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The complications that a coalition of groups in Mobile and the Florida Panhandle experienced as they put up billboards to help non-religious people connect are one of the ways that non-theist groups face in the United States, secular activists say. That makes them wonder why their groups are mapped by the American Family Association as points of 'Bigotry in America.' (AL.com/file)

The Mississippi-based American Family Association - which itself was listed as a hate group in 2011 by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of its inaccurate portrayal of homosexual people - has mapped what it calls "Bigotry in America" to pinpoint the headquarters of groups and chapters of organizations it says are anti-Christian.

Groups in Alabama listed on the map include the Non-Theist group at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Marshall County Atheists & Agnostics, the Mobile chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation's Alabama chapter, the University of Alabama Atheists and Agnostics, the North Alabama Freethought Association and others - but the map leaves out far too many groups, says Chuck Miller, Alabama state director of American Atheists.

"Their research was sloppy - for instance, they didn't list any of the humanist groups in Alabama, and I would have thought they would have, since the religious right has been railing against the evils of secular humanism since I was a kid," Miller said Tuesday of the map, which was released Feb. 13, 2015. "But I'll say this: If we're 'bigots' simply because we exist and have an alternative point of view; if they consider being honest about who and what you are, is being a bigot? Well, I'll wear that label."

Taking a more serious tone, Miller said that the name-calling of the map's label does take him a bit by surprise.

"Calling non-religious people 'bigots' is a bit of an Orwellian inversion, given the stances that the AFA has taken on issues like same-sex marriage," Miller said, referring to how in the novel "1984," those in control begin subverting the names of things to mean their opposites. "I would let others draw their own conclusions on who is being the bigot."

Trying to keep specific religious dictates out of government decisions is not anti-religion or bigoted, says Mike Walker, a board member of the Montgomery Area Freethought Association who helped to organize the May 3, 2015, Rally for Secular Government in Montgomery. The rally was not anti-religion, he pointed out. Speakers for the rally included Christian ministers who spoke about how keeping religion out of governmental policy protects both religion and government.

"Separating religion and government really protects religion from government and government from religion," Walker said. "If we start watering down the First Amendment right now, we start putting people who are not Christian at jeopardy - but somewhere down the line, watering down the First Amendment could put Christians at risk."

Assaults against Christians?

In a release explaining the map, the American Family Association says that the map is meant to note groups whose "objectives are to silence Christians and to remove all public displays of Christian heritage and faith in America," and whose practice is "threatening our nation's schools, cities and states" with threatened lawsuits to "demand prayer removed from schools and city council meetings."

The release goes on to say "Some members or supporters of these groups have committed violent crimes against Christians and faith-based groups. Physical and profane verbal assaults against Christians are methods frequently exercised in their angry methods of intimidation."

Those are not goals of any secular advocacy group that he knows of, says Chuck Miller.

"I freely admit there are people in the groups I've named who are anti-theist - there are," Miller said. "But, by and large, people in free-thought groups don't begrudge anyone their religions; they just don't want it thrust on them or their children."

Miller also sees a result of the map that the AFA probably did not intend - an effect that coincides with one of the goals of American Atheists.

"I'm really glad that an organization like AFA is pointing out how many of us there are - even if they missed half of us," Miller said. "We want people to know the demographics of non-religious people - by whatever label people apply to themselves: atheist, agnostic, free-thought, secular, humanist. And we want them to know how we fit into the larger community."

Miller will be among the atheist and freethought leaders who will be presenting a report of the demographics of non-religious people in Madison County, Ala., during the One Huntsville meeting on March 17, 2015. The meeting, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the main branch of the Huntsville-Madison County Library, 915 Monroe St., Huntsville, Ala., is free and open to the public.