Humanist Leader Files a Lawsuit against Aspects of Congressional Chaplaincy

The chaplains of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are targets of a lawsuit filed by Paul Kurtz, philosophy professor at the State University of New York in Buffalo and a well-known humanist. Kurtz seeks court action to force the chaplains to allow “nontheists” to participate in a guest-speaker program. He also wants to prevent the chaplains’ prayers from being published at taxpayer expense.

Kurtz filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Earlier this year, he provoked a confrontation with Senate Chaplain Richard C. Halverson and House Chaplain James D. Ford through a flurry of letters. He asked permission to deliver opening remarks at a daily session of either house of Congress. The humanist leader acknowledged that because of his beliefs he would not pray or “invoke any deity” during his remarks.

Ford wrote back saying House rules require that opening statements be in the form of prayer. Halverson replied that guest speakers were invited only when they were sponsored by a senator. Kurtz sought sponsorship from five senators and received one reply, from Oregon Republican Mark O. Hatfield. Hatfield said he would not sponsor Kurtz because a nontheist, by definition, could not utter a prayer or “acknowledge our dependence upon the transcendent Creator.”

Kurtz, editor of Free Inquiry magazine and a spokesman for humanism, said he is entitled to “equal access” to the floors of Congress because nontheists are excluded from providing moral or spiritual guidance in that forum. He said nontheists—whom he described as “people who may or may not be atheists”—do offer legitimate prayers. “There are a lot of ministers in this country who are nontheistic yet who provide moral inspiration,” he said.

Kurtz opposes as well the printing of the chaplains’ prayers every two or three years at taxpayer expense. He singled out Halverson’s prayers as unconstitutional, charging that they “are routinely used to advance theism and to disparage nontheists, including secular humanists, by … calling into question the morality and humanity of nontheists.” On the advice of legal counsel, Chaplain Halverson declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The U.S. Supreme Court has found the congressional chaplaincy to be constitutionally sound, so Kurtz’s suit is limited to the guest speaker program and the publishing of prayers.

Researcher Sees Hope For Less Soviet Repression Of Believers

Keston College, an organization that monitors religious affairs in Communist countries, is more optimistic about the plight of religious believers in the Soviet Union.

In an article published in the Keston College journal, research student Carolyn Burch writes: “The replacement of Yuri Andropov’s more forceful presidency by what must be naturally a more collective leadership under [Konstantin] Chernenko may give cause for a cautious hope for the leveling off of the recent sharp escalation in repression [of believers].…

“The increase in repression of any attempt to extend religious life beyond the officially stipulated boundaries has been a part of a general clamp-down on dissent which began in the Olympic purges of 1978–80, when Andropov was head of the KGB [Soviet secret police],” Burch writes. “Under Andropov, several Baptists were re-arrested and given fresh sentences, only months after completing a previous term of imprisonment.”

Orthodox Christians also have been suffering increasingly over the last two years from the attack on clandestine religious literature, though the brunt of this has fallen on evangelical groups. The work of the Christian Committee for the Defense of Believers’ Rights likewise has found increasing difficulties and risks over the last two years.

Burch writes that it is significant that Chernenko referred to religion at a central committee plenum last year. Such references are rare—particularly, open acknowledgment of the continuing influence of the Christian faith in the lives of the Russian people. It is also worth noting, she writes, that Chernenko has appeared to stress that the struggle is against religious ideology and not against believers themselves.

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