FTF1 Hemant Mehta – How Can We Help Young Atheists?

This entry is a  recap of Hemant Mehta’s Freethought Festival 2012 presentation as observed by me as an audience member. Shitty writing or misinterpretation of the presenter’s material is completely my fault. If you think I got something wrong, please let me know in the comments or feel free to email me at bio_dork(at)hotmail(dot)com.

Hemant Mehta opened his talk with a story about an eight year-old child who was asked to draw what a Christian looks like, and what a non-Christian looks like. This is what the child produced:

Kids are often introduced to this idea through one venue or another. As Hemant points out there’s no philosophical underpinnings for why this kid thinks that Christians are happy, clean-cut, and nicely dressed, while a non-Christian is angry with messed-up crazy hair, booze in one hand, cigarette in the other, tattoos all over the place and raggedy clothes. He just knows that he knows this.

This blind, unthinking prejudice is what young atheists are up against. If you are known to be a non-believer in your school, you have a good chance of being an outcast.

Hemant showed a video of Nicole Smalkowski’s story from 2006 (I think I found a slightly longer cut of the interview that was shown during his presentation here on YouTube). At that time she a 13 year-old girl who loved to play basketball. She joined the team at her high school and opted out of reciting prayers with the rest of the team. Not long after she was told that she was bad for morale and was kicked off the basketball team. She dealt with harrassment and suspicion from her schoolmates and even her teachers. In the end her parents ended up pulling her and her siblings from the school to be homeschooled. Nicole abandoned basketball and focused her energy on music.

Hemant cited an observation made by Katherine Stewart in her newly released book, The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children. She notes that “Membership in the Fellowship for Christian Athletes has climbed to 1,447,881—up from 100,000 in 1999” and that “Many students on public school sports teams feel that they must ‘pray to play.'” This means that even if they don’t believe, they feel like they need to bow their heads in order to blend in.

Disgusting.

We as a growing and internet-connected atheist community have the resources to bring to light and support students who face discrimination like this.

Hemant is a former chair of the board of Secular Student Alliance (SSA), a group that works to “organize, unite, educate, and serve students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human-based ethics.”

He put up slides showing that the number of SSA chapters has been growing. This is due to an increase in SSA resources and a focused effort to assist high school and college students who are trying to start chapters in their areas. The media has started to take an interest in teens who stand up for their lack of faith. Hemant brought up the story of Brian Lisco, a student who wanted to start an atheist club at his school. Lisco experienced months of push-back from administrators, and the SSA contacted USA Today with the story. When the school was contacted by USA Today for comment, administrators suddenly changed their minds and Brian Lisco got his club.

Hemant recounted Crystal Myers’ story. She wrote a piece for the the student newspaper entitled, “No Rights. The Life of an Atheist”. When the school refused to run her story, she contacted the Knoxville Sentinel, which was very happy to run the story for her.

Prejudice and bigotry don’t look very nice splashed across the pages of local, national and world-wide publications.

We’re now seeing non-belief portrayed in the mainstream media! Hemant showed the video clip from Glee (“Grilled Cheesus” episode) in which Kurt asks his classmates not to pray for him because he doesn’t believe in God.

Damon Fowler and Jessica Ahlquist made big splashes in both the online atheist community and local and national news for standing up for separation of church and state issues.

We’re reaching young atheists. We’re organizing and informing ourselves on the issues that young atheists are facing. Groups like the SSA are growing. In closing, Hemant urged us all to continue to support students and support student atheist groups.

{advertisement}
FTF1 Hemant Mehta – How Can We Help Young Atheists?
{advertisement}

483 thoughts on “FTF1 Hemant Mehta – How Can We Help Young Atheists?

  1. 2

    That kid totally nailed me (assuming that beer is a micro-brewed IPA and the cigarette is filled with organic tobacco), right down to the red hair, although I also eat bananas. I don’t have an issue with the non-Christian portrayal, as it’s pretty accurate for me, I have a problem with anyone intending or interpreting such a portrayal as somehow negative or denigrating. Hell, as a life-long atheist, I may well have made a similar drawing at age 8. Yay for values dissonance!

    Also, yay for SSA growth!

  2. 65

    how many times a day can i take viagra
    purchase viagra online viaonlinebuy.us buy viagra online cheapest
    marketing for the drug viagra is an example of which kind of age branding?

  3. 75

    Heya i am for the first time here. I came across this board and I find It truly useful & it helped me out much. I hope to give something back and help others like you aided me.

  4. 104

    Heya i’m for the primary time here. I came across this board and I in finding It truly useful & it helped me out a lot. I’m hoping to offer one thing again and help others like you aided me.

  5. 121

    Does your site have a contact page? I’m having problems locating it but, I’d like to shoot you an e-mail. I’ve got some suggestions for your blog you might be interested in hearing. Either way, great site and I look forward to seeing it expand over time.

  6. 125

    Destructive the whole kit can occur with obtain honest cialis online lower of the internet, the heart is necrotizing with discontinuation of the setting bring into the world demonstrated acutely in in making the urine gram contaminate online. cialis Glezjh xmgkae

  7. 141

    I simply could not depart your site prior to suggesting that I really loved the usual information a person provide for your guests? Is going to be back incessantly to investigate cross-check new posts

  8. 161

    Hi, I do think this is a great web site. I stumbledupon it 😉 I am going to revisit once again since i have book-marked it. Money and freedom is the best way to change, may you be rich and continue to help other people.

  9. 168

    Hi, i think that i saw you visited my site thus i came to “return the favor”.I am trying to find things to improve my website!I suppose its ok to use some of your ideas!!

  10. 305

    Hello.
    This time is a precious time.
    I want to have many memories and good memories with you.
    I always want to support you and remain a good memory.
    We hope to help you a lot in the future, and I always want to be with you. I will always do my best and support you! 토토사이트

  11. 315

    Hello.
    We always share happiness with many people with good writing.
    I want to become a good friend with you and share a lot of things with you.
    I want to share various information through many exchanges in the future. We are always cheering for you, and we are praying earnestly that there will always be good things for you.
    I hope that you will continue to be healthy and inform a lot of good articles and good information to many people through many activities.
    I wish you always happy and good things. Fighting.! 사설토토사이트

  12. 335

    Hello.
    I always see and feel a lot from you.
    Thank you so much for sharing a lot and allowing you to refer to a lot of content.
    I hope that you will continue to share with many people with many articles in the future.
    I want to be a good friend with you and do a lot of things together.
    I think you give hope to many people.
    I will pray that you will always be strong and be full of only good things.
    We look forward to your continued activities.
    Thank you. 사설토토사이트

  13. 475

    Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You definitely know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your site when you could be giving us something informative to read?|

  14. 477

    Oh my goodness! Incredible article dude! Thank you, However I am going through troubles with your RSS. I donít
    understand why I am unable to join it.“성인웹툰” Is there anybody else getting identical RSS problems?
    Anyone who knows the answer will you kindly respond? Thanx!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *