Twelve Apostates - Young Atheist Activists

At Skepticon 5, I met young girl who responded to something on the table about prayer in schools.  She mentioned her school had Christian prayers displayed was visibly upset by it.  Her mother mentioned wanting to do something about it, but she also mentioned her son's opposition to it.  He didn't want to make waves.  This took place a few hours before Jessica Ahlquist was scheduled to speak.

They weren't that familiar with Ahlquist's case or that she was speaking later the same day.  I hope they stuck around to see Ahlquist speak, and more so, I hope they got a chance to speak to her.

Kids like Jessica Ahlquist and Damon Fowler go through tremendous turmoil for standing up for what is right.  They get treated like freaks for daring to stand up to religion being put into public schools in violation of the Constitution.

Damon Fowler, an atheist student at Bastrop High School in Louisiana, was about to graduate. His public school was planning to have a prayer as part of the graduation ceremony: as they traditionally did, as so many public schools around the country do every year. But Fowler -- knowing that government-sponsored prayer in the public schools is  unconstitutional and legally forbidden -- contacted the school superintendent to let him know that he opposed the prayer, and would be contacting the ACLU if it happened. The school -- at first, anyway -- agreed, and canceled the prayer.

Then Fowler's name, and his role in this incident, was leaked. As a direct result:

1) Fowler has been hounded, pilloried, and ostracized by his community.

2) One of Fowler's teachers has publicly demeaned him.

3) Fowler has been physically threatened. Students have threatened to "jump him" at graduation practice, and he has received multiple threats of bodily harm, and even death threats.

4) Fowler's parents have cut off his financial support, kicked him out of the house, and thrown his belongings onto the front porch.

Oh, and by the way? They went ahead and had the graduation prayer anyway.

Even considering that, I hope that family I met at Skepticon ends up standing up to the school's violation of our Constitution, but I certainly won't blame them if they do not go through all the drama that would entail.  I'm not really sure what I would have done if there had been a prayer banner up in my high school.

I suspect the most likely possibility is that I would have said something to a few people, never gotten any support, given up, and been annoyed as shit by it until graduation.  I already went that far without speaking up about how much the Pledge of Allegiance bothered me.  "Under God" first bothered me at least as far back as 3rd grade, but I never said anything about it until I had already graduated.  I never even really considered saying something about it.

Ahlquist and Fowler did what many teenage atheist have not done, and many cannot do it for fear of repercussions even worse than they felt.  They took stands many adults aren't even willing or able to take.  They are to be praised.  They are to be emulated.

And most importantly, their successors are to be supported.  If you know an atheist in their situation, child or adult, please do whatever you can to support them.  Help them to take that stand against religious violations of the Separation of Church and State.  Be there for them when the attacks come from the followers of Jesus.

The world needs more kids following in their footsteps.  Maybe the more we help them along, the less necessary it will be for this fight to have to be fought.

Their Religion Is Discrimination

Earlier this year, the Omaha City Council passed an ordinance to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of reasons people cannot legally be fired by their employers.  I was there that day, in support of the ordinance, because I happen to think discrimination is a bad thing.  Some Omaha Christians disagree.

Since it was passed, they've been working to undo it.  One of the groups behind this called the Nebraska Heritage Coalition.  They oppose these basic civil rights and have even succeeded in getting it reviewed by the Nebraska Legislature.

This is exactly what I meant when I said opposition to marriage equality is almost entirely religious.  Their very first  instruction on their page on the hearing tomorrow is to pray.

1.   Pray NOW – also about joining us at City Hall to “Watch & Pray”

• Pray for Divine intervention.

• Pray for God’s people to repent of apathy and our sins then rise up and publicly stand for righteousness.

• Pray that our leaders hear our testimony and fear God.

They go on to claim the ordinance's prohibition of discrimination is itself discrimination against their religious freedom.

Testimony should focus on: "Sexual orientation and gender identity are not civil rights issues." and/or that it that it also threatens our religious freedoms.

...

 2.   This type of legislation, wherever passed, discriminates against many people of faith and threatens our religious liberties. 

• The First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion to individuals, not just to religious organizations. 

• This type of legislation violates separation of church and state as the state rules that selected aspects our faith to be “Hate Speech,” a violation of diversity, promoting a hostile environment, or in this case a violation of civil rights.

Apparently, creating a law that entirely ignores their religion is a violation of the Separation of Church and State.  Apparently, it's a violation of the Separation of Church to see hate speech and call it hate speech, even if someone wants to use their religion to justify it and pretend it's not hate speech.  Apparently, the rights of Christians are being violated unless we all conform to how they say we should live.

So remember, don't do what you think is right or what works for you.  Do exactly what these Christians say you should do.  Otherwise, you're an oppressive bigot who hates freedom.

Credit:  Progressive Oasis

The Bingo Ate Your Baby

I was preparing for an upcoming counter protest of the farcical "Stand Up for Religious Freedom" Rallies, which brought be to search for the Atheist Bingo card.

Then it occurred to me that it could be better named.