LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Student has right to oppose school’s religious innuendo

I am writing in response to the Feb. 10 opinion article entitled “Student’s religious intolerance fueled by selfishness, scorn,” written by Alex Sorondo.
I was appalled to see the disdain he applied to Jessica Ahlquist’s efforts at removing an illegal prayer banner from her public school.
Mr. Sorondo seems to suggest that Jessica was simply jumping on the bandwagon of “an increasingly fervent trend with secular youth of reflexively attacking religious gestures.”
You are right that secularism and atheism is a growing trend: according to the American Religious Identification Survey (2008) performed by Trinity College, those individuals stating that they had no religious preference have increased from 8.2 percent of the population in 1990, to 14.1 percent in 2001, to 15.0 percent in 2008.
However, you are certainly mistaken in indicating that Ms. Ahlquist’s efforts (or those of her secular brethren) were the efforts of an immature, young teen who was “sheltered from the toils and demands of adult responsibilities… yet to realize the benefits of moderation, respect, and patience.”
I fail to see how you can adequately make that assessment from reading a single article in The New York Times.
In fact, Jessica has shown tremendous strength, bravery, and maturity throughout the situation.
She has been attacked by her State Representative, Peter Palumbo, who called her “an evil little thing.”
She has received so many death threats that she has to be escorted to school by police.
High school bullying is awful enough without actively making yourself stand out. Only a person with great maturity, strength, and patience could weather this storm of negativity while still maintaining her right to remain religion-free.
I find your assertion that “the well-spoken young contrarian will rarely wag their finger so aggressively at any other conservative orthodoxies (than Christianity), religious or not,” rather perplexing.
Christianity accounts for a hefty 77.8 percent of the U.S. population, so it only makes sense that most of the religious controversies which secularists fight against are produced by the group composed of the most numbers. I can’t help but wonder if critics of the Ahlquist lawsuit would change their opinions if the prayer had begun with invocation of, “Great Allah,” “Wonderful Montezuma,” or “Powerful Chthulu.”
If you are worried that the majority of vocal secularists are picking on Christianity, then I encourage you to pick up a copy of famous atheist Christopher Hitchen’s book, “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” where he sets forth his own arguments against the major monotheistic religions as well as Eastern religions such as Confucianism (I will warn, however, that assuming his opinions speak for all secularists or atheists is a great fallacy; opinions within the secularist movement vary so greatly that organizing the movement is often described as “herding cats”).
-Melissa Zwilling, Chemistry Graduate student
To read this “Letter to the Editor” in its full text, visit FIUSM.com.