Author: Bart
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An inspiring message at USC
An unexpected benefit of being the only openly secular campus minister at USC was being asked to offer a reading amidst the pomp and circumstance of this year’s Baccalaureate Service. As you can see here the ceremony itself was quite impressive. My reading of my friend Gretta Vosper’s prayer shows up at 14:00, but by…
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An email about labels and identity
Here’s a recent email from my inbox: Hi Bart, I’m a Christian. I left the church two years ago but retained the identity. Now I am not sure I want to be associated with Christians at all. It’s all tied up with the Christian hegemony in my country, frustration with liberal Christians who won’t stand…
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A secular prayer
Last week it was my honor to participate in USC’s baccalaureate service. Thrilled as I was to be included, I was a bit nonplussed when Dean Soni asked me to offer a Scriptural Reading. After all, we secularists have no holy books. While most of my interfaith brothers and sisters consider their favorite texts holy…
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Wonder-full Podcast #5: Jesse Graham
Jesse Graham is the principal investigator at USC’s Values, Ideology, and Morality Lab, where he is looking hard at the principles that cause so much conflict and yet provide so much meaning to people’s lives. He is particularly interested in how ideological and moral values shape behavior outside of our conscious awareness, and in how…
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A mission spark without faith
I’ve corresponded with lots of ministry-minded people who have lost their faith, many of whom once were or still are church pastors. What these good folks fear most about going secular is losing the privilege of reaching out in love to hurting people, or the urgency to do so. Here’s a question from one of…
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Wonder-full Podcast #4: ‘Consider the Lobster’
Earlier this month, Ashley Bradford had an encounter with a lobster that he won’t quickly forget. The encounter happened after he read an essay by the novelist David Foster Wallace called Consider the Lobster (2004, available in its 10-page glory HERE, or read the whole book). Ashley is an entrepreneur and technologist living and working…
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Wonder-full Podcast #3: Greg Epstein
Greg Epstein is the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University, a New York Times bestselling author and ordained humanist rabbi. On this third episode of the Wonder-full Podcast, Bart chats with Greg about their shared mission to create communities of secular people promoting goodness in the pursuit of human flourishing. Subscribe to receive new episodes automatically….
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Wonder-full Podcast #2: Peter Rollins
On this second installment of the Wonder-full Podcast, Bart enjoys a lively conversation with Peter Rollins, a writer, philosopher and public speaker from Belfast, Northern Ireland living and working in Los Angeles. Enjoy! LISTEN HERE
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The essence of ‘humanism’
Recently it was my privilege to speak to USC’s Secular Student Fellowship. Instead of speaking, however, I asked the group to help me overhaul a document I found on the Yale Humanist Community’s website called What Is Humanism?, which I think almost but not quite captures the essence of many of those students’ spiritual identities,…
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National exposure and – just to clarify!
After I talked with John Rogers of the Associated Press a few weeks ago, I wasn’t sure how clearly I’d communicated my commitment to secular goodness as a way of life, not just a way of thinking. After reading his article about me in today’s New York Times, Washington Post and and a bunch of…