A new issue of New Humanist titled “Heroes of Free Thought” tracks how people are reshaping identity—whether by leaving faith, exploiting it online, resisting political repression, or debating what “natural” should mean in rewilding.
By the time this year’s first issue of New Humanist lands, it already feels like a challenge. Its cover story. “Heroes of Free Thought. ” is a tribute to “difficult people” who refuse to fall in line with ideological expectations. They stand up for what they insist are facts—whether they do it in public debate or by stepping away from systems of indoctrination.
Ellie Broughton’s reporting takes the idea of refusal straight into therapy rooms. She speaks to UK therapists who specialize in helping people break their connections with religious communities and forge a new identity for themselves. The process is described in language that is both clinical and intimate: the US author and non-denominational pastor Brian Zahnd calls it “the process of paring away the extraneous elements of culture. myth and toxic dogma from their faith.” Therapists. Broughton reports. often refer to it as “deconstruction.”.
Broughton outlines approaches used in the UK for people leaving a religious group or recovering from associated trauma. There are “post-cult counselling” methodologies. and there are also secular spiritual practices designed to fill the gap left by religion—music. psychedelics and somatic practices are among the options discussed. There are volunteer support groups and helplines as well.
For some, the most striking part isn’t that they leave, but that they return—professionally. Broughton writes that some who manage to leave institutional religion behind become therapists themselves. applying their lived experience to gain “unique insight and understanding” and to empathize with clients’ beliefs. fears and vulnerabilities post-religion. But even here, the story refuses to become comforting. Broughton warns that personal experience can “also be a hindrance,” requiring practitioners to avoid projecting their own experiences onto patients. In countries where religion is in decline. she argues specialized therapists will be “ahead of the curve” in providing deconstruction services.
The struggle over identity doesn’t end when someone exits a community. Katherine Denkinson shows how religion can be pulled the other way—weaponized for status. influence. and a reshaping of gender roles. Her piece explores the rise of a new breed of misogynistic online influencers who present themselves and their ideas as Christian. Denkinson says they use religious values to argue for a reestablishment of “the natural order” and a return to traditional roles for women.
They aren’t operating at the margins. Denkinson writes they are “gaining a disturbingly large following of young men. ” and points to a study showing that young British men are increasingly likely to identify as rightwing and anti-feminist. She frames the shift as deliberate leverage: these influencers use the legitimacy of religion to spread misogynistic ideas into the outside world. “including in political circles.”.
Their style is part of the threat. Denkinson describes their calm demeanour and pseudo-intellectual theories as giving them a foothold—one that. in her view. makes them more pernicious than cartoonish. aggressive characters like Andrew Tate. She also links their ideology to broader networks: Denkinson writes they are ethno-nationalists with close links to advocacy groups that oppose abortion and women’s rights. Their talking points, she adds, have been echoed by candidates from the Reform UK party.
There is pushback, but Denkinson doesn’t treat it as a clean separation. She writes that some parts of the Christian establishment are trying to distance themselves by adopting a consciously egalitarian public position. but she warns that such moves may “merely further radicalize” members of the Christian manosphere.
And then. in Alexandra Domenech’s reporting. the question of identity takes on a different. harsher light: what happens when belief and gender become grounds for punishment. Domenech documents the experiences of Belarusian women arrested and jailed for their opposition to the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka following the mass protests of 2020.
Inspired by opposition presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and fellow opposition figureheads Maria Kolesnikova and Veronika Tsepkalo. Domenech writes that thousands of women joined the protest movement. They marched, called for an end to the country’s patriarchal political culture, and became targets in a crackdown.
Despite harsh treatment, Domenech reports that “the women who have emerged from these colonies tell stories of defiance and solidarity.” A recent amnesty has seen many released, but 175 women remain in prison for their political beliefs.
Domenech interviews female dissidents about jail—where systematic efforts were made to crush their spirit. The women faced intense surveillance and harsh punishments, yet she writes they refused to be treated as victims. They organized morale-boosting activities for fellow prisoners and carried out “secret. small acts of protest.” Those acts included decorating small items with the colours of the red-and-white Belarusian flag and wearing red lipstick in imitation of Kolesnikova’s distinctive style.
One former detainee offers a quiet fracture in the machinery of control: Domenech writes that “some of the guards couldn’t help but feel moved by the dignity and integrity of the political prisoners.” Domenech closes with a forward-looking hope that feels earned rather than announced: perhaps the future of Belarus “will be led by women – once they return from exile and are released from jail.”.
Between therapy language. online influence. and prison testimony. there is still another battleground—one that sounds technical until it isn’t. Richard Pallady examines the consequences of rewilding processes on plant and animal species. Many organisms are. in Pallady’s telling. “more than happy to rewild themselves.” But he stresses they are not the “static. placid entities we think they are.” Rewilding may look benign. yet it brings complex practical outcomes that question assumptions about modification and what people mean by “natural.”.
The mechanism Pallady points to is introgression: “the entry of one genetically defined population into another.” He describes how this is age-old. but argues the modern world has expanded the opportunities for it. Huge regions are used for crop and livestock farming. domestic animals are often free to wander. and that makes cross-pollination or interbreeding more likely.
The risk is genetic swamping—altering the wild population so deeply that it can no longer adapt to changing conditions. Pallady also emphasizes uncertainty: limited research has been done on introgression. mostly on cases such as salmon or aggressive hybrid weeds. “We simply do not know what the effects will be” in the long term.
As countries adopt rewilding policies aimed at restoring animals on the verge of extinction. Pallady notes that the specimens chosen are often those identified as the genetically “purest.” He argues readers should consider practical. ethical and moral questions raised by reverse engineering. The plea at the end is sharper than it might seem: pay more attention to genetics—and “not just due to abstract ideas around ‘purity’.”.
What ties these stories together is not a single belief system. but a shared contest over who gets to define identity. In Broughton’s reporting, people try to rebuild themselves after leaving religion behind. Denkinson shows what happens when religion is reintroduced as a marketing tool for misogyny and political ambition. Domenech shows that when women resist patriarchal culture in Belarus, survival can become a daily act of defiance. Pallady. meanwhile. warns that even when we say we’re restoring nature. we may be engineering it with consequences we can’t fully predict.
The issue’s title—“Heroes of Free Thought”—lands less like a slogan and more like a warning: refusing to conform isn’t always rewarded. Sometimes it’s therapeutic. Sometimes it’s exploited. Sometimes it’s punished. And sometimes, even in the language of rewilding, “the natural” is never as uncontaminated as it’s sold to be.
New Humanist Heroes of Free Thought Ellie Broughton deconstruction Brian Zahnd Katherine Denkinson Christian influencers misogyny Alyaksandr Lukashenka Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya Maria Kolesnikova Veronika Tsepkalo Belarus women prisoners rewilding Richard Pallady introgression genetic swamping genetic purity