Northwest Christian University’s student body president comes out as atheist

[shian]

[img]http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.common.streams.StreamServer.cls?STREAMOID=GXykMYlH83TVoatdxonMcM$daE2N3K4ZzOUsqbU5sYsUImoESpKIxSgz5dnFEopcWCsjLu883Ygn4B49Lvm9bPe2QeMKQdVeZmXF$9l$4uCZ8QDXhaHEp3rvzXRJFdy0KqPHLoMevcTLo3h8xh70Y6N_U_CryOsw6FTOdKL_jpQ-&CONTENTTYPE=image/jpeg[/img]

[quote]
Eric Fromm has received a lot of hugs on campus lately — at least once a day since he “came out” as an atheist last week in an article in his Christian university’s online newspaper.

And while the Northwest Christian University student body president doesn’t quite know what to do with all the new attention he’s receiving, he says it’s a welcome change from the isolation, verbal attacks and accusing questions that he’d grown to expect as rumors about his nonbelief circulated.

“I don’t have to hide anymore,” said Fromm, 21. “I know that people accept me for who I am.”

Though his active campus involvement was enough to win him the student government presidential election, Fromm said he’s felt judged by some of his peers throughout college because, as he wrote in the article that appeared in the school’s Beacon Bolt newspaper last week, “I couldn’t force myself to believe in God.”

It was his peers’ criticism, rather than his own doubts, that Fromm said ultimately compelled him to reject his faith.

Fromm said he was baptized as a Lutheran and attended a Methodist church regularly until his parents’ divorce when he was a teen. He said he had many questions still lurking from his upbringing in the Christian church when he arrived in 2010 to study communications at NCU, which was established in 1895 and is nestled next to the much-larger University of Oregon campus.

As a graduate of the 1,600-•student Canby High School, Fromm said he opted for NCU, despite his emerging doubts, because he liked the communications program and the one-on-one attention he knew he would receive from his professors on the 600-student college campus.

While initially drawn to his peers’ faith and sense of community, Fromm said some students responded with shock, shame or fear when he divulged his doubts and lack of faith. Some avoided bringing up the Bible around him, some stopped talking to him for fear of losing their own faith, and others poked fun at him for his views, he said.

“The more I got shunned, the more cold shoulders and verbal attacks, I realized, ‘OK, I’m part of the ‘out’ group,’ ” he said.

Fromm said he wasn’t keen about going public but felt forced to set the record straight as rumors about how he viewed Christians and Christianity circulated on the small campus. Prior to his article’s appearance, he worried that students and admini•strators might reject him or challenge his presidency.

But the story he never intended to tell has, he says, been met with a surprisingly positive response.

“I knew friends would be accepting, but I didn’t expect as much support” and positive feedback from across the campus, he said. Some students have even identified with his perspective, he said.

“For the past couple years, I thought I was the only one,” he said.

Fromm said he hopes his fellow students don’t confuse his atheism, or lack of belief in a deity, with antitheism, or direct opposition to belief in a deity. He said he still respects his peers for their faith and admires the morals of Christianity.

“My objective is to never attack any religion or any type of person for being who they are,” he said.

Beacon Bolt editor-in-chief and fellow student Brandon McGinnis worked with Fromm to write the article. McGinnis, who is a Christian and Fromm’s former roommate, said a lot of students bring their questions and doubts to college with them. He said he hoped the article would encourage students to be more accepting of one another’s struggles.

“We as Christians have a lot to work out ourselves before saying, ‘This is wrong and you shouldn’t be here,’ ” McGinnis said.[/quote]

[url]http://www.registerguard.com/rg/news/local/30691065-75/fromm-student-students-article-faith.html.csp?fb_action_ids=10201334646382731&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=.UnsS2Yu3Xn8.like&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7b%2210201334646382731%22%3A184821518390245%7d&action_type_map=%7b%2210201334646382731%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7d&action_ref_map=%7b%2210201334646382731%22%3A%22.UnsS2Yu3Xn8.like%22%7d[/url]

[FPSMango]

[img]http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t132/legendmike/emot-iceburn.gif[/img]

[Zakk]

GAAAAAASP!
SINNNNNNNEEEEER!

[S31-Syntax]

[quote]Fromm said he hopes his fellow students don’t confuse his atheism, or lack of belief in a deity, with antitheism, or direct opposition to belief in a deity. He said he still respects his peers for their faith and admires the morals of Christianity.
“My objective is to never attack any religion or any type of person for being who they are,” he said.[/quote]
[I]This.[/I] This is what someone should strive to be like as an Atheist. Accepting and respectful.
[quote]
Beacon Bolt editor-in-chief and fellow student Brandon McGinnis worked with Fromm to write the article. McGinnis, who is a Christian and Fromm’s former roommate, said a lot of students bring their questions and doubts to college with them. He said he hoped the article would encourage students to be more accepting of one another’s struggles.
“We as Christians have a lot to work out ourselves before saying, ‘This is wrong and you shouldn’t be here,’ ” McGinnis said.[/quote]
And [I]this[/I] is what someone should strive to be like as a Christian, [I]Accepting and respectful.[/I]

I'm proud of the dude, and proud of those who support him.

[Rangergxi]

For some reason I had assumed they had expelled him. I'm glad the school is being reasonable and glad to see this guy isn't some edgy anti-religious crusader trying to shit on everybody else's personal beliefs.

[Xmeagol]

screw religion and religious pushy parents

[Bentham]

[QUOTE=Xmeagol;42799117]screw religion and religious pushy parents[/QUOTE]

This article has nothing to do with the "Screw religion" idea and frankly it shows that religious people don't have to be assholes, one guy went to a Christian university, came out as atheist and had people who were Christian being very supportive and accepting of his differing belief just as he accepted theirs

So I'm not sure what you are trying to convey in relation to what the article is about.

