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A campus atheist group began its attention-seeking holy book-for-porn program on Monday at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
For three days, members of Atheist Agenda will give students pornographic magazines in exchange for any religious texts as part of their annual “Smut for Smut” campaign. Leaders of the atheist group argue that religious books contain violence, spark religious wars, advocate for the mistreatment of women and are therefore no better than pornography.
“It's a First Amendment right,” said Bradley Lewis, 18, who plans to join the Atheist Agenda, according to the San Antonio Express-News. “If religious groups can put out missionaries and go knock on my door and wake me up at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning, I can put a table outside of the college.”
As expected, the group’s action has offended religious students. A group of Christians gathered to protest the event and in the afternoon a Christian student debated the Atheist Agenda president, Carlos Morales.
The event attracted hundreds of students to the university’s main plaza Monday. Some of the students were seen carrying signs with messages such as, “Jesus Saves” and “Jesus loves the Atheist Agenda,” while others sang hymns, according to the UTSA student newspaper The Paisano.
Robin Lorkovic, 18, who held the sign, “God Loves You! Keep your Bible and learn from it!,” said, “I don’t really feel like that is appropriate at all,” according to the Express-News.
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“I am a Christian, I believe in God’s love and I am here to stand my ground and stand up for what I believe in.”
University officials admit that the atheist event is controversial and the majority of students do not agree with it. But they also said the event is legal and students have the right to freedom of speech and assembly.
“They (Atheist Agenda) admitted it’s a publicity stunt,” said Michelle Brossart, a UTSA student who is offended by the event, to The Paisano. “They want to evoke crazy emotions out of people because they want to make their agenda known."
“But only very, very few people are actually gaining anything from this,” she said.
Atheist Agenda began the “Smut for Smut” campaign at UTSA in 2005. The first campaign gained major media attention across the nation. Subsequent events have also attracted national coverage, but to a lesser extent.
