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With Christianity in Decline, Britain Sees Rise of Humanist ‘Pastors’
Cybercast News Service ^ | August 24, 2016 | 12:08 AM EDT | Kevin McCandless

Posted on 08/24/2016 2:10:48 AM PDT by Olog-hai

With participation in traditional faiths at near-record lows, Britain is seeing the rise of what humanists describe as “pastors” for the non-religious.

Last month the University of Westminster in London broke new ground by appointing its first official secular advisor for students.

The move followed efforts by the British Humanist Association since 2014 to train more than 100 volunteers to go into schools, hospitals and prisons in order to provide counseling support for those who don’t believe in a deity.

Early this year hospitals run by Britain’s National Health Service in Leicester also saw their first humanist appointed to the local chaplaincy team. …

(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Local News; Religion
KEYWORDS: christianity; deathofthewest; europeanchristians; humanism; pastors; uk
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1 posted on 08/24/2016 2:10:49 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

And what exactly does a humanist “pastor” do?

Calm fears with promises that once it is over, then nothing?

Relieve anxiety by stating that all the things they did meant nothing in the big scheme of things?

Prescribe suicide since there is nothing after life anyway?

As a pastor I know I can tell my flock that we serve a risen savior and a real person, not fake stories with no reality behind them.


2 posted on 08/24/2016 2:41:41 AM PDT by wbarmy (I chose to be a sheepdog once I saw what happens to the sheep.)
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To: wbarmy

Sounds like a therapist with access to better parking spots.


3 posted on 08/24/2016 3:03:47 AM PDT by MAexile (Bats left, votes rights)
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To: wbarmy

Since unbelievers are but dehumanized aspects of the evolving universe of energy he can also hold out the devil’s promise of godhood upon absorption of their spark or stream of consciousness into the divine one substance.


4 posted on 08/24/2016 3:04:42 AM PDT by spirited irish
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To: Olog-hai

Keep it up. The Muslims are overly exalted with happiness.


5 posted on 08/24/2016 3:11:38 AM PDT by HomerBohn (Liberals and Slinkys: Good for nothing but make you smile as you shove them down the stairs.)
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To: MAexile

Excellent


6 posted on 08/24/2016 3:30:12 AM PDT by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: wbarmy

I guess humanist is the politically correct word for pagan.


7 posted on 08/24/2016 3:36:44 AM PDT by boycott (--s)
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To: wbarmy
And what exactly does a humanist “pastor” do?

Spread some variant of Marxism and work to destroy the home nation (via immigration, welfare spending, etc.).

8 posted on 08/24/2016 3:38:13 AM PDT by Moltke (Reasoning with a liberal is like watering a rock in the hope to grow a building)
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To: wbarmy

Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die?


9 posted on 08/24/2016 3:41:43 AM PDT by Gamecock (There is always one more idiot than you counted on.)
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To: Olog-hai

Baby talk for Islam?


10 posted on 08/24/2016 3:56:15 AM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard the Third: With my own people alone I should like to drive away the Muslims)
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To: spirited irish

But that might be too close to Buddhism for a true Humanist.Existence must have NO meaning.


11 posted on 08/24/2016 3:57:19 AM PDT by wbarmy (I chose to be a sheepdog once I saw what happens to the sheep.)
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To: wbarmy

I think they are used more for ceremonies such as weddings and whatever equivalent to a Christening may be.

In fact my brother is due to be married by one in a couple of weeks, and I have attended such services before and they were harmless enough. Not a choice I would make, but harmless enough.

In the marriage context they do actually preach many of the same elements and themes of a traditional Christian ceremony, albeit without the religious foundations. If thatc’s a persons choice, so be it.

The weak kneed, liberal Church over here has self destructed. It seems the same vicious elements are working also on the Catholic church worldwide, and having great success.


12 posted on 08/24/2016 4:05:16 AM PDT by UKrepublican
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To: Olog-hai

Ping for later


13 posted on 08/24/2016 4:48:18 AM PDT by twin2
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To: wbarmy

” . . Calm fears with promises that once it is over, then nothing?”

At the end of the age, these are the ones we’re told about in Revelation Chapter 9, where they desire to die but death will flee from them,


14 posted on 08/24/2016 5:26:27 AM PDT by captmar-vell
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To: UKrepublican
I think they are used more for ceremonies such as weddings and whatever equivalent to a Christening may be. In fact my brother is due to be married by one in a couple of weeks, and I have attended such services before and they were harmless enough. Not a choice I would make, but harmless enough. In the marriage context they do actually preach many of the same elements and themes of a traditional Christian ceremony, albeit without the religious foundations. If thatc’s a persons choice, so be it. The weak kneed, liberal Church over here has self destructed. It seems the same vicious elements are working also on the Catholic church worldwide, and having great success.
When marriage is no longer a sacrament but a mere contract, tying two people together, even with the ornamental pretense of a traditional Christian ceremony, it no can longer be called marriage. And as a result you will see in post-Christian Western civilization what you're seeing today.
15 posted on 08/24/2016 5:27:37 AM PDT by AC Beach Patrol
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To: AC Beach Patrol

Marriage is many things to lots of religions and people. And I for one certainly understand, respect and appreciate the sanctity of the Christian version of this. Knowing various married couples of different ceremonial backgrounds, I am yet to witness any great difference between them in terms of the strength of their union, either at the point of marriage, or thereafter. Maybe I am missing something though.

Having attended such a ceremony, it certainly wasn’t business or contract like - it entailed an almost identical set of commitments and values as a religious ceremony.

Maybe it is the term of ‘marriage’ you take umbridge with, which may be a wrong choice of phrase on my part.


16 posted on 08/24/2016 5:36:53 AM PDT by UKrepublican
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To: Olog-hai

liberalism is finally revealing itself as the religion it is!


17 posted on 08/24/2016 5:45:21 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (You can't spell Hillary without using the letters L, I, A, R)
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To: Olog-hai

British Humanist Assoc “chief executive” Andrew Copson. “For a very long time, non-religious people haven’t been able to benefit in that same way from having a non-judgmental person to speak to who shares their outlook on the world.”

He somehow forgot that true Christians are called to be non-judgmental, especially if working with the sick.

Betcha psychology majors will pour into those positions.


18 posted on 08/24/2016 5:56:52 AM PDT by ReaganGeneration2
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To: Olog-hai

The Lord wasn’t joking when He said “narrow is the road and few find it”.

The deception out there is thicker than most of us realize.


19 posted on 08/24/2016 6:33:22 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal (*Convicted of thought crimes by the Left and the Right*)
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To: UKrepublican
Not just the term but what is signifies, i.e., the traditional, sacramental nature. My brother got married in a humanist society ceremony by a female humanist "minister". He's been married 25 years. What has worked in my brother's case will not work, IMHO, in Western civilization's case.

What I am trying to get across ineptly and cursorily, was laid out perfectly by G.K. Chesterton in his What's Wrong with the World.

20 posted on 08/24/2016 7:11:20 AM PDT by AC Beach Patrol
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