I became aware of why religious authority is a threat to human reasoning while reading the newspaper reports of LDS President Gordon Hinckley blaming the secularizing of public attitudes for the rampant social illness in America. The articles quoted Hinckley with saying of secularizing, "Its consequences are deterioration of family life, a weakening of self-discipline...single-parent households...people on welfare, abortions...and an increase of the prison population..." My immediate reaction was to begin composing a letter to the editor responding to his denunciation of secularization. Then my years of LDS indoctrination of never questioning a church authority made me pause to consider the public consequences of criticizing Hinckley. I became acutely aware of how powerful is the religious teaching of respect for authority and how that religious indoctrination carries over into political and secular affairs. I realized that if I am intimidated against responding to Hinckley's remarks, then it is certainly doubtful any active Mormon would dare to question his accusations. I gained a new appreciation for the fact that it was a major turning point in human history when leaders of the Enlightenment dared to question both religious and secular authority.

If there is any validity to Hinckley's conclusion that shutting our doors to the god of the universe is a cause of the moral decay of America, then humanism has a real challenge to stress our principles of human decency, responsibility and concern for ethical and moral values based upon reality. The authority of human reason, not the authority of supernatural mysticism, is the source of improving life on this earth. We humanists can probably agree with part of President Hinckley's presentation, the part where he said: "There must be a change in attitude, the taking on of a sense of accountability for one's actions."

--Flo Wineriter