Chris's Story
Chris Stedman is the Interfaith and Community Service Fellow for the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University and the Managing Director of State of Formation at the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue. Chris received an MA in Religion from Meadville Lombard Theological School at the University of Chicago, for which he was awarded the Billings Prize for Most Outstanding Scholastic Achievement.
A graduate of Augsburg College with a summa cum laude B.A. in Religion, Chris is a blogger for the The Huffington Post Religion, where his work is among the most commented in the site’s history, and is the youngest panelist for The Washington Post On Faith. His writing has also appeared in venues such as Tikkun Daily, The New Humanism, and more. Previously a Content Developer and Adjunct Trainer for the Interfaith Youth Core, Chris is a secular humanist working to foster positive and productive dialogue between faith communities and the non-religious.
He is currently writing a book on this topic for Beacon Press and speaks on it regularly both by invitation and as a member of the Secular Student Alliance Speakers Bureau. Chris also serves as an advisor to the Foundation Beyond Belief's “Bridging the Gap” initiative and is on the Leadership Team of the Common Ground Campaign, a coalition of young people standing up in response to the recent wave of anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence in America.
He is a widely published writer and public speaker, a member of the American Humanist Association and voting member of the Secular Student Alliance, and is the Religion Staff Writer for Jettison Quarterly. Chris is also the co-founder of the Secular Humanist Alliance of Chicago (SHAC).
Chris was raised in a secular home but converted to Evangelical Christianity after being invited to church by friends at 11 years old. After years of wrestling with Evangelical theology and his sexual orientation, Chris left the Christian tradition and spent some time exploring. Eventually he recognized that he was a Secular Humanist, and today he works to advocate for the mutual respect of religious and non-religious individuals. Watch his video from "The Calling."
