The Etsy Freethinkers Street Team

I belong to an Etsy street team called the "Etsy Freethinkers" (for a listing of their stores, check out www.etsyfreethinkers.blogspot.com) and thought I would share the origins of this wonderful group. The team formed as the result of a thread in the Etsy forums titled "What about atheists?" where the original poster mused about the possibilities of forming an atheist street team. You might imagine just how long and... interesting... that thread became before it was closed (and subsequently deleted, since I cannot find it in my posting history) by the Etsy admins.

Originally, the Freethinkers team called itself The Unherded Cats (see the Unherded Cats Flickr group at www.flickr.com/groups/etsyfreethinkers/), since some atheists refer to themselves as such due to the seeming inability to define just what makes one an atheist.

During subsequent discussions about the whens, wheres, hows, and ifs of forming a street team, a number of agnostics, Christians, pagans, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists... you name it... expressed an interest in joining, and if the team was dedicated to just to atheists, it would exclude a number of people who not solely defined by their beliefs (or lack thereof) and who were interested in joining with other like-minded individuals in promoting peace and harmony with others regardless of their belief system.

Thus, the Freethinkers Street Team was born.

(The atheists formed their own street team, called "SANE" (secularist, atheist, naturalist Etsy street team). You can find more information here: http://team.etsy.com/profilest/secular.shtml .)

The Freethinkers' motto is as follows: "The Freethinkers will be open to anyone who is respectful of the beliefs of other people. This is the place for those who feel we should live and let live. We don't try to change anyone's minds and we try not to be judgmental. We have Atheists, Agnostics, Christians, Jews, Pagans and, I think, one Buddhist. We are here to promote our shops and tolerance."

For more information on the Freethinkers Street team, check out this link: http://team.etsy.com/profilest/freethinkers.shtml . Convo our fearless leaders, Martha Horman (http://marthahorman.etsy.com) and Chatnoirstudios (http://chatnoirstudios.etsy.com) at Etsy to join this friendly and supportive group.

The group has a regular monthly thread in the Etsy Teams and Events forum at Etsy.com. Right now the group is enjoying its January thread: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5978448 Stop in and eavesdrop, or better yet, introduce yourself!

This team collects annual dues of $20 ($5 for additonal shops) to cover the cost of team promotions in various venues, including print and web media, and even radio.

The Freethinkers will be featured on Blockhead Radio (http://www.blogtalkradio.com) on January 17 at 1 p.m! Be sure to tune in for more info about the fabulous Freethinkers!