Got God?

The Secular Student Alliance, a group of Luther students who identify themselves as atheists, agnostics, humanists, deists and others, aim to give students with a nontraditional faith a place to talk and be understood. While the religion and philosophy departments are excited about the idea of adding yet another diverse group to campus, other members of the Luther community are less comfortable about its formation.

“It is very difficult to find other people that are as secular as we are,” SSA Co-President Kevin Williams (‘11) said.

One of the main reasons for the creation of the group is the concern that social pressure does not allow students who have doubts about their religion or beliefs to raise their voice or question.

Williams speaks of the term “closet atheist,” referring to those who may not necessarily believe in God in a traditional manner and don’t speak of it for fear of public opinion.

“There are a lot of students... who easily identify themselves as being secular of one sort or another, who are here because Luther has a fantastic music program or who are drawn to the school for something other than church affiliation,” member Ben Weis (‘10) said.

The religion department is glad to see a group of students on campus who think of religion in a critical manner, even though their perspective on things may be somewhat different.

Religion Professor Todd Green is the faculty Advisor of the Secular Student Alliance.

“I think it was very interesting that they saw the religion department as a sort of natural place to go to to look for a potential advisor, which I think is very insightful on their part,” Green said. “And, on our side, the religion department is all about critical reflection on religion.”

The group, however, has had bumps with other students. Comments have been made about how disrespectful it is to have a secular society in a church-affiliated school. Moreover, during J-term, some posters in Farwell advertising the group’s meetings were taken down.

“Whenever you have a minority group publically identifying themselves, there are going to be members of the majority who are not going to be happy,” Weis said. “The best we can do is wash our hands and walk away and hope that nothing more drastic happens.”

Not all the student body has a negative opinion of the Secular Student Society.

“At a liberal arts school, we should, at least, try to work with each other, even if there are some differences in beliefs, because not everyone in the real world believes the same thing either,” religion major Carina Schiltz (‘12) said.

Student Senate officially approved the group, despite some concerns about what kind of image a secular group could give to a church-affiliated school.

“We are aiming to be a very open group,” Williams said.