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Enlightening Our Children
Posted By Stefan Monsaureus
On Saturday, 4 September 2004, the Washington Post ran a story titled “At Teen Magazine, Faith is in Fashion,” about Seventeen Magazine’s recent addition of a faith section. Editor in chief Atoosa Rubenstein was quoted as saying:
“I feel, and had sensed that my readers felt, that there was an entire magazine that wasn’t speaking to a part of them,” Rubenstein said. “I just noticed, more and more, our readers were talking about their faith.”
To deal with this newly discovered phenomena of teen angst, Rubenstein has empaneled an interfaith advisory board that includes representatives from Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. But, apparently, no humanists or atheists.
Why this presumption that non-theistic worldviews do not warrant a place at the table? Is there an underlying assumption that atheism is somehow unacceptable, or that it appeals only to an intellectual elite? Or could it simply be that the community of reason - atheists, humanists, agnositics, rationalists, skeptics - has failed to effectively communicate its message to the general population.
If the Freethought community is to increase its visibility and impact, it must learn to reach out to children, teens, and young adults in ways that are relevant to their lives. It is time that humanists and atheists begin developing content for the popular media - including magazines and television - that can provide a rational alternative to traditional religions. The challenge, though, is to make this worldview more relevant to the lives of this demographic - something the “movement” has thus far been unable to accomplish except in limited circumstances.
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5 September 2004
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