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by Walker Bristol

"Students like Dawson have excised the fear of peer judgment and social exile for a belief in the importance of creating a like-minded community

Secular students are arguably some of the most passionate activists in the country; naturally, they are not without their struggles. The drive to form a successful secular organization and to render it accepted among the student population is all too often challenged not only by erroneous beliefs about atheism and humanism, but also by the somewhat bizarre unwillingness of many secular students to connect with nonreligious communities.

Coming from southeastern North Carolina, I am no alien to misconceptions regarding atheism. Most of my high school classmates responded quizzically if they saw me reading a book by Sam Harris or wearing a pro-science t-shirt: "Do you still go to youth group? Read the Bible? Pray?" Their reaction was rarely discriminatory or offensive, just largely puzzled. There were, of course, the anomalies: friends of mine who grew up in implicitly atheistic or humanistic families or who had embraced reason after spending just a little too much time in a Southern Baptist congregation. At any rate, this demographic spread of religious and nonreligious folks in my hometown rendered my attempts to establish a secular student group in my high school ultimately unsuccessful.

So when, a few weeks ago, my younger brother Dawson, now a sophomore at my alma mater, told me that he and his circle of friends felt the need for a Secular Student Alliance (SSA) chapter at their school, and had already drafted up a constitution and approached their principal with the idea, my eyebrows shot more than a little ways upwards. Students like Dawson have excised the fear of peer judgment and social exile for a belief in the importance of creating a like-minded community of secularists, like the many that exist and excel around the country already. His work is inspiring; but not yet triumphant. The next step, of encouraging his non-theist classmates, many of them closeted to their families or peers, to openly join the movement, is still to come, and will certainly be no easy task.

Student groups, not only in high school but also on the most active of college campuses, still struggle to obtain a dedicated membership base. Students might infrequently show up to events and meetings, or even identify with the secularist minority yet lack interest in participating in secular communities at all. Student leaders often attribute this ever-present challenge to the formation of considerable, dedicated secular communities to busyness, or laziness, among the student population.

I'd argue that the reason secular student groups face such problems extends far beyond mere apathy or busyness. When you become a member of a movement, you take a part of your identity and place it at the forefront of your character, even if you don't mean to. Fellow students or members of your community will begin to associate you with that element of your identity, and by extension any stigma that might come with it. Atheism may, in fact, be the most stigmatized minority group in America; if someone has perhaps some other part of their identity that is less marginalized, such as liberalism or cultural Judaism, they may well choose to join up with that movement instead.

High schools around the nation suffer especially from a similar problem: too many implicitly religious students, too few openly atheist activists. The young high school age might seem a bit early to begin encouraging students to become a part of the atheist activist movement, yet recent events would show otherwise: in addition to my brother's efforts, Jessica Ahlquist, a high school sophomore, recently gained national attention for initiating a lawsuit against the presentation of a prayer banner in her high school gymnasium. The SSA has just begun a campaign to drastically increase their high school affiliate numbers. Younger non-theistic students are, as the saying goes, the future.

Solving these issues requires not only perseverance but also creativity and a willingness to reach out to possible allies. It may be in the best interest of some struggling student organizations to ally themselves with their campus Queer-Straight Alliance or LGBT student group who likely share the progressive goal of religious freedom, yet may still include liberal-minded religious believers. The LGBT movement, however, has been faced with a similar issue to that of the secularist movement in terms of struggling numbers in high school activism.

I don't see the low (although certainly rising) number of secularist organizations in American high schools as a result of student immaturity or irresponsibility, but rather of the perceived anti-atheist and anti-humanist sentiment that is all too present among younger populations. At a younger age, not only are your peers more likely to treat you unjustly simply due to a part of your identity, but high schools students are far more likely to find themselves under the heel of religious parents and family members, as they predominately still live at home.

To be very clear: I am under no delusions as to how intimidating these potentially life-altering roadblocks can seem, but this isn't of too much concern to me. I may not have much ground upon which to stand when I say so: I come from a very progressive family who has always accepted my and my brother's lack of religious belief. Still, in my view, what sets young atheists and humanists apart from their religious peers is their dependence on their fellow human beings rather than supernatural relief, in times of fear or discrimination. As a humanist, I can walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but I need not look for God's hand to guide me, rather I can look to those around me for support. In this vein, I have faith—to use a certain definition of the word—in the power of younger secularists to overcome the often-daunting tribulations they face as they "come out" as nonbelievers to their religious families or are persecuted by their religious classmates.

We need secular students to be willing to stand unfettered by peer exile or parental disapproval. At the high school age, it may not always be best to suddenly and forcefully reveal your lack of belief to your friends and family. Nevertheless, if secular communities become as strong in high schools as the religious communities they might find themselves at odds with, the humanistic or atheistic student will find herself a part of a meaningful fellowship, welcomed and protected in the face of unfounded bias. High school is, in the end, very short; relationships built in communities like these, however, can last for a lifetime.