Iain Middleton
The IHEU Minimum Statement on Humanism reads:
IHEU member organisations have resolved in 1996 that: "Humanism is a
democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the
right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It
stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on
human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry
through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept
supernatural views of reality."
There are a succession of progressively more complex definitions and statements on Humanism but for some they seem to become progressively more esoteric and divorced from the reality of running a real Humanist Society. We will not seek to examine all these definitions and what they mean here. Instead, we will look at why we have a Humanist organisation and at some of the practicalities associated with such an organisation.
For convenience, the functions of a Humanist society have been broken down into three areas, although the boundaries may sometimes be blurred and they may vary from country to country depending upon local circumstances. The three areas are: Primary or essential functions, Secondary or non-essential functions, and tertiary or functions not directly related to Humanism.
Primary or Essential Functions
Primary functions are the essential functions, either because they are
essential for the existence of the society or because they are necessary to
protect the rights of members of the society and other Humanistic people.
They are functions that are unlikely to be provided by any other
organisation.
A society must exist before it can do anything and a Humanist Society is no exception. A "Humanist Society" is a society of like-minded people who share common values based on a broad acceptance of the Minimum Statement on Humanism, the Amsterdam Declaration 2002 (see inside front cover), or other Humanist documents. A Humanist organisation belongs to its members and the primary reason for its existence is to provide a home for its members and to provide them with mutual support. It exists to provide a home where non-religious Humanistic people can meet just for the enjoyment of being with like minded people, to have fun, and to discuss topics and issues of common interest in an objective and constructive manner, without interference from belief in supernatural entities and other dogmas. As such, a Humanist Society provides an important social and intellectual function. This meeting of minds provides a glue to hold a Humanist organisation together. If it does not provide this function then there can be no Humanist Society.
For those who live in more remote areas and who are not able to meet regularly with other Humanists, the bond and stimulation is provided through the publication of newsletters and a magazine. This becomes their main link to the society and is an essential function.
Of critical importance is the development of a Humanist ethic - not necessarily an ethic that is always different from that of the various religions and other beliefs, but one that can be seen to be rational and based on science and reason, not revelation or dogma. A Humanist ethic might be developed from the ideas of individuals who meet to discuss and refine their ideas and then communicate them to others through various publications. Their ideas can be informed by the thinking of others who are acknowledged experts in their various fields and Humanist literature is of tremendous benefit here. Members of smaller Humanist societies may not have the great thinkers that larger organisationshave but can benefit from the publications of these people and the larger organisations. Members of a small and isolated group need to be aware that they can easily fall into the trap of developing a line of thinking that does not conform to the majority pattern of the Humanist movement but even larger organisations under the dominance of some individuals may drift into a line of thinking that fails to follow Humanist principals.
Having developed ethical principals, Humanist societies might debate how these might be applied to current issues. Unfortunately, this is an area where there is often a wide gap between theory and practice. When practical situations arise, people may become emotional and fall back on old ideas or ideas from other ideologies, rather than looking at and debating rationally how the theories of ethics might be applied to the situation. The overriding principal and end goal should be to achieve the greatest benefit for all while minimising the harm to individuals.
Protecting the rights of its members and other Humanistic members of society is another primary function of a Humanist Society. Here a Society would seek to act in areas where no other organisation or non-governmental body might be expected to act. This area would include protecting the right of the individual to freedom from religion. Freedom from religion means the separation of the State from Religion; the protection of the individual from discriminatory laws that are based on the ethics of a particular religion or group of religions; and protection from specific laws that might impose religion on people through means such as religion in schools or the work place.
Unfortunately, many politicians, including non-religious politicians, are reluctant to act in these areas because they fear being branded atheists, heathens, or irreligious, and fear losing that crucial percentage of the electoral vote that keeps them in parliament. To overcome this problem, Humanist Societies may stress tolerance of others and equal rights, or just basic fairness, as a reason for law change, or to argue against the imposition of discriminatory laws, rather than to take a position that directly challenges religion. In most cases, this is more likely to succeed as it enables the politicians to support the Humanist position without being seen to be anti-religious. Challenging religion directly and placing the politicians in positions where they might be labelled non-religious if they support the Humanistic position is less likely to succeed.
