After threats and harassment, NC teen abandons atheist group

LogicIsForSquares

@westside-steve said:

The point of the group is, in my opinion, much like most groups of adolescent kids. To get attention with contrary behavior. By the way after all the pissing and moaning you guys do about cals slanted sources this website is from, what, the He Man deity haters club?

WSS

They have a link directly to the kid's fundme account. You can go there and read what is going on. It isn't like the links that Cal puts up that some nut job just keeps using his own ramblings as references for his new ramblings.

gftChris

@westside-steve said:

The point of the group is, in my opinion, much like most groups of adolescent kids. To get attention with contrary behavior. By the way after all the pissing and moaning you guys do about cals slanted sources this website is from, what, the He Man deity haters club?

WSS

I was thinking the same! the 'progressive secular humanist' website might have a slightly skewed version of events. So I dug a little. Here's a completely impartial *ahem* write up of the group a week ago:

http://www.christianpost.com/news/nc-high-school-allows-atheist-student-group-after-pressure-from-natl-organizations-114786/

For some reason I can't find a write up of the latest turn of events from anywhere else? The OP's link basically quotes the original source (the little girl's website) in full, though, so there's that.

DieHardBrownsFan · February 26, 2014

@vaportrail said:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2014/02/after-threats-and-harassment-nc-teen-abandons-atheist-group/

This is really, very disappointing that it happened at a public school. No one deserves death threats because of their beliefs.
After threats and harassment, NC teen abandons atheist group
February 26, 2014 By Michael Stone 193 Comments

Sad news: After suffering threats and harassment a North Carolina teen has been forced to abandon her efforts to form a chapter of the Secular Student Alliance at her public high school.

15-year-old Kalei Wilson waged a brave and determined battle against school administrators at Pisgah High School to form the group. Indeed, the decision to allow the atheist club was made only after significant pressure was brought to bear by the Secular Student Alliance (SSA), the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union.

However, fearing for the safety of her family, last night Wilson announced that she is bowing out. The following excerpts from posts to Wilson’s GoFundMe page help tell the story:

I’m nervous about the first meeting this week. This morning I brought some flyers to hang up at school but I don’t think they will remain on the walls long.

We have permission to post them but if the people who continue to message me with horrible stuff sees them, I bet they tear them down.

This morning I was called “Satan” by one Christian girl who first called me a “dumb c&^t b*&^h!”

I know what I’m doing is right but it’s scary…

And then last night this post appeared:

It saddens us to report that due to the numerous threats and the verbal attacks on Kalei along with the vindictive witch-hunt to hurt the reputations of affiliated local groups and our own family, Kalei will not be continuing with the group.

We have contacted GoFundMe and requested they return your generous donations. They have assured us that your funds will show back up in your respective accounts within 3 to 5 days.

Your love and support are priceless and we apologize in letting you down. It was our single goal to support Kalei in her efforts to start the much needed SSA club.

However, we never expected our family and friends to be sought out and demonized. Please know that we recognize the importance of the club but we can not justify our involvement with the risk of our families safety and well being.

Hemant Mehta at Friendly Atheist sums it up well:

No one — atheists, Christians, anyone — should have to deal with this sort of retaliation from other people because of who they are or what they believe.

The whole episode is a sad and painful reminder of the formal and informal persecution, intimidation and harassment that atheists, agnostics and other freethinkers often must face.

It is also a stinging indictment of the hypocrisy, the arrogance, and the cruelty of the Christian community at large. One can only wonder, where were the so called “good Christians” while this teen was being threatened and harassed?

Kalei Wilson, Pisgah High School Secular Student Alliance

God has punished her by giving her acne.

MLD Woody

I mean, if it is a story that actually happened then there you go. Cal generally posts opinion pieces from right wing sites as fact. The commentary by the author in the link my be biased, by the story seems to have actually happened.

The point of the group could have been support of others that think like this. I mean, considering the backlash she received, it seems like many may not want to express their disagreement with Christianity. An atheist club though would show them there are others though.

I realize there are good religious people out there, but this is another good example why I think we're better off without religion.

MLD Woody · February 26, 2014

@diehardbrownsfan said:
God has punished her by giving her acne.

Insightful

VaporTrail

@westside-steve said:

The point of the group is, in my opinion, much like most groups of adolescent kids. To get attention with contrary behavior. By the way after all the pissing and moaning you guys do about cals slanted sources this website is from, what, the He Man deity haters club?

