As a Christian, my experience with atheists has either been interactions with friends and family members where we just don’t talk about religion or writing about those groups who try to squash freedom of religious expression. So I was pleased to learn about a group of atheists who care about many of the things that I do.
This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Lauren Ell, who is the founder of Republican Atheists, a group that bills itself as the “first organization representing atheist Republicans in the United States.” Ell grew up in a Christian home before deciding at age 18 that she didn’t believe in God.
Ell said that when she first became an atheist, she didn’t know any of the main names in the movement, and she interacted with other atheists through online forums and social media sites.
She became more politically conscious when she was at Humboldt State University in California where she witnessed the emergence of Occupy Wall Street. She found the activists to be not very knowledgeable of issues they brought up and did not appreciate them erecting tents on campus.
Her real interest in politics was sparked when her private health insurance plan was canceled due to the establishment of the Affordable Care Act. As a person with epilepsy, Ell found that Obama’s plan compromised her health. She was also appalled to learn about the shutdown of a Ben Shapiro speech at a community college in Los Angeles at the hands of students.
“I thought, ‘Wow, this is unacceptable,'” she recalled. “I’m from Southern California, and I’d never seen anything like it.”
But she soon discovered that she had issues with atheist communities when Donald Trump first ran for the presidency. Members of these groups would criticize Trump and go after those who defended him in the comments, including Ell.
“I received negative feedback, I was kicked out of groups, and people slandered me,” she said. “I went looking for atheist Republican groups and found out that there weren’t any.”
So she founded Republican Atheists in 2017.
Republican Atheists is a completely grassroots organization that’s not funded by outside money. They have an online presence, but their members are all over the United States and have met in person.
“We have correspondents, or representatives, in California, Arizona, New York, and all across the country,” Ell told me.
I asked her what the biggest misconceptions are about atheists who are conservatives, and she told me that they have to do with the atheist community in general and its hostility toward conservatives.
Most people are familiar with American Atheists, the group founded by Madelyn Murray O’Hair, as well as the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Ell says that these groups and others like them present themselves as the face of atheism, and at the same time, they make a point of targeting Christians. They also target the GOP as a Christian party. She reminded me of how the American Humanist Association targeted a World War I memorial a few years back.
Ell said she thought that prominent atheist organizations would accept Republican Atheists when she founded it, but that wasn’t the case.
“I thought these groups would be happy, but they ignore me and won’t publish anything,” she explained.
Ell also says that, by default, other atheist groups don’t want to acknowledge Republican Atheists largely because of the funding they receive from outside groups. These funding sources pull the strings, leading them to shut out any groups that are conservative or politically neutral.
As far as atheist groups’ hostility toward Christianity goes, Ell says that she wishes more atheists would acknowledge the benefits of religion, especially Christianity.
“I’ve never hated Christianity. I can understand why many people find value in it. But unfortunately, existing atheist organizations have developed the notion that the term ‘atheist’ automatically means outright opposing Christianity,” she admitted to me.
I asked Ell what common ground believing conservatives and atheist conservatives have that may be surprising, and she said that the most surprising issue is abortion.
“Some atheist conservatives support limiting abortions, while others want outright bans,” she told me. “Some atheists view abortion as eliminating a life.”
Other issues that religious and non-religious conservatives have in common include Second Amendment rights, education, immigration, border policy, international events, and taxation. Ell also told me that many Republican Atheists members are aware of those fleeing locales with strict COVID-19 protocols for freer areas.
“There are a lot of things conservatives can touch on regardless of religious views,” she believes. “Both groups come to terms with common things.”
Ell also hopes that conservatives of all stripes will learn how to communicate with those who aren’t believers.
“Increasing numbers of young people don’t understand the concept of prayer or know what scripture is,” she told me. “I encourage conservatives to give more thought to how they come to the public and learn how younger people communicate.”
Ell became especially passionate about politics when Donald Trump first ran for president. She particularly loved the way he was “more truthful in criticizing” the other side than Republicans had been before he jumped into the ring. She told me that many supporters of Republican Atheists support Trump as well.
I asked her what she wanted conservatives to know about Republican Atheists.
“I would like to emphasize that atheist organizations have gone out of their way to ignore conservatives,” she told me. “Know that they don’t speak for all atheists. Atheist organizations are hypocritical; they say that atheists are being oppressed, but they’re oppressing conservative atheists.”
“I spend more time going after atheist organizations than Republican groups,” she added.
I’m encouraged to know that there are other conservatives out there who, even if we don’t agree on everything, can partner with us to advocate for the things we have in common.
If you’re interested in learning more about Republican Atheists, visit their website. You can also visit Lauren Ell’s website if you want to get to know her better.
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