Humanist Societies also take a strong stand to protect basic Human Rights as defined by such documents as the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
Other areas where Humanists perform an essential function might include support for: freedom from discrimination based on sex, race, or religion; the right of individuals to marry whomever they like, including people of the same sex, or not to marry including supporting rights for non-married families; choice in family planning and access to family planning knowledge and contraception, particularly for women; access to abortion during the early weeks of pregnancy; the right to life after birth; the right to freedom from bodily mutilation during childhood; and the right to live life with dignity and to die with dignity. These are often areas where some religions or religious individuals have either acted to restrict rights or to discriminate against individuals. In many countries, Humanists have taken the lead in these areas and have influenced others to act. The work that Humanists undertake in this area is likely to vary from country to country according to need.
Secondary or Non-Essential Functions
Secondary functions are those that a Humanist society might consider
desirable for its members, for similar people in society, and for others, but
that do not fall into the essential area. They are functions that will not
significantly or adversely affect the existence of the society if they are
not performed and functions that may be provided by others or other
organisations.
In the secondary area, we find Humanists providing services to the community where there is a need, and either no other organisation works in the area or is less likely to work for reasons such as religion. The IHEU has given some guidance with a listing of Projects with a Humanist Bias that the IHEU will support. See box - "Which Projects will IHEU Support.
Having established a group, Humanists can move on to developing secondary functions - providing services for their fellow members. These services might take several forms, from simply providing friendship to other members or visiting elderly and infirm members or helping one another in times of need. Often, much of this is done informally as an extension of friendship, but in bigger organisations, services might be organised on a more formal basis. Services that are more formal might include Marriage and other Celebrants. Having established services such as Marriage Celebrants, the services may be extended to non-members, as it was when the religious monopoly on marriage was first removed.Another area might be hospital visits to non-religions people.
In some countries, Humanist Marriage celebrants might be considered an essential function because they are the only alternative to Religious Celebrants. In New Zealand, when Religious Celebrants dominated marriages ceremonies and Humanist Celebrants were the only alternative, there was a need for Humanist Celebrants but with time, the demand has reduced. As there are now large numbers of independent Marriage Celebrants performing non-religious marriages, and religious celebrants perform less than 50% of marriages, there is now no essential need for Humanist Marriage Celebrants.
Which Projects will IHEU Support?
For the 2003 IHEU-HIVOS Humanist Networking and Development Funding
Programme, nearly US $55,000 are available for support to projects with a
Humanist orientation this year. This funding is available to Organisations
(and exceptionally individuals) from least developed to low and middle-income
level countries.
Project proposals must have a Humanist bias. By Humanist bias, IHEU means (as an illustration only) projects such as those relating to Separation of Religion and State; Inculcation of Scientific Temper; Support to Humanists/atheists subjected to discrimination because of their lifestance, including victims of similar discrimination such as children, women, homosexuals, physicians involved in voluntary euthanasia and abortion etc; social, legal and intellectual defence of the right to self-determination and other human rights. Purely Humanitarian aid projects do not automatically become eligible for applying under this funding programme.
(The 2003 IHEU-HIVOS Humanist Networking and Development Funding Programme, December 2003)
Tertiary Functions - Functions Not Directly Related to Humanism
Tertiary functions are functions that cannot be considered essential, necessary, or even desirable for the existence of a Humanist society but may be functions that some members may like to perform under the auspices of a Humanist Society. Typically, they would be functions that other providers supply to the community.
As the IHEU has indicated, "purely Humanitarian aid projects do not automatically become eligible for" funding under the IHEU-HIVOS development funding programme, because they cannot be considered to automatically have a Humanist bias. Many organisations do charity work and were specifically created for that purpose but most Humanist Societies were not created with charity as their prime objective.
In New Zealand, a Charitable Organisation may be recognised if it promotes one of the following: the advancement of education; the advancement of religion; the relief of poverty; or any other matter beneficial to the community. These four factors have not changed since the 17th century and will not be changed under proposed new legislation planned for introduction in 2004. The new Act will allow tax rebates only for donations to registered charities. The Humanist Society of New Zealand has charitable status now and expects to be registered under the new legislation. The Society does not benefit directly from charitable status but people who donate to the Society can claim tax rebates for their donations. The primary purpose of the new legislation is to eliminate the corruption that is believed to exist in some charities. The new legislation will insist that registered charities show a high standard of professionalism, keep proper audited accounts, ensure that all payments are properly authorised, and that money donated for charitable purposes is used for charitable purposes and does not find its way into the pockets of the officers of the charity. To comply with the new legislation, the Humanist Society of New Zealand may have to keep accounts for the tax-deductible donations that it receives and the charity work that it undertakes separate from other activities.
