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HUMANITAS is a cultural and educational organization that promotes family, community, and personal values based on the principles that as human beings we all have the right to be treated with dignity and respect and the right to self-determination. We believe that every age has to workout a set of moral principles in keeping with its history, culture, and current events. Therefore we do not believe that the moral solutions to our problems can be based on the belief that a supernatural being revealed himself to a particular group of people at a particular time and at a particular place. Such an act would be discriminatory. We believe that the human person should develop his or her skills to the utmost. We do not believe that fear, anxiety, guilt, and shame should be used to coerce individuals into believing religious "truths." We believe that wisdom and truths are also to be found in our culture, history, and literature. We therefore promote the development of our art, literature, music, technology. We do not believe that there is any difference between the sacred and the secular. HUMANITAS will provide forums to question, debate, reason, argue, and analyze issues. We believe that ignorance, intolerance for a diversity of viewpoints, and anti-intellectualism are great stumbling blocks to our development individually and collectively.
Why HUMANITAS? At present many individuals, families, and communities are suffering as a result of slavery, colonialism, and persistent racism. We believe that the solutions to these problems are to be found in principles that promote dignity, and respect for the human being based on rational and scientific ideas culled from our history, past and present. Just as how it would be futile to return to the horse and buggy as the chief method of transportation, the feather pen as the main equipment for writing, or to undertake surgery without anesthesia, so it is not worthwhile to go back to the First Century, A. D. to address the many social, economic, psychological, and political, problems that we face at the close of the Twentieth Century. We must fight racism. We cannot continue to struggle with outmoded reasoning and a morality which do not address our present day issues. We cannot fight racism based on a morality and a belief system that foster ignorance, indifference, and individualism. We cannot fight racism using doctrines which are questionable, irrational ,and irrelevant to our present day needs and which actually contribute to our oppression. The religious solutions to our problems based on the belief that a Supernatural Being revealed himself at a particular time to a particular group of people at a particular place have led to a lack of acknowledgment of our ancestors, history and culture. The belief in one text as sacred has led to infighting within our communities and families as a result of denominationalism while enriching the families and communities of others. We cannot fight racism effectively if we live in a state of denial, if we lack self-esteem and self confidence and we are constantly being impoverished. The religious organizations that presently exist have to a large extent led to the retardation of our growth and development condemning as they do many aspects of African civilization and culture which are termed sinful and wrong. This even includes the physical characteristics of Africans. We cannot struggle against racism if we persist in having no respect for our physical characteristics, but even more so we cannot effectively struggle against racism and cultural imperialism if we do not think highly of our art, literature, music, and history. We cannot effectively fight racism if we believe one race or one gender is superior. Theories of the superiority of a race and gender are hallmarks of religious doctrines. We cannot effectively fight racism if we continue to believe the myth that there is a difference between the secular and the sacred we do not see that all aspects of our being whether economics, social, psychological, political, artistic, scientific, technological are all intertwined. We have to get rid of the "pie in the sky" attitude. Even though poor black communities have more religious structures than any other community, religious organizations are businesses from which to a large extent people of African descent are excluded in spite of the existence of "Black Churches." Only a few black ministers and a few members benefit from the profits gained through real estate, the building and maintenance of church structures, carpets, pews, pulpits, tables, chairs, the publications of Bibles, hymn books, programs, purchase and upkeep of organs, pianos and other instruments, the use of electricity, and telephones, the purchase and upkeep of cars and vans, participation in funeral homes, participation in the banking system, the teaching in seminaries, and the publication of books in theology. We cannot afford to continue to live in a state of denial, indifference, ignorance, anti-intellectualism, and to care only about our individual salvation. We need organizations which will develop principles that (1) promote the development of our art, music, literature ,philosophy and science without guilt, anxiety, and shame; (2) dispel the belief as often purported by many religious organizations that there is one superior race and one superior gender (3) encourage intellectual development, rationality, and scientific analysis and not ignorance and indifference (4) encourage community and not individualism (5) expose us to the teachings about world religions and the cultures of the many different peoples who live on this planet- this knowledge is vital for the Twenty-first Century. We need to fight against religious parochialism. (6) Provide opportunities for members to develop their skills and abilities to their fullest potentials and to cultivate a community in quest of genuine HUMANITAS. (7) develop strategies to strengthen family systems and foster economic cooperation. Consequently in our teaching and leadership training emphasis will be placed on the value of tradition, the dynamics of continuity and change, economic security, and individual and community well being. Ultimately HUMANITAS seeks to cultivate the understanding that education is a value in and of itself and there is a direct correlation between economic and social stability, mental health and spiritual striving.
As African peoples have few organizations to respond to religious claims which are presented to us often by use of physical and psychological coercion as truth. African voices have been marginalized and silenced in the marketplace of ideas whenever they have attempted to establish alternatives. It is time for alternatives. Write Comment (0 comments) |
