Now here’s some interesting current events for all you listeners. Georgia College and State University has been the center of some controversy lately. GCSU has a policy requiring that all student organizations must accept any and all students interested in participating, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or religious beliefs. Now, one student organization that’s actually a nation-wide group on many campuses, the Atheists Students Organization (known as the ASO), has fallen into the hot seat. You see, this student-run organization meets once a week to discuss atheism, similar to any other religious organization. Their club activities usually include reading different articles written by authors of various beliefs and talking about how their views apply to them. In order to become an official division under the national ASO, students participating in the club must sign an official statement stating that he or she revokes all religious beliefs. This is required of every ASO in any college or university. Part of this statement includes a section that says, “I do not believe in any religion and am not a member of any religious church, group, or establishment.”
This is where things get sticky. One member of the ASO at GCSU, Michael Levington, invited his friend John Greenlove to come to one of the meetings with him. Greenlove, a proud follower of the Catholic Church, agreed to attend in order to understand atheist beliefs better. Upon arriving to the first meeting, Greenlove was told he must sign the statement revoking religious beliefs otherwise he could not participate or even sit in on the ASO meeting. Of course, this completely caught him off guard and he refused to sign the statement and denounce his religion. After being forced to leave the meeting, Greenlove went to higher ups at GCSU to complain that the ASO was not following their policy of nondiscrimination when it comes to accepting members. The campus’s ASO was told that all their activities would be suspended and that it would lose its status as an official GCSU student-led organization until they accepted Greenlove into meetings without forcing him to sign the organization's statement. As a result of no longer being a university organization, the ASO lost all funding from the school.
The ASO was not having this though. They sued the university for disbanding their organization under a policy that they claimed went against their First Amendment Rights. They’re arguing that by refusing to fund or allow on-campus activities, GCSU has denied their freedom to exercise their religion, or lack of in this case. As all of you might be able to tell, this is a very interesting case that brings many questions to rise. Do people have the right to exercise their lack of religion? And can a public university like GCSU force a branch of a nation-wide organization to not follow their policies to become an official part of it? Just some food for thought for all of you listeners. Thank you for tuning in and make sure to subscribe to hear more controversial stories that are happening in America today. See you next time on Teen Politicians of America.