An Atheist Proposed a $4,000 “Good Without God” Scholarship; The School Said No.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
When I was a senior in high school, we had an evening near the end of the year when my classmates and I were honored for our accomplishments. District officials celebrated those who graduated with certain GPAs and were named the best students in various departments. They also awarded scholarships that we had applied for earlier in the year. Those scholarships were sponsored by local companies, families, and organizations within the district. They ranged from a few hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars.
Winters High School in California, just west of Sacramento, does something similar, and atheist Robert Nickelson wanted to be a part of it.
He didn’t just want to sponsor a scholarship. He wanted to sponsor the largest scholarship. So he told the school last December that he would be offering a $2,500 “Good Without God Scholarship” to the student who wrote the best essay about being non-religious or promoting a secular worldview. For example, they could write about the “benefits of keeping religion out of public policy.” As an added bonus, he said, the winning entry would be published in the Winters Express, a local newspaper.
To his shock, no one applied.
The money was just sitting there, waiting to be taken, and no students seemed to want it. It’s not like they were all conservative Christians, so Nickelson was puzzled. Was the amount too low? Maybe. So he went even bigger, promising $4,000 to the winner.
By April, he still heard nothing.
Then he found out why.
The school was refusing to publicize his scholarship. No students even knew it existed.
The Winters Express just published a piece describing what happened:
On March 22, he contacted the high school principal, Nicole Reyherme, who told him that the high school could not announce or advertise the scholarship because she was “concerned that the application has language that can be controversial and may violate the expectation of separation of church and state.”
Ironically, an essay contest in which students could advocate for church/state separation was being called a violation of church/state separation…
The actual concern appeared to be that, since students could also write about why they were secular humanists, the administrators feared that they’d be seen as advocating non-theism. But that shouldn’t have been a problem. As long as the door was open to everyone offering scholarships, including religious groups, there was no legal issue. And religious groups like the Knights of Columbus were allowed to promote scholarship opportunities through the school, Nickelson said. It wasn’t just him.
Furthermore, religious students were welcome to apply for Nickelson’s money, since they could make an argument for why religion and government shouldn’t be mixed, a view that plenty of them hold.
So Nickelson, who used to sit on the Winters School Board, went directly to Superintendent Todd Cutler to make his case. He heard a different excuse this time around.
According to Nickelson, Cutler was uncomfortable with the piece of the scholarship involving publication in the Express and after some discussion, invited Cutler to make changes to the application. However, after reviewing the suggested changes, Nickelson and his family didn’t approve of them.
Nickelson told me that having the winning essay published in the paper was non-negotiable. One of his main goals in offering the scholarship was to “make people more aware that there are non-Christians in the community,” and publishing the winning entry was central to that goal. He also joked that, “He who has the gold makes the rules.” If he was the one giving away $4,000, the district had no business telling him to eliminate part of the prize.
He threatened to take this matter up with the board of trustees, and eventually, Cutler relented. The school would finally advertise the scholarship. After months of receiving no essays at all, Nickelson received several.
One of them, from a student named Sarah Hagy, stood out. She wrote about the struggles of becoming non-religious in a religious family, and this was the opening line:
The day I told my father I didn’t want to go to church anymore, I may as well have turned into Satan himself.
Sarah also spoke about the stigma against mental health care she found in many churches:
Having a God that can take away depression and lack of motivation at the snap of his fingers sounds awesome, but there’s also Prozac and Zoloft that can do the job.
“It was an outstanding essay,” Nickelson told me. His family was proud to declare her the winner, and he added that her story was “worth every dime to me.”
A couple of weeks ago, Nickelson got on stage during the scholarship ceremony and announced Sarah as the winner. In his speech, he also made sure to explicitly thank Principal Reyherme and Superintendent Cutler for supporting the scholarship. (I’m sure they were thrilled.)
In another twist, though, the Winters Express hasn’t published the essay yet. (Nickelson was told it was just a matter of space and there was an “85% chance” it’ll appear in this week’s issue.) They made a promise to publish the winning essay several months ago, and Nickelson expects them to honor their commitment. If they don’t, however, he’s considering buying an ad with the winning essay.
Despite the pushback he received from administrators, Nickelson said he’s received no backlash from the public. It’s been positive support all around.
He emphasizes that the Good Without God Scholarship promotes the concept of non-discrimination, and that his ultimate motivation was that his family “had the funds to help somebody out.” As for those who recoil at the idea of promoting secular non-Christian values or ideals, Nickelson says, “If you think it’s in bad taste — there are a lot of things that are in bad taste.” Which seems to be another way of saying, “Just deal with it.”
All in all, says Nickelson, “It really shouldn’t have been a big deal at all.”
He plans to continue offering the scholarship in the future, though he’s not sure what the amount will be. And if anyone gives him trouble, he’s not worried. His daughter Keeley is a lawyer. She graduated from Winters High School.
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Why do you bother commenting on these seeds if it just makes you unhappy? Shouldn't you stick to those Feel Good stories one of yinz is always going on about?
Your religious strawman is understood.
You cannot hate what does exist. Atheists despise ignorance, usually performed in the name of religious belief.
