Demonized and Demonizing No More.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/joannabrooks/6991/demonized_and_demonizing_no_more_/

April 2, 2013 10:02am
Post by JOANNA BROOKS

Faitheist is the winsome story of a working-class white kid growing up amidst fragments of other people’s religions, who as a teenager latches onto the energy of evangelical Christianity, then comes to terms with his sexuality, leaves Christianity for atheism, and goes to theology school where he joins the movement for interfaith justice... as an atheist. It is the story of Christopher Stedman, who at 25 years old is now assistant humanist chaplain at Harvard University and a surprising and influential new voice in the interfaith justice movement and American atheism. Stedman models an atheism that while uncompromising in its principles is also warm towards and respectful of religious believers—a striking shift from the hard-hitting argumentation of the New Atheist movement—and ends up humanizing atheism while he’s at it.

New Atheists—Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and so on—have been all about the polemic. But you chose to write in a very different genre: memoir. Why?


Interfaith work gives a central place to the idea of exchanging stories to create more understanding and enrich the quality of the conversations that take place between people in various communities. As I began to speak about and do work related to the intersection of atheist identity and interfaith dialogue, I drew a lot on my personal stories and began to recognize how my experiences shaped my conclusions and my work. I stepped back and observed the narrative arc of my own life. I think narrative is a very helpful entry point to a more constructive and compassionate discourse, and so I wanted to model that by moving away from talking about these issues in a theoretical way and grounding them in real-world experiences.

What’s been the reaction to your work?

When the book first came out, there were some early negative responses—from atheists in particular. As time has gone on, I have been able to see my book and the response to it as part of thriving and ultimately heartening conversations both within the atheist community and between atheists and religious communities. Of course, there are still a number of people who are, if not entirely resistant to the ideas in the book, at least deeply suspicious about or don’t see much value in them.

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