5021 Is There a Humanist Language of Reverence?

The Rev. David Bumbaugh
HUUmanists

The Rev. David F. Bumbaugh is Associate Professor of Ministry and Director of Field Education at Meadville Lombard Theological School In that role, one of his concerns is helping his students find a voice for defining and expressing reverence in terms that are relevant today and which are not necessarily pietistic.

Bumbaugh recalled for his audience the recent trend to trivialize the sacred: the plethora of religious “documentaries” on cable television, which often seem intended more to proselytize than to enlighten; Oh, God and similar movies; and series such as Touched by an Angel are just a few examples. Because popular culture has used traditional religious themes rather freely to sell soap and SUVs or to support political positions, many ministers find themselves unable or unwilling to use traditional religious language and symbols to explain our deepest needs and issues. A new language is needed.

That language can be found in the Unitarian Universalist tradition, Bumbaugh argues. It is particularly present in Humanist Manifesto III , as well as in the earlier Manifesto I and Manifesto II . Bumbaugh spoke of it this way: The history of the universe is our history. We are the stuff of stars. There is a new story of creation and evolution still developing which only began in the last few centuries. This drives us to seek an ethic that values the individual and the ground from which the individual emerges.

This, Bumbaugh says, is a religious story. It drives us to define or build a vocabulary of reverence to suit it. Perhaps, he suggests, if we can do that, we can develop more than an elevator speech – perhaps we can develop a dialogue with all of creation on all issues and matters.

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