Lucy Gubbins is the president of the Alliance of Happy Atheists, a secular student group at the University of Oregon. In January, their campus newspaper made the strange decision to reprint an anti-atheist screed which had first been published at Portland State University three months earlier. Lucy mobilized her group to respond with polite letters to the editor. Here's the letter she got printed:

Reprinting anti-atheism commentary offensive, lacking balance

Lucy Gubbins, President of the UO Alliance of Happy Atheists

By Lucy Gubbins | President, Alliance of Happy Atheists

A long-time fan of the Oregon Daily Emerald, I was deeply surprised to open up the year's second issue to find Dick Richards' "Knocking atheism off its pedestal" as the off-campus commentary in the opinion section.

An ardent supporter of free speech and an equally ardent supporter of discourse between the religious and secular - two groups which have, for far too long, been alienated from each other - I was saddened and deeply disappointed by the ODE staff's lapse of judgment in deciding to reprint this article.

Wading through such journalistic gems as "idiots" and "dipshits" (in reference to atheists), I was unimpressed and bored by this "flamebait" of an article, which served no purpose but to present the author's obvious and unabashed hate for the non-religious community. It gave the reader no argument, no information, no nothing; it was simply an uninteresting, uneducated diatribe that read more like a mildly offensive YouTube comment than the legitimate article that should have been in its place.

While I wasn't bothered by the article itself, I am bothered - and bewildered - by the fact that the ODE decided to run this article (three months after its original publication) in this issue, with no opposing view or added commentary included. Here's to hoping that the ODE staff re-evaluates the process by which they choose off-campus commentaries. And here's to hoping, too, that Mr. Richards finds some happiness in his life. Maybe he should come to one of our meetings.

Lucy's letter on the Oregon Daily Emerald website can be found here.

The original article by Dick Richards can be found here.