No Room for Non-Theists at Boston Interfaith Service
“We were blown off.”
By Becky Garrison
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But though (Greg) Epstein (Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University) has considerable experience organizing memorial vigils—and has addressed over 45,000 people in attendance at these events during his decade of service as a humanist chaplain—he was not invited or included to participate in “Healing Our City.” This interfaith memorial event, held at Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston on Wednesday, April 18, was attended by President Obama along with representatives from the Protestant, Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim faiths.
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According to Lauren Anderson Youngblood, Communications Manager for the (Secular Coalition for America), they had been working since Tuesday to make sure that the non-theist community was a part of the service. “We were consistently given the run-around, relayed to other people, told we would be called back, and so forth.” The White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships stated they were not responsible for the planning of the event and directed them to call the local organizers. Youngblood recounts their efforts:
We reached out to the Office of Community Affairs in the Governor’s office, the Archdiocese of Boston, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the Massachusetts Council of Churches, the Office of the Mayor and the Boston City Council. We spent the entire day doing this and were repeatedly brushed off by each person we called. Our lobbyist, Kelly Damerow, called the Governor’s office every hour yesterday, and was still trying this morning, before the event, at which point we finally realized it wasn’t going to happen.
“I choose my words carefully here: We were blown off,” Epstein states.
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“We made it exceedingly easy for the Governor’s staff to find us and include us, but they chose not to do so. The exclusion of non-theists today no doubt deepened the hurt the people in the non-theist community are feeling. What principle was served by our exclusion, I don’t begin to understand.”
All above emphases are mine.
Full article here.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Why would they include non-theists in their drum circle. We don't mourn or grieve. We don't feel sympathy for those who are lost in senseless murder. We don't want to be included in the process of healing communities.
It is really sad that people think we don't need the comfort of others who are coming together to try to make sense of the senseless. I am most upset that this is an intentional slight.
we can't be allowed to spoil their dream world. We are too... too... factual.
or
We can't possibly feel the sorrow that believers feel.
or
We may disrupt the aether.
or
We are just dirty, filthy, scum, doodoos.
or
Our hearts and minds are not white as snow. 
Last edited Sun Apr 21, 2013, 02:58 PM - Edit history (2)
and was shaking my head at questions like, "Why would atheists want to attend a service to honor the victims?" and some of the claims that atheists would probably have just made fun of all the believers present if they'd been invited, anyway. After all, that's the main thing atheists are about, according to some of the people posting in the particular thread I found. 
I don't know how much easier it can be to understand: it's was an inter-faith memorial, which, to me, means people of any religious faith and people with no religious faith at all. I can't figure out if some of the people acting as if the exclusion of non-believers was no big deal are being deliberately obtuse because they hate atheists or if they're just flat-out stupid.
