Years Later, Secular Student Group Recognized On A Religious Campus: Here’s How It Happened
In 2010 I wrote my first piece for Huffington Post Religion. In it, I addressed Concordia College’s decision not to recognize a secular student group on their campus. Last week, they approved a secular student group. What changed between then and now? Check out an excerpt of my new piece – coauthored with Andreas Rekdal (a founding member of Concordia’s Secular Student Community) — below, and then click here to read it in full.
This piece was co-authored with Andreas Rekdal, who works for the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. He graduated from Concordia College in December 2012 with a B.A. in political science and philosophy, where he was a founding member of Concordia’s Secular Student Community.
In my first ever piece for The Huffington Post Religion, published in 2010, I wrote about Moorhead, Minn.-based Concordia College’s refusal to recognize “Secular Students of Concordia,” a student organization centered around nontheistic values. In that piece I argued that, in order to be truly inclusive, interfaith dialogue and collaboration must also include — and defend — those without faith, who are often marginalized and discriminated against in the United States.
Last week, the same college gave official recognition to the “Secular Student Community” — an organization similar in name and still centered around nontheistic values, but with a different vision.
This long-overdue affirmation of secular students’ place within an otherwise predominantly religious institution owes largely to precisely the kind of interfaith dialogue and collaboration called for in my 2010 piece — the kind of approach that encourages mutual respect and solidarity between atheists and the religious, rather than scorn or derision.
* * *The debate about giving Concordia’s nonreligious population official recognition and a voice on campus first began in November 2009, when a group of students applied to form Secular Students of Concordia. The group’s stated goal was to be “a secular alternative to the religious and faith based clubs at Concordia.” Their application was rejected by the school on the grounds that “the organization [was] not in compliance with ELCA [the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America] and the College Standards.”
Looking at the organization’s constitution, a few aspects appear problematic with regard to the college’s nondiscrimination policies and religious affiliation. First, it required that all active members affiliate themselves with one or more national secular organizations. Second, if the group were disbanded, its remaining funds were to be donated either to “an on-campus initiative promoting or strongly supporting secular values” or to the self-described ”aggressive, in-your-face” American Atheists, a national organization widely known for its confrontational tactics and anti-religious activism. The latter was particularly problematic because funding for campus organizations usually comes from the college itself. By approving the Secular Students of Concordia, the college could have potentially placed itself in a position of being forced to make a donation to American Atheists — a perhaps less-than-tempting prospect for a college that finds itself at the crossroads of its increasingly religiously diverse student body and its explicitly Christian heritage.
In January 2011 the group’s founder, Bjørn Kvernstuen, appealed the college’s decision and reapplied for recognition with a redrafted constitution. In the appeal, Kvernstuen argued that the organization was in fact not at odds with the ELCA, and that the organization would play a crucial role in promoting openness and diversity on campus. The redrafted constitution appeared free of the problems contained in the first, but nonetheless, the college rejected this application as well.
* * *Ironically, the resistance met by the Secular Students of Concordia coincided with a campus-wide push for interfaith dialogue and cooperation. A group of students began forming an Interfaith Youth Core-affiliated “Better Together” interfaith campaign, and the college was in the process of creating a “Forum on Faith and Life” — a campus office concerned with matters of interfaith cooperation and community service. Moreover, the following academic year kicked off with an appeal for interfaith dialogue in a September 2012 campus-wide lecture by IFYC founder Eboo Patel.
Interpreting the choice of Patel as the convocation speaker as an invitation for religious minorities to become part of the larger discussion on interfaith, another group of students (including Andreas Rekdal, who co-authored this piece) submitted an intent form for a Secular Student Community in October 2012. This organization was meant to be a place of belonging for Concordia’s many nonreligious students, centered around constructive dialogue about secular morality. Furthermore, the group wished to spark a campus-wide conversation about inclusivity — to raise awareness about the college’s many nonreligious students, and to advocate on their behalf.
Six months later, to the surprise of many, the group finally gained official recognition from the college. What had changed in the just over two years since the group was first rejected, and the less than two years since its last appeal, that allowed for this?
