. The impeachment of President Clinton can be interpreted, in part, as expressive of a Kultur Kampf between patriarchal conservatives acting with the religious right, and the liberalizing cultural and political tendencies emerging in from the 1960s.

Their political agenda includes ending legalized abortion, establishing a balanced budget amendment, reducing taxes, reducing social welfare spending, increasing school choice, introducing Creationism into the school curriculum, opposition to the United Nations and the destruction of the separation of church and state. And for many, creating a Christian state. Such fundamentalists claim that by so acting they are supporting biblical values, though one would be hard-pressed to find these issues defended, or even mentioned in the Bible.

Through their organizing ability, including sophisticated employment of the mass media, the Christian Right is altering the American landscape. Abortion clinics are harder to find, school vouchers, which will undermine public education, are becoming accepted, and the separation of church and state is being eroded. Having had a sympathetic president, Ronald Reagan, and allies on the Supreme Court, the Religious Right will prove to be a major force on the American political scene for at least several decades.

Since Pat Robertson was badly defeated in a bid for the presidency, the tactic of the Christian Right has shifted somewhat from work on the national level to the grass roots. Fundamentalists run candidates for school boards - and often win. A major strategy is to take over the Republican party. This has won them sympathetic members of Congress, and office holders on the state and local levels - more respect and influence than any similar religious initiative in many generations. But there are signs that this approach is unraveling as there has emerged a divide in the Republican party over issues promoted by the Christian Right and the loyalty it demands. A backlash is in the making.

Though the fundamentalist Right will remain a potent force in American politics for the foreseeable future, the long range remains uncertain. As humanists we believe that the future is always an open future, and our efforts can have an influence in shaping the kind of society we want to have.

Organized humanism is a very minor voice on the American scene. Though it may run against the sensibilities of many humanists in my country and elsewhere, I think it is perfectly proper, indeed demanded, that theological differences not keep those of similar political views from banding together. In short, there needs to be a growing alliance between humanists and those in the liberal religious camp in political defense of those values of tolerance, freedom and pluralism which they and we both cherish.

Alexander Cox, of the Ibero-American Humanist Association of Costa Rica, gave an account of "Religion in the Spanish World". Latin America, covering some 11 million square kilometres of land with 190 million native Spanish speakers, is predominantly Catholic, with a Protestant minority and also anti-clerical, positivist, Marxist elements. Humanists aimed for separation of Church and State, the right to choose an abortion, the rights of women, the rights of gays and lesbians.

Human rights campaigner, Dr. R. M. Pal spoke about "The Effect of Communalism and Religion on International Relations". The religious division with the partition of India was hoped to be the end of communal problems. But the hope for a national debate on communalism and religious nationalism had not materialised. India was faced with majority communalism, not minority communalism. There is a myth that India has a tradition of tolerance. There has been flexibility and pluralism, but not real tolerance. However, it is possible to be highly religious and not communalistic.

Demonstrating the powers of the God Men. Following the Plenary sessions in the late afternoon B Premanand explained and demonstrated some of the techniques and tricks that the ?God Men? use to demonstrate their supernatural powers. Two men had hooks placed through the skin on their backs and used them to pull a car along the road. They were then suspended by the same hooks from a balance that was spun around while B Premanand?s supporters chanted "there are no Gods". However, a woman from the local housing estate, who presumably did not understand English, caused some amusement when she apparently thought they were genuine ?God Men?. Sleeping on a bed of nails was demonstrated and two young Humanists aged 9 and 13 from Andhra Pradesh volunteered to lie with their heads on the seat of one chair and their feet on another while adults stood on their unsupported stomachs. Sai Baba?s trick of producing ?Holy Ash? from his seemingly empty hand was explained and demonstrated. The demonstrations were keenly followed by the Indian audience, perhaps because similar tricks performed in the West are more likely to be performed as magicians tricks rather than by ?God Men? claiming supernatural powers.

On Wednesday evening the South Asian Humanist Network hosted the Conference Banquet. During the evening Awards were presented by the IHEU to Paul Kurtz, Abe Solomon and Paul Postma (Paul Postma?s award was accepted on his behalf by Hans Hoekzema of HIVOS).

Thursday started with an address from Jean Claude Pecker on "The Universality of Science and Universal Human Rights". He apologised in advance for what may sound like a rather pessimistic look at the future. Wars, he said, are often conducted for the glory of god - the destruction of the Jews or the American Indians, and religion continues to influence present conflicts - Tamils and Sri Lankans.

A prophet said: peace on earth to all men of good will. But religious can not really claim to be humanist. Humanitarianism is not humanism. The diversity of cultures - we have to preserve it. Humanism is manifold - not just science. The universal declaration of Human rights - do not exclude anyone. Some groups are only interested in their own history.

Preservation of the earth is a value. You can not pollute here, in India, without this affecting Australia. We need to think of the universal ecology and the universal economy. The greatest danger for Humanism in the years to come will be conflicts, one against another. There is the

possibility of famine and hunger. The solutions may conflict with human rights. Calories consumed per person are increasing here while they are decreasing there. Problems of energy consumption globally may require advanced countries to drastically reduce consumption.

He conclude that he may have sounded pessimistic but said that he did hope that we can find a decent and balanced level of living for the future.