If you aren't familiar with Secular News Daily, you are missing out. Increasingly, I am finding that they are one of my go-to sources for breaking news on the subject of church-state separation and related matters. They recently posted an article by Lauren Anderson Youngblood, the Communications Manager of the Secular Coalition for America, suggesting that the case of Jessica Ahlquist highlights the need for considering how to protect youth who are subjected to religiously-based bullying.

I think we can all agree that atheists are an unpopular minority in the United States. We've seen countless examples of bigotry directed at us by Christians, including elected officials who are supposed to know better. And it is not just the Christians; the record is not much better for members of other mainstream religions. I suspect we can agree that there are multiple reasons for how we are perceived by many religious individuals.

A number of prominent atheist bloggers, women and men whose work I respect, seem to share the opinion that one of the most important obstacles faced by modern atheists is our lousy public image. Some even appear to suggest that this image is largely of our own making. Again and again, we are cautioned against offending the religious. We are told, "Don't be a dick," and our tactics are criticized as too rude or too assertive. We are accused of picking the wrong battles, and some of our activism is labeled as counterproductive. Many of us are now seen as part of the problem because our particular brand of atheism contributes to bad PR. That is, we are not nice enough, tame enough, or passive enough.

None of us has as much money as we'd probably like. Even if you reject the "consumer culture" of the United States and many other Western nations, you could probably think of some genuinely good things you'd like to do if you could afford it (e.g., funding secular organizations to the point where they could be truly influential). But there are things each and every one of us can do with our money that do not require us to spend any more of it than we already do. Yes, I'm talking about using our power as consumers to influence our world.