"Humanist" College "Chaplins" and Their Assemblies Without God

 Bart Campolo is the new Humanist Chaplain at the University of Southern California.  A former evangelical Christian leader with a national profile in his own right, he is the son of Tony Campolo, the famous evangelical preacher best known as the personal spiritual mentor to President Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky affair.  Steadily, over a period of decades, Bart's credulity in evanglical doctrine eroded away until his wife convinced him that he was theologically past the point of no return...
A few weeks ago, I watched Bart in action at the Sunday night monthly dinner of the new "humanist" community he is forming on campus.  The students attracted to this event were initially drawn to it in search of a support network for other students rejecting or recovering from affiliation with organized religion.  But "rah-rah, we aren't religious but we're okay" is not much of a fight song for a strong campus club at any university.  Bart understands this, and so he's offering an entirely positive reason for them to get them together:  to create a community where people care deeply about each other.