Still, many of the members AOK members are at a post-collegiate age, typically in their mid-20s and beyond. Rees recalled that when she found secularism, it was by way of a campus club that went against the ideological grain. Since 2001, the Secular Student Alliance (SSA) has inhabited campuses across the U.S., featuring several chapters exclusive to Oklahoma.
Gordon Maples, the regional program manager for the SSA, has witnessed individuals from virtually every social and cultural background find a slice of solace in the organization.
“Particularly with our college groups, many of the members are leaving their homes and families for the first time,” Maples said, “so they are either not publicly open about their non-religious identity or have never previously given much thought to the religion they were raised with.”
Unfortunately, some sectors of SSA have the capacity to dwindle, though Maples attributes this to a fairly consistent occurrence: The most successful chapters are typically more heavily involved with other campus organizations, be it appearing at socials, co-hosting debates and seminars, or just uniting for a joint, yet unrelated, cause.
“Groups that do more on-campus promotion and advertising tend to have more members,” Maples said. “High activity levels are also frequently the result of passionate leadership. Groups that are fun to be a part of tend to attract more people to them. Groups that strike a balance between our four focus areas (community, advocacy, service, and education) tend to cast a wider net and have more people involved as a result.”
Some of the greatest connections, Maples determined, occurred when SSA groups worked in tandem with organizations of the greater local community, such as AOK. They learn the ropes, so to speak, glimpsing a continuation of the endeavor that, for the students, may only last a few short years. The University of Oklahoma, for example, has the benefit of being in the vicinity of several of AOK’s most common Meetup locations, as well as the West Wind Unitarian Universalist congregation. Through these vehicles, an Oklahoma atheist has several means to support themselves communally, which is almost irrefutably necessary in a state where you may foster less than a fifth of the population, although that statistic has been steadily swaying.
Despite the obvious counterbalance, the placement of the Ten Commandments could be seen as a defensive maneuver, not all that dissimilar from how many have clung to the Confederate flag despite undeniably negative connotations. That’s not to say the Old Testament’s negative connotations are as immediate (let’s be real, though, they kind of are), but it still begs the question as to why and to what end. What purpose would it serve? The old axiom of “a church on every street corner” isn’t much of a hyperbole, especially in several rural communities of Oklahoma.
“Oklahoma has one of the highest evangelical populations, and they have stayed strong through this notion that ‘we are a persecuted group,’” Garneau said. “By buying into this idea of being persecuted, you’re going to fight harder. Oklahoma is overwhelmingly Christian, and clearly it carries a huge influence over our culture, yet still most will say it’s being attacked. It comes from being threatened. The statue suggests they’re feeling the pinch a little bit.”
Garneau further explained that AOK isn’t actively attempting to convert much of anyone, opting instead to keep an open door for any newcomers or curious minds. Still, this tendency, combined with the adamancy of AOK’s leadership, has propelled the organization to the point it is at now, like a beacon of light piercing a fog of scheming televangelists and shitty, misleading crisis-of-faith films.
Structurally and logically (if you can refer to it as such), Christianity may not really allow for the outlier. To suggest nothing, or even something slightly different, is essentially ripping the proverbial carpet from beneath one’s feet. It’s alarming, confusing and disconcerting in one of the deepest ways.
Rees’s closing comment seemed to epitomize this with ease.
“Think about it,” she said. “If you’re cosmically right, you should be right on a legislative level, too. What upsets people the most about secularism is that their own system happens to be founded in absolutism. You have to be absolutely right, absolutely true. If you ever respond somewhat aggressively, it really shakes them up. Again, they’re cosmically right, and the fact that there are people that don’t really care is quite threatening.”
