Stanford gets a chaplain for atheists Religion

L-R, Jeremy Jimenez and Chaplain John Figdor listen to guest speaker and author Dave Fitzgerald give a talk titled, "The Heathen's Guide to the Holiday," at Stanford Univeristy on Monday, December 3, 2012. Figdor is the professional leader of the Humanist Community group at Stanford. The group of humanists, atheists, agnostics and their supporters met on Monday, November 3, 2012, at Stanford University. less L-R, Jeremy Jimenez and Chaplain John Figdor listen to guest speaker and author Dave Fitzgerald give a talk titled, "The Heathen's Guide to the Holiday," at Stanford Univeristy on Monday, December 3, 2012. ... more Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Stanford gets a chaplain for atheists 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

Chaplain John Figdor has a divinity degree from Harvard. He counsels those in need and visits the sick. And he works with Stanford students under the Office of Religious Life.

So Figdor is the last guy you'd tag with the "A" word.

But, yes. The chaplain is an atheist.

"People are shocked when I tell them," Figdor said. "But atheist, agnostic and humanist students suffer the same problems as religious students - deaths or illnesses in the family, questions about the meaning of life, etc. - and would like a sympathetic nontheist to talk to."

Figdor, 28, is one of a growing number of faith-free chaplains at universities, in the military and in the community who believe that nonbelievers can benefit from just about everything religion offers except God.

Hired in July by the Humanist Community at Stanford, a nonprofit group independent of the university, Figdor is one of 18 "professional leaders" at the Office of Religious Life who typically work with sectarian student groups that pay their salaries. A graduate theological degree is required for the job, and the leader is entitled to office space on campus, a parking spot and a Stanford e-mail address. The leaders guide students in whatever way is needed, whether offering advice or organizing events.

But Figdor's flock already extends beyond Stanford.

"A lot of people go back to religious organizations when they start having children," whether or not they believe in God, because religion offers community, Figdor said. "What I really want to do is create a vibrant, humanist community here in Silicon Valley, where people can find babysitters for their kids and young people can meet each other."

In the suburbs north of Manhattan, Figdor's parents sent him to Sunday school- not for religion, but to gain a moral center, he said. Today, Figdor says that belief in a supreme being isn't a prerequisite to being a moral person.

In humanism, "we emphasize the values of compassion and empathy alongside reason and science," he said. "Humanism is about using science and technology to solve human problems. But it's also the belief that we should ask if something will create suffering or ameliorate it."

Armand Rundquist, 26, a Stanford graduate student in electrical engineering and president of AHA! - the campus group of atheists, humanists and agnostics - said many atheists aren't interested in having a chaplain.

Then they discovered additional benefits to Figdor's talents.

"He got us some discount tickets to the atheist film festival in San Francisco," said Rundquist, adding that "it's been really great" to have Figdor as part of what he called a new movement at Stanford.

Being included

Yet it was Stanford's theists, not its atheists, who insisted that there was a place for AHA! within the university's Office of Religious Life.

The Rev. Scotty McLennan, Stanford's dean for religious life, did the insisting, largely because Stanford's Memorial Church, the centerpiece of the campus, had been founded on a principle of inclusion.

In his 2007 sermon titled "The Wide Open Church," McLennan said that Rabbi Jacob Voorsanger of San Francisco had been among the clergy invited by Jane Stanford to help dedicate the new church in 1903.

McLennan quoted Voorsanger telling his audience that at Stanford, then 12 years old, "Unitarians, Trinitarians, infidels, Brahmins, Buddhists, Mohammedans, materialists, atheists, all have been heard, all were welcomed, the main condition of their welcome being that they must have something to say."

A century later, Figdor has something to say.

Forced prayer

He began to recognize what it was about five years ago while working with victims of domestic violence in Butte, Mont., with the AmeriCorps Vista program.

"I was able to see firsthand the experience the women had with religion," he said. "Their religion would tell them, 'You're supposed to keep your family together no matter how bad it gets.' "

He also encountered a homeless shelter that "forced people to pray if they wanted to eat," he said. "This was a serious problem in American society."

Figdor planned to become a journalist writing about religion and entered Harvard's masters program in theological studies. When he switched to the more rigorous masters of divinity and met Greg Epstein, Harvard's humanist chaplain, Figdor found a new calling.

He became Epstein's assistant chaplain, which became a full-time job after Figdor graduated in 2010.

"We did tons of things - a mix of ministering, community organizing and social coordinating," he said. "And there would be a student event - either dinner or a movie - at 7 p.m. every week without fail on Monday."

Not Sunday?

"Students are not that available on Sunday morning," Figdor said. "And we atheists like to get up a little later in the morning on Sundays."

Defining religion

Meanwhile in Palo Alto, a real estate developer named Norm Schwab had become the chairman of the board of the new Humanist Community at Stanford and hired Figdor.

"The question is, how do you define a religion?" Schwab asked. "This country gives advantages to groups that define themselves as a religion."

A priest's salary is subsidized by the government because the Catholic Church pays no taxes, he said, but the humanists who now pay Figdor's salary get no such benefit.

"It makes a very big difference in the long run," he said.

The word "chaplain," with religious origins dating back to the fourth century, "is not a perfect description" for a secular leader, but it demonstrates a parallel status, Schwab said.

Now Figdor is bringing the work he did at Harvard over to Stanford, including working with students on such seasonal favorites as "The Heathen's Guide to the Holidays."

A different holiday

Which raises the question: What should heathens celebrate?

"At Harvard we used the 'Seinfeld' holiday, Festivus - the holiday for the rest of us," Figdor laughed.

Celebrated each Dec. 23, Festivus includes such traditions as the "Airing of Grievances" and "Feats of Strength." Invented in the 1960s by a Reader's Digest editor named Daniel O'Keefe, the holiday became known to the world when a screenwriter for the TV sitcom "Seinfeld" - O'Keefe's son Daniel - wrote his father's invention into a show.

And hymns?

Figdor offered two: John Lennon's "Imagine," of course, and anything by a certain punk band whose lead singer, Greg Graffin, wrote his doctoral dissertation on evolution at Cornell University.

The band is called Bad Religion.