On Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, the first Secular Social was held in the Lankford Student Union Ballroom before a small audience that had braved the cold and rain for a much needed sit down about the concerns and experiences of nonreligious people on campus. Introduced by the Secular Student Alliance's Michelle Goldchain and featuring a panel of nonreligious students including Secular Humanist Paul Clamp and agnostics James Driver and Savannah Barnett.
The program, lasting from 7 p.m. until 8 p.m., started with questions asked by Goldchain to the panelists concerning how they became nonreligious, what their influences have been, their experiences with religion, inclusion from family and friends, their individual experiences coping with religion and their opinions on Deism.
The audience then was free to ask questions to the panels in a Q&A session that lasted until the event's end. One of the questions asked was the basis of morality without religion. Driver responded that morals concern how a person simply wants to be treated and equating that to how the others should be treated. Clamp responded that morals are, in part, biological and that we instinctively know what hurts. Barnett said that it was natural for us to want to love and protect each other, even without religion telling us to do so.
Another question asked was whether or not the SSA is organized like a religious organization. Clamp answered this question with a resounded "no," though the members of SSA are collected in one place for similar causes. Barnett also noted that the people in SSA were not a uniform population and instead represented many different developments and different kinds of individuals.
A particularly interesting question came up concerning rude conversion attempts. Barnett responded that she had dealt with a rather strange attempt to make her believe in something that involved people at a Baptist Church she visited by putting glitter on their hands. Clamp said that he had not experienced any rude conversions, though he did have an interesting experience when someone placed a pocket New Testament on his table at an involvement fair. Driver talked about Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons coming to his doorstep and being told he would go to hell for what he believed to be true.
Before the end of the event, Associate Professor of Sociology Dr. Carl Riden spoke shortly on activism among atheists that involved taking out religious involvement where it should not be predominant. She also said that being nonreligious had become an important part of her personal life and politics. She emphasized that it is not something that people just "grow out of." She also said, in response to the earlier question of SSA's resemblance to organized religion, that it presented a support group for students and that it was voluntary.
The event ended with information concerning the SSA meetings in Chichester G11 on Tuesdays at 4:30 p.m. to see exactly what the organization is all about.
Clamp, who was mostly in charge of organization, was available to speak after the event. Clamp, involved over the course of two years as the treasurer, president and vice president of SSA, said the Secular Social was "not bad for our first one, but there is definitely room to improve." His ideas for the next social were "to get more panelists next time, and I'd like to see a professor be our emcee; my hope is to have a different professor guest emcee at each social." The importance of the social to Clamp was to "dissuade some of the secular stereotypes out there about atheists and agnostics and whatnot. We're really just normal people just like everyone else."
Driver said, "I go to meetings and we discuss why we believe what we believe, and what issues we have as a community. We meet so we can advocate for ourselves. Some of us are afraid that the more radical wing of Evangelical Christianity is threatening to blur the lines between church and state. We don't want to impose our beliefs on others, but we don't want the beliefs of others imposed on us."
Of the social, Driver said, "I was glad that we could have the chance to explain our views to people who may not have a clear understanding about secular beliefs" and that "it was not about promoting one belief over another. It was just supposed to provide some insight into what and why we believe what we believe."
Finally, Riden said of the panelists, "I thought they did a great job. The U.S. is very religious, so talking openly about these things is not easy. I thought they talked honestly about their beliefs and they answered to audience's questions to the best of their ability. Given that this is the first time they have had such a panel, I thought it went well."
Of the event's importance, Riden said it was especially helpful to "many students who are questioning religion or coming to terms with the fact that they are not religious or do not believe in god (s) face real anxiety. They may fear rejection from family or friends. They may need resources to help them explore their changing beliefs. They may just need to talk to others of like mind. Also, many people have prejudices toward or hold stereotypes about atheists and other secular folk."
On the next social, Riden said, "I would like to have a wider range of views represented. There are many atheists and a few humanistic Pantheists and Deists in the group. It would be nice to hear their voices too. I would also like to have some faculty/staff voices at this event or a similar one. Finally, I think we need to publicize it a bit better."
As an event helpful to the development of the student body and its understanding of exactly who constitutes its ranks, the Secular Social was a success. We may only hope that more people can come and appreciate the wide diversity of views that come out of Longwood University's least frequently explored waters.To learn more about the organization that helped make this event possible, visit secularstudents.org.
