On Sept. 19, a nonprofit group called the Freedom From Religion Foundation issued a warning to Auburn University over the Unite event and baptisms that followed on Sept. 12.
FFRF’s website claims moral and social superiority over religious groups, who they believe have consistently held the world back from any progress in those areas, which I believe is completely detached from reality given that nontheists, as they call themselves, do not believe in a higher power that has laid out moral absolutes, and therefore have no claim to objective morality or even a standard for moral progress or social justice apart from Judeo-Christian morals and standards.
Nonetheless, FFRF is a familiar name to me. Not only because of their letter to Auburn, but also because the group consistently involves themselves in affairs in my home county of Blount County, Alabama.
Any time I see the name, it irks me. Any time I see the name, I know they are likely threatening people who are simply practicing their faith in a communal setting with individuals who happen to also be public figures.
If there is one thing the group is against, it is not religion: it is the freedom to publicly express ideas and beliefs they disagree with.
It seems that FFRF targets public figures like Auburn University Men’s Basketball head coach Bruce Pearl, football head coach Hugh Freeze or baseball head coach Butch Thompson because they are not cogs of the state without personal convictions.
These men, and all other public figures who the letter addressed, should not have to live two entirely separate lives – one personal and one professional. They deserve the right to live their lives whenever they would like, even in their publicly funded positions. To attempt to detach one from their personal convictions, beliefs or values is to strip them of their humanity, which is a far greater tragedy than a non-religious person hearing a prayer or hearing public figures promote an event that they were not forced to attend.
People should not be threatened to the full extent of the law for simply being humans.
If Pearl wants to encourage students to be part of a worship event – an event he believes to be for the greater good – let him do so. If Freeze wants to assist in baptizing one of his players – a player who asked for his assistance in being baptized, I might add – he can do that. If Thompson wants students to “come together and lift up the name of Jesus” – a statement FFRF’s letter specifically calls out – who is anyone to tell him he has no right to do so?
Obviously, if any students were coerced into going to this event by any of the public figures promoting it, then there would be an issue. But FFRF provides no evidence of any participant of Unite being forced to go against their will or of any disciplinary action from any public figure or the University being taken against those who did not attend.
FFRF is repressive. It uses the law to threaten people who believe differently from them. Under the guise of progress and concern for the law, FFRF uses bully-tactics to silence their opponents and deny people their right to freely exercise their religion, their right to speak freely and their right to peaceably assemble.
I do not believe anyone who organized or participated in Unite did so because their end goal was to somehow force Auburn University to create a university-sponsored religion that all students must abide by. I do believe those involved with Unite welcomed anyone who walked through the doors that night. They were tolerant of anyone who wanted to be there – a true staple of social and moral progress that I suppose FFRF has not discovered yet.
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Tucker Massey, junior in journalism, is the content editor for The Auburn Plainsman.
