Stopes-Roe (1988a, p. 21) commented that "I have found the degree of opposition to the term "life stance" among Humanists more surprising than the religionist's objection." See also the overview of the debate between Walter (1988a and 1988b) and Stopes-Roe (1988a and 1988b) in Fowler (1999 pp. 3–4).
Stopes-Roe's advocacy of the term outside the literature of religious education was first published as Stopes-Roe (1987), but the article was in circulation at a Board meeting of the International Humanist and Ethical Union in October 1987 (See Walter 1988a, p. 4). The article was reprinted in New Humanist (Stopes Roe 1988a) and Kurtz (1989). Stopes-Roe revisited the subject in Stopes-Roe (1996), and wrote the article on "Life stance" for the New Encyclopedia of Unbelief (Stopes-Roe 2007). See also the statement "Humanism is eight letters, no more", signed by Harold Blackham, Levi Fragell, Corliss Lamont, Harry Stopes-Roe, and Rob Tielman.