Mississippian wins freedom from religion award

Anna Wolfe | Clarion Ledger

Holly Baer knows how hard it is to be an ex-Christian in the Deep South.

After pursuing a degree in religious studies at the University of Mississippi for a year, the 21-year-old began asking questions. The responses she received from the religious leaders she looked up to didn’t satisfy her.

“Well, we shouldn’t think about it too hard,” they told her while she continued to seek answers.

“I’m naturally very curious and inquisitive. I couldn’t accept that,” she said.

Baer is the first to receive the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s $1,000 Yip Harburg Youth Activist Award, named after the atheist man who wrote the lyrics to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

The recognition was spurred by a column Baer wrote in her school’s newspaper, the Daily Mississippian, in response to a separation-of-church-and-state issue in Collins, where she grew up.

In October, the FFRF sent Collins a complaint letter after the organization received notification that the city’s public park displayed several Christian symbols that stay up year-round, including a large wooden statute of Jesus carrying a cross.

Marie Shoemake, executive director of the Covington County Chamber of Commerce, said the 12-year-old park is split into sections, the first of which was created to honor Jesus Christ. She said all decorations have been paid for by fundraisers and donations — not city money.

Another section of the park honors the military. "It's inclusive of everything," Shoemake said, although it does not represent any religions other than Christianity.

"We want our park to stay open. We want people to know we're a Christian community," Shoemake said.

Shoemake said she hopes nonbelievers or anyone who may be offended by the displays will visit the park. "I just hope that an angel will touch them and let them know this is a good thing," Shoemake said.

Baer's article didn’t focus on the nature of the display, but the way that the people of Collins reacted to the complaint.

“It was kind of crazy,” Baer said. “A lot of people were talking about running (the complainer) out of town.”

Residents even held a “Rally for Christmas” at a town hall meeting, during which the mayor vowed to keep the decorations up.

Many of Baer’s family members attended.

Shoemake said the rally was peaceful and she did not hear any of the negative comments Baer cited.

The next week, Baer’s name appeared on an article that shed light on the vitriol of some Christians and alleged hypocrisy within religious communities.

“It was very refreshing to see a young woman be so candid and to be so right on in defending our complaint in pointing out why this display is so inappropriate,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of FFRF.

Gaylor said that while the foundation has a small number of members in Mississippi, in receives a higher number of complaints of religious freedom violations in Mississippi than in many other states.

"Mississippi is just a hotbed of violations, so it was very refreshing and extraordinary to see a student speak out like this," Gaylor said.

The organization announced Tuesday that Baer had received the award.

Many of Baer's weekly columns in the paper focus on religion and religion in politics and are often critical.

“Holly does a good job of holding up the mirror to people in a way that some other writers can’t,” said Sierra Mannie, opinion editor of the Daily Mississippian.

This wasn’t easy. Baer grew up religious — and not by her parents forcing her to go to church.

“Church was my absolute favorite thing growing up,” Baer said. “I liked thinking there was someone truly in my corner. I loved being religious.”

Baer comes from a wide range of Mississippi experiences, living in Collins until fifth grade, then moving to Flowood, where she attended Northwest Rankin schools. She spent her last two years of high school at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science.

Even when she got older and more autonomous, Baer pursued her religious experience. When she decided to major in religion at Ole Miss, she had plans of becoming a missionary.

“I wanted to go share the Gospel and live with the poor and really live out what I interpreted as Christ’s vision for the world,” Baer said. “But I can’t make myself believe it anymore.”

Baer is an intellectual. “She’s so smart,” Mannie said.

Her desire to understand complex ideas could explain her falling out with her religion — a set of beliefs she was never able to justify.

She began disaffiliating with Christianity last fall, to the displeasure of her mother and much of her family. But Baer found it ultimately peaceful to let go of the what she called the oppressive aspects of her faith.

“I wasn’t condemned to be awful, and that was really nice,” Baer said with a laugh.

Baer is still pursuing her degree in religious studies and is set to graduate in May. She hopes to enter the school’s MFA program to study poetry and continue advocating for the separation of church and state.

“I’m not against religion. I don’t think it should be in the public sphere, but I’m not anti-religion,” Baer said. “I just want people to be more critical and thoughtful in their faith.”

Contact Anna Wolfe at (601) 961-7326 or awolfe@gannett.com. Follow @ayewolfe on Twitter.