For Humanists, charity is an area that can be divisive and create
disagreement. Some Humanists are concerned that the money the Society has
should be used for primary Humanist purposes and not given away on a charity
project that has no Humanist bias and will not contribute to Humanist
objectives nor benefit the Society. Of particular concern is that money
donated for particular purposes, such as the development of Humanism, or the
magazine, may be simply given away in almost random acts of charity. While
some see charity as a means of creating a more humane society, other
Humanists see the need for job creation as a greater priority and as a more
effective means of creating a humane society by eliminating inequalities,
poverty, and the need for charity. Some would argue that some charity is
likely to perpetuate rather than relieve the problems of poverty.
Some people are so keen to undertake charity work that they will foist it on
people who are not in any real need of assistance and do not want the help
that is given. Conversely, when money is being distributed there are those
who are too willing to put out their hands for assistance but whose real need
for help is dubious. Charity does not always go to the most deserving.
With charity, there is a need to avoid the Mother Teresa syndrome - indulging in charity for personal benefit, a path to heaven, or because it makes the provider of charity feel good, while simultaneously advocating policies that make the problem worse so that the giver can feel even better attending to even more people in need. Such people are generally very good at giving away other peoples money. Mother Teresa opposed birth control and abortion and openly stated that this was because they would reduce poverty and the need for her services! Sometimes those who advocate charity do so because they find solving the problems of the world, including the general raising of living standards andthe equitable distribution of wealth, too difficult to think about, so they support charity as a means of making themselves feel better. Others have an envy of or dislike for a section of people in society, particularly those who make society work and have personally benefited from their efforts, and seek to compensate for this by showing their love and compassion for those in need.
Similarly, some are opposed to trade that is both free and fair and that will increase the incomes of people living in low-income countries, but advocate aid to these countries. To compensate, they support migration from low to high-income countries by the economic refugees that result. Such attitudes reinforce their personal belief that the world is an unjust place while making them feel good for doing something about it. In reality, they are exacerbating and perpetuating the problem.
As charity, or humane work, is not an essential function of a Humanist Society, the arguments that a Humanist Society must undertake charitable work to retain a pre-existing charitable status or because the churches do it, are unsound. Much of the charitable work done by churches is proselytising, undertaken with the primary desire to obtain converts, rather than with genuine motivation.
Despite all this, a Humanist Society often has members who are keen to undertake charity work and prefer to do it through a Humanist Society rather than through some other organisation. If this is the case, it should be recognised that charity is not a primary function of a Humanist Society and is probably best undertaken by forming a special interest group and funding the charity work separately from the main accounts of the society.
As a Humanist Society is likely to have limited means, charity work undertaken under a Humanist banner should be targeted and undertaken for genuine reasons, to support those in genuine need and not just to make the givers feel good, and should ideally have a Humanist bias. Ideal areas for charity work would be in those areas where people are suffering or in poverty because of religious activities and discrimination.
In the mid 1990s, the late Robert Miller, a former member of the council of the Humanist Society of New Zealand, proposed setting up a Humanist trust controlled by the HSNZ for the purposes of supporting Humanist charities. Members donating to this trust could claim tax rebates and the Society would use the money for charities supported by the Society.
Will the real Humanist please stand up
A Humanist Society is a society of its members. They have in common a general
adherence to or belief in the essential correctness of such statements as the
Minimum Statement on Humanism and the Amsterdam Declaration 2002. Otherwise,
people are individuals and they bring to a society a wide range of individual
talents and skills.
This range of talents and skills is one of the strengths of a society. Recognising these individual strengths and talents is one of the challenges that officers of the Humanist Society face.
Unfortunately, some people join a Humanist Society with a lot of baggage in tow. Some come from religious backgrounds and while they have thrown off their belief in a god, they retain many of the other teachings of their former religious leaders. Some are still imbued with the belief that churches work for good and that all else is suspect - they are horrified at the possibility that churches might be criticised. While a Humanist Society is tolerant of other people's religious beliefs, and is prepared to live and let live, it is not so tolerant of those who seek to foist their morality and restrictions onto other people (who wants to wear a burkha anyway) or whose religion causes sufferingand poverty.
Others bring political beliefs to a society and use these to define their Humanism. In most cases, it would be better for them to use their Humanism to inform their politics.
Regrettably, there are people who have a narrow way of defining their
Humanism and are intolerant of others views. Have some said, "there are
people in the society who are not real Humanists"? Perhaps others have said
the same of them. Rather than play this silly game we would all do far better
to work to increase and broaden our understanding of Humanism and our
understanding and tolerance for other people's ideas and beliefs.