This school administration was blocking the students access to a humanist scholarship, because of his own religious belief.
And more importantly, wouldn't challenging an omnipotent entity that you believe to be real, be like suicide by cop? Why aren't atheists out there threatening police with airsoft guns?
And more importantly, wouldn't challenging an omnipotent entity that you believe to be real, be like suicide by cop?
That's an interesting way of putting it.
that meme is a direct contradiction of itself - if it doesn't exist, then how can anyone hate it ?
it's akin to stating that unicorns don't exist - yet i hate them anyway, same thing with flying green elephants.
It's amazing the mental gymnastics many of the religious will indulge in just find a negative in "the other side" and claim they are "hating".
It's the whole "I'm a Christian and the atheists are persecuting me again!"
Nasty, good-fer-nuthin atheists!
Yeah...we're always causing trouble
Good for him.
I'd like to hear the principal argument about how notifying students of the possibility of a secular scholarship would violate the separation of church and state?
The document had the words “church” and “state” on them, and they weren’t sufficiently separated from one another.
Ir's an an Establishment violation for a school to advocate or oppose religion, so this essay contest treads very close to the latter. It would matter a lot on how the contest is worded.
The state isn't endorsing this belief or suggesting that students write this essay. They are only telling them that it exists and that they can write an essay to get the money.
This could be done as simply as posting a message on the high school internal internet page under possible scholarships that are available.
It isn't "the state" that's making this decision. It's one guy. The Superintendent.
IMHO, that's worse...
If the superintendent is blocking this secular scholarship from being widely known and taken advantage by students then he is endorsing his religious views. That bias is a serious problem in public schools.
Exactly.
It's an abuse of power... of the small-mind-small-deed variety that plagues the whole nation in so many, many ways...
Any superintendent who denies a student access to a scholarship based on his religious views should be fired.
In his mind and among the rest of the school board they tell themselves that they are preventing impressionable students minds from being corrupted by Satan via atheists.
I really, really do not care what is going on in his mind. I try very hard not to second guess people's motives. That way lies madness...
I only care what people do. In this case... abused his authority. I don't care why he did it, only that he did.
What irritates me are all those Christians who have made the claim that it’s not atheists who are out there volunteering, and donating, and being the philanthropists that make the world a better place. The fact is that we do, much of the time even doing so under their auspices. Here we have a case where an attempt is made to do so in an overt secular way, and some Christian is attempting to stop it from happening. And then along comes mags below to further disparage atheists just for pointing it out.
Agreed.
I very much doubt that he would have blocked a scholarship with a religious basis. Well... ... he might do the same with anything non-Christian...
I am just explaining how he rationalizes his behavior in his mind. I am related to people like this and I interact with this mindset on a daily basis. Their life is spent on an eternal struggle fighting Satan anywhere they claim that he exists.
These people are nuts!
Certainly.
All the more reason to not try to understand "why"...
I realized a long time ago that when I guessed at another person's motives, I soon began to act in relation to those motives. If I had guessed right, all was well. If I had guessed wrong... big mess!
I stay away from them as much as socially possible. I understand them so I can try to guess where they will go next and be prepared to limit the damage of their idiocy. There is no point in having any sort of relationship with them if you aren't a member of their church.
I have a cousin who lives nearby...
I have a neighbor, 2 cousins and a wackjob sister.
I went to a family reunion a while back which included a branch we didn't know existed, and I learned that I'm closely related to 200 bible-babbling wack jobs.
May the good Lord protect you...
The "why" revolves around being indoctrinated into any sect of any religion and then basing their entire existence on the words written by members of that ancient religion.
This becomes a problem when the religious minded try to force their religion on others.
If for some strange reason the Amish became the religious authority in the US and had enough political power to "cleanse" our nation of the sins of advanced education and modern conveniences (which their version of Yahweh dislikes), would we be having discussions about "understanding why"?
What is so offensive about "good without god"? Is god the only reason you are ever good?
So? how is that a problem exactly?
I've actually had some people tell me god is the only reason they are good or capable of being good. Those are the kind of people one needs to be wary of.
Your beliefs are threatened by this scholarship.
Good without a God is the tagline of the American Humanists.
It is a logical statement that morality is not inherent in religious belief. He is trying to get people to think about their religious beliefs when they write the essay. It is also an acknowledgment that there are high school students who are not believers. Nobody is being forced to apply for the scholarship and it is not an endorsement by the school of either atheism or Humanism.
Faith that doesn't have enough confidence in itself to confront all doubts... is an embarrassment for its object.
What other elements of Winters schools is the Superintendent manipulating according to his own personal standards?
In this case, it's atheism. But... what else?
I'd start by looking into what is being taugh in both biology and health classes because the teaching of evolution and fact-based sex education seem to be hot-button topics among religious conservatives. American history and civics would be the next classes that I would investigate.
It's exhausting....
Religious conservatives see that their grip on the American people is slipping away so they seek to teach their illogical religious beliefs in public school as a way of prolonging their power onto the next generation.