WSS

While some groups exist that only act to get attention ie. trading bibles for porn in a smut for smut campaign, there's no indication that this is what she was planning on doing with the group. As the leader of a group like this that got national media attention without alienating anyone, both the groups that do act like assholes and people like you who are assuming every atheist club is out to cause trouble really bother me. Being a non-believer in certain areas can be lonely and depressing, creating an environment where you can't be honest with yourself or your peers. It's complete bullshit that you're equating the desire to hang out with like-minded individuals to antisocial behavior. I created the group at a religious school and half of the people who showed up to our meetings were religious, which was great because it actually fostered discussion among the two groups of students instead of it being us, the atheists, vs them, the theists. Many students in my club joined the group in secret, for fear of being disowned by their parents and I'm damn proud to have given these kids a forum to voice their opinions. The majority of these groups are formed to create a safe place where you can be honest about your beliefs without fear of retribution.

Westside Steve

Just a tip from an old hippie. If you are seriously worried about retribution for your beliefs I'd imagine it would be a good idea not to form a club centered around those beliefs and advertise its existence.

Also since I believe that true Christians should expect to take some shit, as it says in the Bible they will, then I'm not going to lose much sleep over the horror that you and your atheist buddies go through on a daily basis.

Also are we talking about groups of people with non traditional add possibly anti social ideas forming together into their own groups where they can empower themselves against regular society? Hey weren't we just talking about the Ku Klux Klan???

WSS

Westside Steve

PS if she were a little bit cuter I might have joined her stupid fucking club if I was a kid!

WSS

MLD Woody

@westside-steve said:

PS if she were a little bit cuter I might have joined her stupid fucking club if I was a kid!

WSS

.....

Come on now

VaporTrail

@westside-steve said:

Just a tip from an old hippie. If you are seriously worried about retribution for your beliefs I'd imagine it would be a good idea not to form a club centered around those beliefs and advertise its existence.

Also since I believe that true Christians should expect to take some shit, as it says in the Bible they will, then I'm not going to lose much sleep over the horror that you and your atheist buddies go through on a daily basis.

Also are we talking about groups of people with non traditional add possibly anti social ideas forming together into their own groups where they can empower themselves against regular society? Hey weren't we just talking about the Ku Klux Klan???

WSS

Go ahead and trivialize it, but these are serious issues to some of my peers. Luckily for me, my Catholic parents didn't care too much (my mom was a little upset), but there are people out there whose families would cut off communication if it was known they took part in our meetings. You're just being an asshole. Why does the existence of this group automatically put you on the defensive?

The Cysko Kid

Does the school have an official religious club? If not take your Athiest club meetings back to Dennys and hot topic and stop being a douche.

VaporTrail

@the-cysko-kid said:
Does the school have an official religious club? If not take your Athiest club meetings back to Dennys and hot topic and stop being a douche.

They have plenty, and being a religious institution, they have every right to refuse to recognize a club for atheists. That being said, I think it's an anti-academic move that's ultimately bad for the school. I'm more concerned as to why they allow an LGBT group, Islamic groups, Jewish groups, and Campus Democrats while drawing the line for us. Like I said, the group served two purposes - a safe place for secular students and a forum to foster discussion and reduce the stigma that secular and religious students can feel toward each other. They claimed that we were anti-faith, even though half of our members were religious. *shrug*

The Cysko Kid

Atheism is a direct insult to a religious institute. Would you go to a gay institution and start a straight peoples only club?

MLD Woody

Except his group wasn't atheists only...

The Cysko Kid

Still I think you're not seeing this very clearly. It's definitely an antagonistic move

VaporTrail

@the-cysko-kid said:
Atheism is a direct insult to a religious institute. Would you go to a gay institution and start a straight peoples only club?

The administrations at DePaul University (Catholic) and California Lutheran University, among other religious institutions would disagree with you as there are recognized secular student orgs at these places. Your example isn't a fair comparison for the reason Woody pointed out.

Anyways, my issue was that WSS immediately went on the defensive and labeled the group as anti-social just because it's an organization for secular students. I don't think that's fair either.

MLD Woody

@the-cysko-kid said:
Still I think you're not seeing this very clearly. It's definitely an antagonistic move

No it is not, for the reasons Vapor listed

The Cysko Kid

If its a religious institution it is antagonism. Why would you choose to go to a religious school anyway when its not difficult to find a liberal arts school probably made up of 80 or more percent athiests? This is just being an assholr to try and prove a point and I have no sympathy for it

VaporTrail

@the-cysko-kid said:
If its a religious institution it is antagonism. Why would you choose to go to a religious school anyway when its not difficult to find a liberal arts school probably made up of 80 or more percent athiests? This is just being an assholr to try and prove a point and I have no sympathy for it

Good discussion. Thanks for bothering to read what I had to say.

MLD Woody

Lol no its not. You honestly think this girl is just trying to be an asshole?

She is also 15, I'm guessing she has no say in where she went to school. Maybe it is the closest school or best school in the area. You don't know each individual situation for why someone that isn't religious is at a religious school.