The Odd Thing Atheists Are Doing to Protest the Hobby Lobby Decision

Atheists are responding to the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby contraception decision by encouraging those opposed to it to join them in "knitting a brick."

The Secular Coalition for America recently launched the initiative, which encourages supporters to knit symbolic building blocks in an effort to "rebuild the wall of separation between church and state."

The organization kicked off the "Knit a Brick" campaign in an effort to "harness outrage" over the Hobby Lobby decision that now allows companies with deeply held religious beliefs to refuse coverage of certain forms of contraception.

Secular Coalition for America

The central goal, according to the Secular Coalition for America's website, is to "create a striking visual impact for lawmakers and speak directly to Hobby Lobby's consumer base."

Supports are being encouraged to knit or crochet the 6-inch by 3-inch "bricks," which will be used to build a yarn "wall" to help illustrate the coalition's views on the First Amendment and the separation of church and state — a representation of the constitutional wall they believe has been torn down.

"People tend to be impacted when they see a visual demonstration, and that is what this is," Lauren Anderson Youngblood, the Secular Coalition for America's director of communications, told Religion News Service. "It’s a visual demonstration of people’s anger about this decision and a constructive way to show lawmakers that they have the ability to change it."

According to the outlet, if activists receive 400 bricks, they'll bring them to the Supreme Court — and if 800 bricks are collected, they'll instead go to Congress. But if they hit the 1,200 mark, White House staffers will receive them.

So far, the group has taken in about 25 bricks per day from supporters. Those who can neither knit nor crochet are invited to donate between $10 and $100 — and staffers at the Secular Coalition for America will do it for them.

(H/T: Religion News Service)