Championing Social Justice with a Side of Humor

Rev. Ben Atherton-Zeman has done impressions since childhood, and he’s good at them, immediately launching into an amusing channeling of broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite and the Monty Python comedy troupe. “What can I say,” he jokes, “I was an only child and growing up I had to entertain myself.” 

While Atherton-Zeman may have a gift for comedy – he met his wife Lucinda while they were both performing improv – it was not meant to be his life’s work. Instead, Atherton-Zeman, the new minister of the Unitarian Universality Church of St. Petersburg, used his talent for humor toward a very altruistic purpose: social justice.  

For more than 30 years, Atherton-Zeman worked as a prevention educator for domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, and state coalitions, speaking out about violence against women. He also served as a spokesperson for the National Organization for Men Against Sexism. His message is a serious one that can be difficult for some audiences to hear and absorb. But early in his career, he learned that a little humor could go a long way in easing the tension and getting past people’s blocks. 

That was the premise behind his one-act play, Voices of Men, an educational comedy that he performed for high schools, colleges, military installations, national conferences, and business groups. The play was so successful it caught the attention of the US State Department Speaker’s Bureau, and he was asked to present it in countries around the world, from India, Nepal, China, and South Africa to the United Kingdom. 

What made the play such a hit? During the performance, Atherton-Zeman would come on stage in costume and do impressions of James Bond, Rocky Balboa, Austin Powers, and other stereotyped “icons of masculinity,” as well as characters like Elmo and Kermit the Frog. 

“When the audience is busy laughing, they forget to be defensive, they let their guard down. And that’s when they’re more willing to listen and learn,” said Atherton-Zeman. “My favorite thank you was after a military briefing, when an enlisted man came up and said to me, ‘Sir, that was the best briefing I have ever been to – I did not fall asleep.’”

His experience talking with audiences in India and Nepal were especially meaningful. It is there that Atherton-Zeman met survivors of sex trafficking as well as acid attacks – a shocking act of misogyny in which acid or another corrosive substance is thrown at women and young girls in attempt to permanently scar their face and body, usually in response to their rejection of a man’s sexual overtures or marriage proposal. 

“I got to meet so many incredibly strong women survivors and to work with great organizations like the Shanti Foundation in Nepal, which supports women and children who are victims of sex trafficking who are also HIV positive,” said Atherton-Zeman.  

Since joining the UU St. Petersburg Church, Atherton-Zeman no longer performs his play, Voices of Men or serves as a national speaker on sexual and domestic violence. But he continues to maintain contact with organizations in India and Nepal and to visit many of the women he met there while serving on the US State Department’s Speaker’s Bureau. In January of this year, he traveled to both countries on a social justice tour with a group from U.S. and he hopes to travel there again in 2026.  

Atherton-Zeman’s life-long interest in social justice began early. In 1986, when he was 19, he took a year off from college and joined the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. With about 800 fellow activists he walked 3,700 miles across the US, camping in cities and towns along the way. It took eight-and-half months. 

The walk changed his life in a way he hadn’t expected. “I met a lot of feminists who talked to me about their day-to-day experience with issues like sexual harassment, being paid less than men. They challenged me to do something about it,” said Atherton-Zeman. “I decided to make social change my life’s work.”

In the early 1990s, he joined a Unitarian Universalist Church in New England and liked the sense of connection, inclusion and liberal philosophy he found there. In 2021, he graduated with a master’s degree in divinity from Boston University School of Theology and secured a position at the UU Church in St. Petersburg. “Lucinda and I were both born and raised in New England, and she wanted me to apply to a church located somewhere warm,” he said. “We fell in love with the people at the church and with the St. Petersburg community.”

The historic 1929 Mediterranean-style church at Mirror Lake is one of the oldest Unitarian Universalist congregations in Florida. The church takes a strong stand on many social justice initiatives, from advocating for the homeless to providing affordable housing. Every Friday evening, members serve a meal to those who are hungry and in need. Atherton-Zeman says he feels lucky to have a found a church community that is dedicated to making the world a better place for everyone.