Chris Stedman, assistant Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University, will share his experience as an Evangelical Christian turned Atheist鈥攐ne who is searching for ways to engage religious diversity鈥攚ith the 黑料不打烊 community on Tuesday, Feb. 5.
鈥淔aithiest: How an Athiest Found Common Ground with the Religious鈥 will begin at 7 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel, and is free and open to the public. The event is sponsored by Hendricks Chapel, Interfaith Student Council, the Department of Religion, the Writing Program, the LGBT Resource Center and the Secular Student Alliance.
Stedman is author of the book of the same name, which was published by Beacon in November 2012 (with a forward by Eboo Patel, founder and president of the Interfaith Youth Core).
The book chronicles Stedman鈥檚 life journey. Searching for a community to belong to, he became an Evangelical Christian in late childhood. He found his church community to be homophobic at a time when he was discovering his own sexuality. He left the church and became an atheist, but found himself drawn to Christians with more tolerant beliefs and an interest in service, as he had.
[quote style=”boxed” float=”right”]鈥淗is own religious beliefs might have fallen away, but his desire to change the world for the better remained.”[/quote]鈥淗is own religious beliefs might have fallen away, but his desire to change the world for the better remained,鈥 according to his publishers鈥 statement. 鈥淒isdain and hostility towards religion was holding him back from engaging in meaningful work with people of faith. And it was keeping him from full relationships with them鈥攖he kinds of relationships that break down intolerance and improve the world.鈥
Stedman draws on his work organizing interfaith and secular communities, his academic study of religion and his own experiences to argue for the necessity of bridging the growing chasm between atheists and the religious.
Stedman is the emeritus managing director of State of Formation at the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue and the founder of NonProphet Status, the first blog dedicated to exploring atheist-interfaith engagement. A resident of Boston, Stedman writes for the Huffington Post, the Washington Post鈥檚 On Faith blog and Religion Dispatches.
More information can be found at www.faitheistbook.com.
