Spartanburg Soup Kitchen Refuses Atheist Volunteers

Spartanburg, SC — A soup kitchen in Spartanburg, South Carolina, denied a group of atheists from volunteering at the facility.

Upstate Atheist president Eve Brannon told the Spartanburg Herald Journal that the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen refused to let her group volunteer.

“I told [the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen] we wouldn’t wear our T-shirts. We wouldn’t tell anyone who we are with. We just want to help out,” Brannon said. “And they told us that we were not allowed.”

The soup kitchen’s executive director, Lou Landrum, told the SHJ that allowing atheists to volunteer would be a “disservice to this community.”

Landrum said, “We stand on the principles of God. Do [atheists] think that our guests are so ignorant that they don’t know what an atheist is? Why are they targeting us? They don’t give any money. I wouldn’t want their money.”

Landrum also said the Upstate Atheists could set up across the street from the soup kitchen.

“They can have the devil there with them, but they better not come across the street,” she said.

Eve Brannon said her group regularly works with Christian non-profit organizations, and that they have never had a problem until now.

“We’ve raised money for March of Dimes, worked with the Generous Garden Project, done community park clean ups, adopted a highway, and sponsored local foster children for Christmas,” she said. “They are the only group that denied us the opportunity to volunteer.”

On Saturday, the Upstate Atheists will gather across the street from the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen and hand out care packages to the homeless. The 300 packages contain rain ponchos, razors, antiseptic wipes, soap and toothpaste, and more.

“I hope we can provide a package for everyone who needs one,” Brannon said. “Whatever we have left, we will donate to a homeless shelter in the Upstate.”

Last year, an international poll found that only 60 precent of American self-identify as religious. In 2005, that number was 73 percent. The poll also showed that 5 percent of Americans self-identify as atheist, up from 1 percent in 2005.

Last month, Pope Francis said God’s mercy “has no limits,” and that even atheists can be forgiven.

“… The question for those who do not believe in God is to abide by their own conscience,” he said. “There is sin, also for those who have no faith, in going against one’s conscience. Listening to it and abiding by it means making up one’s mind about what is good and evil.”

[Photo credit: chiricahua sky island / Flickr]