Among the Atheists

A former minister immerses himself in the American Atheists convention, bearing witness to the nonbeliever movement as it rises from the ashes of 2016

- By J.W. Holland

Touching down at Will Rogers airport in Oklahoma City, I request a ride; within minutes a young woman named Sandra pulls up to take me to my hotel. Contemporary Christian music plays quietly from her radio, a cross hangs from the rearview and a Bible peeks out from the door pocket at my feet. I recognize Sandra, though not personally. Sandra is me several years ago, back when I was on a mission to save a world doomed to hell by any means necessary. Planting seeds, we called it.

What she doesn’t know, and what I don’t bother to tell her, is that I was ordained as a minister in the Southern Baptist Convention. Sandra might have admired me back when I was attending dinner parties with Judge Roy Moore and riding on Herman Cain’s bus. Now she probably wouldn’t be a fan. About six years ago, after a long stretch of mounting self-hate and force-fed guilt, I became an atheist. Today, Sandra’s passenger is in town to attend the 2018 American Atheists National Convention.

I was raised to believe that Madalyn Murray O’Hair, founder of American Atheists and subject of the recent Netflix docudrama The Most Hated Woman in America, was a drug-addled, devil-worshipping sex maniac. So I honestly have no idea what to expect at this convention except maybe drug-addled, sexcrazed devil-worshipping. Just a few years ago I might have been in the street, protesting such an event, and now I’m a registered attendee.

What a time to be alive.