I'd be checking their math, too
Numerology is perhaps the one thing that Christian extremists are good at. Harold Camping was quite skilled....but then each time after his predicted apocalypse didn't happen he'd admit to a slight miscalculation.
But that's not math...that's religion wrapped in pseudoscience
In this case, it's atheism. But... what else?
I get the feeling that it wasn’t so much about hyper-evangelical sentiments (they did relent after all), but more about trying to avoid a perceived uncomfortable situation with the community. Of course the reality is that there was nothing uncomfortable about it at all, but public education officials are increasingly sensitive to all things PC. At my wife’s elementary school, they aren’t even allowed to hang pictures of Santa Claus, for fear of offending those who don’t celebrate Christmas. It’s gotten out of hand.
I hope your version is true.
As for Santa... isn't he better off at home? At school there are kids who aren't Christian... assuming that Santa has anything to do with Jesus's birthday...
If I were to relocate my family to India, I would have no desire, much less an expectation, that their school systems retool their secular traditions to accommodate my foreign sensibilities.
Santa Claus is arguably a secular figure. Just because Christianity usurped a pagan holiday to instill their own, doesn’t mean they get to lay claim to every secular figure associated with Dec. 25. As an atheist, I have celebrated Christmas every year of my life, though as the years roll on it has become a tiresome event for me. With the advent of gift cards, the event has lost its secular romance. Why trade gift cards (which seems to be the only thing people ask for anymore), when you can just spend that money on yourself and skip the whole awkward trading of money formality?
Jeez, Hal...
I thought I was cynical...
I am admittedly cynical. I went on a grumpy cat binge a few months ago, with my NT avatar and a prolonged series of grumpy cat memes. This led to my wife nicknaming me cynicat.
I love the Grinch. I want to build a 6' tall version for my front yard and alternate it with a lighted FSM as a reply to my uptight conservative Christian neighborhood.
The Grinch song is my phone's ringtone in December.
I don't like Christmas. If it weren't for having friends and family around to get drunk with and fatten them up with my good cooking, I just wouldn't make any effort at all.
I haven't decorated a tree in probably 3 years or so.....
Yes, it's a good moment for a family meal. No religious significance at all.
Exactly!
Until the religious ones in the group insist on saying a prayer....in my house!
Out to the backyard with em, they can come sit down when they're done.
We're too polite.
We should interrupt immediately, "Excuse me... but we don't say grace in this house, since we can't be sure that everyone is on the same page, where religion is concerned. If you wish to say your grace, please do it inaudibly; please don't try to impose it on the rest of us..."
But we are too polite. We allow them to be profoundly rude...
Mr Giggles doesn't like to offend anybody even tho he knows how I feel
Does he actually answer to "Mr Giggles"?
No of course not. He doesn't know that's what I call him on here
I wish that was the case. I see pretty much the opposite. The right is so confident of its authority already, that they feel enabled to act as this guy did.
They see everyone at the highest echelons of the nation doing whatever they like, ignoring the law when it hampers them...
It is the case.
And because fewer people attend church services, churches have been closing for decades because there isn't enough money to pay the utilities.
Perhaps, in order to drive more people back into church or to keep churches open or ?????, GW Bush enacted the Faith Based Initiative through Executive Order. Obama continued the program.
and more info... Please note that I cannot find figures for yearly expenditures for this program. If anyone else has the numbers, please share.
and more...
Currently, laws are being enacted to funnel taxpayer money to churches with fewer restrictions. Where is the ACLU?
Churches stump for politicians... and it ain't for free!
They're just going through a reactionary phase right now, but progress is the reason for that.
Progress?
Cops shooting whomever they please?
Citizens United?
Donald Trump?
I think you misunderstood my comment. What do you think Trump voters are reacting against?
"Those people..."
I don't know how so many of you can live a good life in your cynical world. Why do you spend so much time hating on religion when it could be spent enjoying those things and people who mean so much to us? Choose that part of the world you love and leave the rest alone.
Conversely, why do you spend so much time hating on atheists?
I don't. What makes you think so? I am wondering why you all spend so much time devoted to hating the religious?
We love the religious but hate the religion Mango!
I see you avoided the question....again....
Speaking for myself, if I wanted to hear thumper bullshit, I'd go to church. Hopefully someday they will realize that negative push back usually happens when their nonsensical bible babble takes place off the religious reservation.
what an odd comment considering the article - it's almost as if you are stating "Atheists should have just sit down, shut up and dealt with it instead of fighting to be heard etc" - is this correct ? (honest question, nothing more)
That;s what it sounded like to me....
If religious conservatives would stop trying to legislate their fairy tales then my life would be much better. I refuse to obey it so keep the separation of church and state absolute and impenetrable. I refuse to pay for it and its negative effects on society so don't try to teach it and stop giving relgious institutions tax exemptions. Your religious beliefs do not determine the secular rights of other people.
As it should be!
Do whatever makes your world churn. You keep on and on and no one listens,,,,,,you talk to yourselves and makes you feel better. Hello wall!
Do whatever makes your world churn. You keep on and on and no one listens,,,,,,you talk to yourselves and makes you feel better. Hello wall!
What an odd statement to make to nobody in general. Practicing what you preach?