PANAMA CITY, Fla. ? Every other Wednesday, right after school at 2:45, the newest club at Rutherford High, the atheist club, meets in Room 13-211.
Last Wednesday, Jim Dickey, the president, started out by asking his fellow student atheists (there are a few agnostics, too) whether they wanted to put together an all-atheist Ultimate Frisbee team for a charity event.
?We can pay the entry fee from the club treasury,? said Michael Creamer, the atheists? faculty adviser, who urged them to take part.
Club members discussed what to do about Faith Week. Rutherford High?s two Christian clubs will be sponsoring a series of before-school prayer circles around the flagpole this week, and several of the atheists felt a need to respond in some way. ?We can set up informational tables near the flagpole and do our own speeches,? said Mr. Creamer, who suggested waiting a few weeks. ?Remember, we?re not trying to be confrontational; this will be a counterpoint.?
Mr. Creamer, 47, an English teacher and longtime atheist who grew up in a family of Free Will Baptists, is constantly urging club members to ?be friendly, put on those smiles ? people don?t expect that from atheists.?
The Christians and atheists at Rutherford High get along better than some might expect. Joshua Mercer, a senior, who is president of Ignite, a Christian club, and Jim, the atheist president, are close friends. They love comparing philosophies, and giving each other a hard time. ?We like to go to Taco Bell together,? Joshua said.
Still, he worries about Jim and the other atheists. ?If they don?t accept Jesus Christ as a savior, they will definitely go to hell,? said Joshua, who rises at 4:30 each morning to read the Bible with his grandmother.
Joshua believes there is still time for Jim. ?Jim could change,? he said. ?If he will accept Jesus in his heart, he has a free ride to heaven.?
There have long been college atheist clubs, and at present there are an estimated 240 nationwide, said J. T. Eberhard, 29, of the national Secular Student Alliance. But recently they have been springing up at high schools. In the last three months, the number has risen to 21 from 12, Mr. Eberhard said.
The alliance, which is based in Columbus, Ohio, provides support services to atheist organizations. Several months ago, the Stiefel Freethought Foundation donated $50,000, enabling Mr. Eberhard to organize full time at high schools. His target is 50 clubs by year?s end.
The federal law permitting extracurricular clubs to use public schools before and after hours was passed in 1984 after lobbying by conservative church groups. Bible study clubs grew fruitful and multiplied, replenishing the Christian faith throughout the land. Then things took a turn to the left. The law required equal access, and gay-straight clubs started popping up.
And now this.
?That was an eye-opener for us,? said Karen Harrell, the head of Rutherford?s math department, who serves as the sponsor for Ignite. Her husband, Kirk, is a gym teacher who is adviser for the other religious club, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
?Some of our students didn?t understand that there are people who don?t believe in God,? Mrs. Harrell said.
At one point, Mr. Creamer suggested that the clubs get together and discuss their beliefs, but Mrs. Harrell, who attends Hiland Park Baptist Church, declined, fearing it would turn into a debate. ?My reaction is faith in Jesus Christ is not at all logical,? she said. ?When your beliefs are based on faith, you?re believing something you can?t see. Being able to prove that scientifically in a debate ? it could be hard to win.?
?Our goal,? she said, ?is not to confuse anyone.?
Because of its location on the edge of the Old South, people here refer to Panama City as the buckle of the Bible Belt. There are Air Force and naval bases nearby. Often, one of the first questions neighbors ask when meeting someone for the first time is ?What church do you belong to??
A high school atheist club could be a controversial disaster.
A major reason it?s not is Mr. Creamer, the Atticus Finch of Rutherford High. He grew up nearby in a little town called Wausau, and his uncle was the preacher at the Free Will Baptist Church there. He graduated from Florida State University, returned here and has been teaching English at the high school ever since, for 26 years.
People appreciate that he knows his trade. ?Students are so engrossed with what he?s teaching,? said Michael Kennedy, the principal, who belongs to St. Dominic Roman Catholic Church. ?When I do a walk-through, they don?t even notice I?m there.?
And like Atticus Finch in ?To Kill a Mockingbird,? Mr. Creamer has the rare gift of being able to stand up for what he believes without angering people. He may disagree with Mrs. Harrell, but he shows his respect. ?She?s a really good math department head,? Mr. Creamer said.
Several years ago he wanted to teach ?The Epic of Gilgamesh? in his mythology class. It might have been 5,000 years old, but it was not on the Sunshine State?s approved reading list. Some might have quit; Mr. Creamer began the long and tedious process of pleading his case up the chain of command, until he was called before the local school board. There were board members who were concerned that the epic poem included a few sexual passages. For an hour he stood patiently and politely answering all questions, and then eked out a 3-to-2 win.
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