New York Times: Following Newtown tragedy, humanists seem absent

Our take: New York Times reporter Samuel G. Freedman examines how in times of crisis like the Newtown, Conn., shooting faith has helped mourners cope. Freedman highlights the religious beliefs of the grieving families and community members and notes that although the percentage of Americans without religious affiliation is growing rapidly, the "nones," seem largely absent in the wake of this tragedy.

Since the Newtown massacre on Dec. 14, the tableau of grief and mourning has provided a vivid lesson in the religious variety of America. An interfaith service featuring President Obama, held two days after Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, included clergy members from Bahai, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and both mainline and evangelical Protestant congregations.

The funerals and burials over the past two weeks have taken place in Catholic, Congregational, Mormon and United Methodist houses of worship, among others. They have been held in Protestant megachurches and in a Jewish cemetery. A black Christian youth group traveled from Alabama to perform Amazing Grace at several of the services.

This illustration of religious belief in action, of faith expressed in extremis, an example at once so heart-rending and so affirming, has left behind one prickly question: Where were the humanists? At a time when the percentage of Americans without religious affiliation is growing rapidly, why did the nones, as they are colloquially known, seem so absent?

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