Victoria Law delivered this homily as part of “Humanist Sunday,” Sept. 4, 2016, at Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. The Humanism Explorations group meets at RVUUF from 3 to 5 p.m. on the first and third Sunday of each month.

Hi, my name is Victoria Law, I am a member of RVUUF and I am a Christian Humanist. Now for some people this might be a confusing statement. They will ask isn’t the very word “Christian Humanist” an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms? Can a Christian be a humanist? Can a Humanist be a Christian? This always surprises me because as an historian I know that Christian Humanism has its origins going back to at least the 2nd century. Some people might even say that Jesus was the ultimate humanist. The reason people are confused about this term, I believe, is that the Christian Right has for many years attempted to distort the very meaning of the word, “Humanism.”

One of the definitions of Christian Humanism that might help explain my beliefs is this: “Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its very doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Chrisan faith and classical humanist principles.” As a child, born two years before the launch of the Russian Satellite, Sputnik, I grew up at a time when the study of science and mathematics was well funded and encouraged, even for little blonde girls like me. We were taught the “New Math” and in my day, we were all encouraged, male and female, to want to grow up to be astronauts.

Because of this and my engineer father, I have always loved math and science and even weirdly, robotics. Rationality and logic are very appealing to me. And that is how I made my living for many years as a Systems Analyst and Computer Programmer for the Boeing Corporation.

At the same time with my love of science and mathematics, I really care deeply about my fellow man or I should say human, we’ll keep the robots out of it for now. Through my Chrisan beliefs, I believe “I am my brother’s keeper.” As a humanist, I won’t wait util the afterlife, which sometimes I have doubts about myself. I won’t wait to have human problems solved, I will jump in right now and do my best to help in this earthly life we share.

Someone asked me quite surprised by the very idea of a Chrisan Humanist, “What would a Christian Humanist look like?” Well, here are some examples of prominent Christian Humanist you might know:

Pope Francis, the newest pope who took his name from Francis of Assisi, also a Christian Humanist; Thomas Merton, the mystic writer and poet; Stephen Colbert, the comedian; and Cornel West, who was our inspirational speaker at the 2015 GA assembly in Portland.

And lastly, as a Christian Humanist I have not always felt comfortable in conservative Christian churches, but in Unitarian Universalism, I feel I have found my spiritual home.

Also in this series:
Humanism and its Historical Connection to Unitarian Universalism by Roy Kindell
Humanism and Hinduism by Diane Newell Meyer
How Reason Informs My Faith by Jonathan Donihue