[Sgman91]

[QUOTE=FPSMango;42797483][IMG]http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t132/legendmike/emot-iceburn.gif[/IMG][/QUOTE]

Who's getting burned here? A student came out as an atheist and pretty everyone accepted him for his choice in a positive way. The guy won student body president. So people couldn't have had too negative of an opinion of him.

Everyone wins.

[S31-Syntax]

[QUOTE=sgman91;42800889]Who's getting burned here? A student came out as an atheist and pretty everyone accepted him for his choice in a positive way. The guy won student body president. So people couldn't have had too negative of an opinion of him.

Everyone wins.[/QUOTE]

I think some people saw "kid comes out as atheist in christian university" and without reading into it at all decided to mark it as a super burn of some kind, when reality its a fantastic story involving a bunch of supportive Christians being not-fuckasses towards their Atheist peer, and vice versa.

[muffinmastah]

Wouldn't he be more agnostic than an atheist?

[Beaverlake]

[QUOTE=muffinmastah;42801586]Wouldn't he be more agnostic than an atheist?[/QUOTE]

Being agnostic and atheist is not mutually exclusive.

[Rangergxi]

[QUOTE=Beaverlake;42801656]Being agnostic and atheist is not mutually exclusive.[/QUOTE]

Most theists could probably call themselves agnostic theists.

[Helix Snake]

Stories like this really need to get out more. Christianity has a general stigma it really doesn't deserve. I was an atheist when I went to the local Christian college and no one had a problem with it.

It's the evangelicals that believe it's their duty to convert everyone to Christianity to save their souls that's the problem. There are plenty of reasonable Christians that realize that God sending every non-Christian to hell would be really fucked up.

[S31-Syntax]

[QUOTE=muffinmastah;42801586]Wouldn't he be more agnostic than an atheist?[/QUOTE]

No, because he straight doesn't believe in God.
Agnosticism is the mindset that it is simply unknown, can't be proven, that kinda stuff.
"It'd be cool, I guess, if it could be proven, but it can't, we simply don't know"

[Tengil]

I'm getting a lil bit tired of this endless and pointless religion vs atheism debate. Two conflicting beleifs system which leads to nothing good. Religion will lead to our self destruction, atheism leads to nilhism and savagery. Both cause ignorance.

So fuck pathless atheism, fuck delusional abrahamic religion. We need something new and better. Something which does not make us monkeys, something which does not make us blind. We need a fresh perpective that puts humanity in the center & new virtues. Something that will bring humanity forward.

[Beaverlake]

[QUOTE=Tengil;42802087]I'm getting a lil bit tired of this endless and pointless religion vs atheism debate. Two conflicting beleifs system which leads to nothing good. Religion will lead to our self destruction, atheism leads to nilhism and savagery. Both cause ignorance.

So fuck pathless atheism, fuck delusional abrahamic religion. We need something new and better. Something which does not make us monkeys, something which does not make us blind. We need a fresh perpective that puts humanity in the center & new virtues. Something that will bring humanity forward.[/QUOTE]

How the fuck does atheism lead to nihilism and savagery? Are you being serious right now?

[FPSMango]

[QUOTE=Tengil;42802087]I'm getting a lil bit tired of this endless and pointless religion vs atheism debate. Two conflicting beleifs system which leads to nothing good. Religion will lead to our self destruction, atheism leads to nilhism and savagery. Both cause ignorance.[/QUOTE]

Are you one of those people who believe that atheists have no reason not to kill so they will do it at will?

I'm an atheist and I'd say I have a stronger moral compass than many Christians.

[QUOTE=Tengil;42802087]We need something new and better. Something which does not make us monkeys, something which does not make us blind. We need a fresh perpective that puts humanity in the center & new virtues. Something that will bring humanity forward.[/QUOTE]

I believe Humanism would be right up your alley.

[yawmwen]

[QUOTE=Tengil;42802087]I'm getting a lil bit tired of this endless and pointless religion vs atheism debate. Two conflicting beleifs system which leads to nothing good. Religion will lead to our self destruction, atheism leads to nilhism and savagery. Both cause ignorance.

So fuck pathless atheism, fuck delusional abrahamic religion. We need something new and better. Something which does not make us monkeys, something which does not make us blind. We need a fresh perpective that puts humanity in the center & new virtues. Something that will bring humanity forward.[/QUOTE]

secular humanism has been around for a long time dude, it's hardly new at all.

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_humanism[/url]

"The philosophy or life stance of secular humanism (alternatively known by some adherents as Humanism, specifically with a capital H to distinguish it from other forms of humanism) embraces human reason, ethics, social justice and philosophical naturalism, while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience or superstition as the basis of morality and decision making."

[Tiersin]

[QUOTE=Tengil;42802087]I'm getting a lil bit tired of this endless and pointless religion vs atheism debate. Two conflicting beleifs system which leads to nothing good. Religion will lead to our self destruction, atheism leads to nilhism and savagery. Both cause ignorance.

So fuck pathless atheism, fuck delusional abrahamic religion. We need something new and better. Something which does not make us monkeys, something which does not make us blind. We need a fresh perpective that puts humanity in the center & new virtues. Something that will bring humanity forward.[/QUOTE]

I'll just leave this here...
[IMG]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/atheists.png[/IMG]

[frances pit]

He kind of looks like FPS Kyle

[yawmwen]

[QUOTE=Tiersin;42802488]I'll just leave this here...
[IMG]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/atheists.png[/IMG][/QUOTE]

our society praises the moderate and denounces the radicals and extremists. that's just fucking ridiculous and leads to this "middle ground" standpoint where everyone looks like a fucking lunatic to each other.