Tuesday I was in the student union with some friends when someone came in and said there was free food in the 'quad. Specifically, hot apple cidar and apple crisp. Oooh yummy! And Free - the ideal college budget!

The catch was it was being given away by BASIC. BASIC is Brothers And Sisters In Christ. Now, even my religious friends don't like them, and I have the impression BASIC is predominantly born-agains. They claims the Catholic group on campus aren't "real" Christians. I beleive they're a widespread college campus organization and have seen claims that they're extremely cult-like.

Anyways, like that would keep my from free food. Free apple crisp at that.

I was surprised to find they weren't lecturing as they gave it away - they frequently do. They're the people that hand out little bags of chocolates or candy canes at Christmas wrapped in notes about "Jesus died for you" - because of course, free candy makes people convert. Srsly.

Anyways, back in the union we were munching away happily on apple goodness when another friend stopped by. She's very Jewish, and part of the Jewish student union (le sigh, why don't we have an Atheist/Agnostic student group huh? But that's another complaint for another day). She remarked quite loudly, and jokingly, if she should go get some despite being Jewish. I replied that they certainly couldn't stop her, since they'd give me some and I'm an atheist.

I paused after the fact and reflected on actually saying aloud "I'm an atheist." People don't have a problem openly saying they're Jewish - they know no one can discrimate against them, they're protected. People admit and accept that it's wrong to do soemthing or say something mean to her because she's Jewish. Atheists don't yet have that kind of protection unfortunately. It's not something that anyone jokes about or brings up.

I'm lucky, I go to a fairly liberal public college. The majority of people are open minded and friendly regardless of any labels you may carry, thus my simple statement caused no harm and drew no overly odd looks. It's not like at home, where I carefully pick my words to hide my disbelief. No one is defined by any one label they carry, despite what stereotypes may claim. Yet while most stereotypes are fought with vehemence, the one that atheists are immoral and evil is still slung around with frequency. I do believe however that the best way to lead is by example. For any minority label the best way to dispel stereotypes is to wear your label proudly and dispel them with your actions.