What started as a holiday message to students and faculty from Troy University Chancellor Dr. Jack Hawkins Jr., has now turned into a religious debate and the American Atheists demanding a public apology from the school’s leader.

On Dec. 30, Hawkins sent a message out to students and faculty containing a video that he said “speaks to America’s greatness and its vulnerability.”

The video, which has nearly a half million views on the video sharing website YouTube, is of Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen recalling a conversation with a Marxist from China who was completing a fellowship at Harvard.

Christensen said the economist told him before leaving that he had no idea how critical religion was to the functioning of democracy.

The video says that democracy is successful not only because people are held accountable to society, but also to God.

The video ends with Christensen saying, “If you take away religion, you can’t hire enough police.”

In response to a complaint made by a Troy University student, American Atheists President David Silverman wrote an open letter to Hawkins demanding he apologize for asserting that “religion, particularly Judeo-Christian beliefs, are necessary to be moral, law-abiding citizens, and implies that those who do not attend church will be anti-democracy and anti-social members of society.”

In the letter, Silverman said atheists represent 11 percent of Alabama’s population, with higher numbers among college-aged residents.

“On behalf of the student who contacted us, the Alabama members of American Atheists, the thousands of atheists at Troy University, and the hundreds of millions of atheists worldwide who live productive, law-abiding lives without religion, we demand an apology from you for using the public university email system and your publicly funded position to disparage atheists and minority religious groups as well as perpetuating the discrimination and anti-patriotic sentiment against atheists in the United States,” reads the letter.

Silverman goes on to say atheists are overwhelmingly ethical and upstanding people and it is not true that religion is necessary to keep people from becoming criminals.

Silverman then invites Hawkins to be a special guest at the American Atheists national convention this April in Memphis so that he may experience what atheism and atheists are like.

A statement from Troy University said the email sent by Hawkins was meant to “spur introspection and encourage thoughtful discussion as we transition from the challenges of 2014 to the opportunities ahead in 2015,” the statement reads. “Troy University is an international university that contributes regularly to the global marketplace of ideas. This message and video were shared to provide the university community with information and insights for healthy consideration and debate about our country’s democracy, the role it plays in the world and the challenges America faces going forward.”

Andy Ellis, Troy’s director of university relations, said at this time this is the university’s response to the letter written by the American Atheist president.

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Follow Carly Omenhiser on Twitter at @EagleBizCarly

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