Soup kitchen to atheists: We don't want your help
Atheist group held its own event for the needy this weekend
Kitchen's director: 'They can have the devil there with them'
Member of atheist organization says both groups 'just want the people who are hungry to be fed.'
The group assembling outside the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen in South Carolina on Saturday was there to do exactly what you would expect volunteers to be doing at a soup kitchen: distributing food and other needed items to the area's hungry.
Except the Upstate Atheists were only performing their act of charity outside of the soup kitchen because they were not allowed inside.
The organization whose slogan is "Charity Beyond Belief" has been told by the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen that they are not welcome to volunteer there because their "mission is counter to the mission of the Soup Kitchen," according to the soup kitchen's executive director, Lou Landrum.
"This is from within my heart," Landrum told HLN affiliate WYFF. "Our ministry is to edify God and feed those that are hungry."
So the Upstate Atheists set up across the street from the soup kitchen last weekend and handed out 300 care packages containing food, toothpaste, socks, ponchos and more with the help of approximately 25 volunteers.
"They can have the devil there with them, but they better not come across the street," Landrum told the Spartanburg Herald Journal.
Upstate Atheists is actively involved with other local charities and volunteer events and, according to their social media director, the group doesn't think community outreach needs to be tied to religion. "We are all more than our beliefs or lack thereof and we have many things in common with people who do believe in gods," Susan Bryker told HLN in an e-mail. "One of those things we have in common is the need to help our fellow humans."
Among the recent posts on the group's Facebook page are links promoting a coat and jacket drive for the homeless and a November 16 "feed the hungry" event at another local soup kitchen, which is run by Daily Bread Ministries.
Still, it doesn't appear the group will be partnering with the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen anytime soon. Landrum told the Herald Journal, "This is a ministry to serve God... We stand on the principles of God." According to its website, the soup kitchen serves more than 500 hot meals a day and believes that "every human being should be treated with dignity and respect."
Bryker said her organization first reached out to the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen in December. They haven't spoken with Landrum since then, but she says, "It is our hope that she now has a clearer picture of what we are all about."
"We want her to know that the most important thing we have in common with her is that we want the people who are hungry to be fed."
