Do Atheists Need Chaplains Too?

My church in New York City rents space for its earliest Sunday service from the Society for Ethical Culture. Throughout the week, the Upper West Side building next to Central Park houses services by Redeemer Presbyterian (“a center-city community of changed people who are committed to serving and renewing New York City through a movement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”); an environmentalist congregation called Earth Rise (“a gathering for those who have made a deep connection with Nature and want to honor that”); and the humanistic Ethical Culture group (“We place our faith in the demonstrated capacity of people to do wonderful things”). One evening I was there for a Bible class in a basement room while the instrumental rock band Explosions in the Sky was doing a concert in the sanctuary. 

Built in 1910, the building, with velvet-cushioned pews, stained glass windows, and wood-paneled upper rooms, resembles a traditional evangelical church. But it serves as a catchall venue for Christians, earth-worshippers, atheists, and rock bands. Inscribed in gold over the center of the stage is the phrase, ""The Place Where People Meet to Seek the Highest is Holy Ground."

At Tufts University, a group of humanist students called the Tufts Freethought Society, is seeking, not a place to worship, but a chaplain to give them spiritual guidance. The group calls itself “a community brought together and unified by our love of reason, truth, freedom, humanity, and nature.” They want the university to provide someone who can give spiritual and ethical guidance to students who consider themselves non-religious. According to an Inside Higher Ed article, such a chaplain exists at only three other universities: Harvard, Rutgers, and Adelphi.  

The idea is that even non-religious people are spiritual since they are human beings, and that they too seek answers to the big questions of life. A chaplain could help atheist students find what they do believe, since they identify themselves by what they don’t believe. Harvard humanist chaplain Greg Epstein says, “Right now, higher education is failing miserably to provide a place on campus where non-religious students can find purpose, compassion, and community.”  

But is that really so? Yes, college students long for community. NAS researcher Tom Wood has found that the deterioration of the core curriculum and the loss of common learning experiences such as required core courses and college-wide assigned reading have led to a spirit of disconnectedness on campus. The university should be a place where faculty members and students examine tough issues and tackle hard-to-solve problems in an atmosphere of collegiality and shared purpose. In the absence of a common academic pursuit, colleges have pursued “diversity,” “social justice advocacy,” and now, “sustainability.” They needed something that everyone could agree on, and these ideologies sounded wholesome and universally attractive. But such ideas can only go so far. They have failed to appeal to many people on campus, and they apparently do not satisfy the Tufts freethinkers either.  

You’d think that, with their pangs over “oppression,” “barriers,” “inequity,” and carbon footprints, colleges and universities would be America’s most vibrant communities for the non-religious—they offer a chance to be “moral” in every imaginable non-religious way. Colleges themselves are temples to humanism. But Epstein says higher education “is failing miserably” at helping atheists feel connected. Where did it go wrong? 

The Tufts Freethought Society says it is united by a love of reason, truth, and freedom. That sounds a lot like the National Association of Scholars; we cherish reasoned scholarship, the pursuit of truth, and academic freedom. Perhaps these principles, like a beautiful Upper West Side building, possess the universal appeal that PC platitudes lack.