Protesting the Good News Club

by Christi Sevits

This past Saturday, local freethinkers from the Forsyth Area Critical Thinkers (FACT) organized a protest of the Good News Club at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem. The Good News Club is a fundamentalist evangelical Christian group that's active around the country. From their website, their proclaimed goal is "to evangelize boys and girls with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and establish (disciple) them in the Word of God and in a local church for Christian living." Their target age group is 5-12 and they mainly evangelize in public schools to get kids to convert their "unchurched" friends and family members. 

Another way they proselytize is by holding carnival-like events with a catch. In order to play the best games and ride the best rides, the children are told they're evil, Hell-bound sinners (among other deprecating things). A quote straight from their materials reads, "The heart, the real you, is sinful from the time you were born. Even the good things you do aren't good enough. The bible says those things are like filthy, dirty rags. Filthy rags either need to be thrown away or washed"  (from Lesson 2, page 17). What kind of crazy "morality" is this and why is it necessary to scare kids with it? If this is Good News Club's idea of spreading "good" news, I'd hate to know what the bad news is.

Some of our members showed up to the protest to voice their opposition to the Good News Club. Bobby Littlejohn and Ryan Campbell were two attendees.

"I found it fun. I enjoyed the protest. Didn't really seem to me that we affected anyone but many people did look at us, many with confused looks. I think the confusion was from the fact that most parents bringing their kids to the event did not know that it was religious," said Ryan. That's exactly the problem. Unsuspecting parents are mislead into thinking the group is harmless, with all the bounce houses, popcorn, and fun activities.

Bobby, too, enjoyed going. "The only thing I regret was that when people came up to talk the conversation would end up being about religion and how they know that God exists. Even if I was a Christian I would have been out there to protest, because I don't think it's [right] for a group to tell kids they deserve to go to hell unless they believe in your religion," he commented. 

Raising awareness about the Good News Club's harmful messages to kids is an important step toward ensuring that kids are taught to love, not hate, themselves and people who don't hold a Christian worldview.

Interview with Dr. Richard Carrier

Atheists and Christians in Conversation

by Christi Sevits

This past Thursday, a lively discussion took place in the Sullivan Science building between atheists and Christians. The event, aptly named Atheists and Christians in Conversation, drew an impressive crowd of over two hundred. Dialogue between the religious and nonreligious has the potential to get heated fast, and Atheists and Christians in Conversation was no exception. Shying away from the tension of religious discussion is precisely why the conversation was necessary in the first place. Nothing will be resolved unless we talk about it in the open!

Two of our own members, UNCG students Bobby Littlejohn and Julia Alexander, represented the secular viewpoint. English professor Chris Hodgkins and local pastor Jeff Miller represented the Christians. Club President Phillip Drum was the moderator. The debate was sponsored by our group as well as Christian apologist organization Ratio Christi.

The debate began with an introduction from each of the panelists. Each side then had the opportunity to question the other, allowing for rebuttals when necessary. The last segment consisted of answering written questions from the audience. There were questions addressed to individual panelists, one side or the other, and some to both sides. The inquiries ranged from the common "Where do atheists get their morality from?" to "Are non-Christians like Gandhi in Hell?"

Despite the tension, the panelists were respectful to one another. The audience refrained from outbursts (other than us atheists briefly scoffing at Dr. Hodgkins' statement that the United States was a "Christian nation"). Overall, the environment remained positive and engaging. Even after the debate, several curious audience members approached the panelists to ask any unanswered questions they had.

This was the first time Bobby and Julia represented our club in a campus discussion, but they didn't let the stress get to them.

"I really appreciated being able to participate in this event," Bobby commented.  "We had a passionate yet respectful discussion and I think we were both able to better understand where the other side was coming from. With so much religious strife in the world right now, I think the issues we talked about are more important than ever."

Julia expressed similar sentiments, saying "It was a good experience. There were lots of logical fallacies, but it was non-hostile and lots of fun."

Great job, Bobby and Julia!