text:
- -
Roger, Pat & Melody Receive "Emperor" Award
he Freedom From Religion Foundation awarded Roger, Pat and Melody Cleveland its "Emperor Has No Clothes" Award on July 4, 2003, at the Lake Hypatia Independence Day celebration. It is hosted annually by the Alabama Freethought Association at the Clevelands' park grounds in rural Alabama. (Pat and Roger are married, and Melody is Roger's sister.)
In presenting the golden statuette on behalf of the Foundation, Freethought Today editor Annie Laurie Gaylor noted that it was the Alabama Freethought Association which took the original successful lawsuit challenging Judge Roy Moore's courtroom Ten Commandments. The Association was joined by Gloria Hershiser, and the case was only thrown out by the state high court on a bizarre technicality.
"Roger, Pat and Melody dreamed of a freethought 'advance, not retreat,' right in the buckle of the bible belt," said Annie Laurie.
"They deeded the land for the Lake Hypatia Freethought Hall to the national Foundation, which raised funds for the building. The second installment, the auditorium, was dedicated in 1999. Lake Hypatia Freethought Hall was built and is such a success, because of the confidence we all feel in the Clevelands and their judgment, stewardship and vision.
"The Clevelands also had the wonderful idea of inviting the national Foundation to place its Atheists in Foxholes monument here, the ideal spot.
"They generously open their beautiful land and lake to hundreds of freethinkers from all over the country. That is authentic Southern Hospitality!
"The Alabama Freethought Association, which they founded and which is the Foundation's longest-lasting chapter, has worked invaluably as an umbrella organization of atheists, agnostics and other freethinkers to keep church and state separate in Alabama.
"The Clevelands, in publicly espousing this most significant cause, embody the small child in the fairy tale who says, 'But the emperor has no clothes.'"
The Foundation also singled out George Whatley, M.D., for his vital help to the chapter and the Foundation, and Bill Teague, "master engraver extraordinaire."
"Pansy" candies (pansies, from the Latin and French word for "thought," are a traditional freethought emblem) were distributed to volunteers Ilene Sparks, the freethought master gardener; Rachel Doughty, an activist and chapter officer; chapter activists Hank and Alice Shiver; and newsletter editor Patsy Ann Pitts.
Announcing 2003 High School Essay Winners
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has named its major winners in the 2003 high school essay competition. Contestants this year were asked to submit short essays about why "under God" does not belong in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Aubrey Sinn, a new graduate of Conlara School, Ann Arbor, Mich., received the Blanche Fearn Memorial Award, with a $1,000.00 prize. Ms. Sinn, who will be attending the Tisch School of the Arts in New York City this fall, placed first for her essay, "For All the People."
Second place of $500.00 was awarded to Kurti Monnier, for his essay "'Under God' Should Go Under." He graduated from Brookline High School, Mass., and is enrolled at Boston University.
Two students tied for third place, receiving $250.00 each: Russell Hargraves, for "A Notion Forgotten by Time," and Gilene Young, for "The Incongruity of the Pledge of Allegiance." Russell graduated from Hamshire-Fannett High School, Texas, and will be entering the University of Texas at San Antonio. Gilene, a graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Va., will be attending Yale University.
Additionally, the Foundation has awarded Honorable Mention prizes of $100.00 each to 12 high school grads who will be entering college this fall. Excerpts of their essays will appear in Freethought Today.
Winning Honorable Mentions are:
Hagop E. Bouboushian, Corsicana, Texas; Michaela Bronstein, Seattle, Wash.; Carmen Byrd, Charlotte, N.C.; Emily Gundlach, Davenport, N.Y.; Adam Katrick, Zanesville, Ohio; Luiza M. Goncalves, San Jose, Calif.; Sanjay Gopinath, Oak Hill, Va.; David Leuszler, Stone Mountain, Ga.; Jason Lindgren, Oak Park, Calif.; Sam Marcellus, Port Washington, N.Y.; Kathryn Morrison, Marlton, N.J., and Joshua Parry, Roanoke, Texas.
The annual high school first-place award is named for the late Blanche Fearn, who was a Foundation officer and benefactor, who ardently believed in lifelong learning, although she did not have the opportunity to attend college. A firm proponent of the separation of church and state, she had protested prayers at her public school in New York City as a teenager.
Next year's topic and guidelines will be announced by the Foundation in February 2004, when they will be posted at our website www.ffrf.org/essay.html.
La Crosse Commandments Must Move
Federal District Judge Barbara B. Crabb of Madison, Wis., issued a resounding 41-page opinion on July 14 in favor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and 22 local plaintiffs, who are challenging a Ten Commandments monument in a city park in La Crosse, Wis.
To read a major excerpt of the ruling, go here.
The City of La Crosse is debating whether to appeal the ruling, with emotions running high. Mayor John Medinger opposes an appeal. The City has until mid-August to decide whether to appeal. Foundation counsel Jim Peterson described Crabb as one of the least overturned federal judges in the circuit.
The lawsuit revisited a case first filed by the Foundation in 1985 on behalf of its La Crosse member Phyllis Grams, now deceased, which Judge Crabb dismissed for lack of standing in 1987.
Freedom From Religion Foundation staffer Dan Barker stands in front of the awkwardly-fenced Ten Commandments in Cameron Park, La Crosse, Wis.
Crabb's current decision acknowledged the standing of the impressive list of plaintiffs, including atheist and agnostic Foundation members, a Catholic man, Jewish women, and some Unitarian-Universalists. Most attested that they felt it necessary to avoid Cameron Park and shopping in the area because the presence of the bible edicts on city property causes them distress.
When the Foundation sent a letter last year warning that it would sue the City if it did not remove the monument, the council passed a resolution to keep the marker "in its present location by any and all means available to the City," including working with religious-right organizations.
After the Foundation filed its lawsuit last July, the City of La Crosse responded by selling a tiny parcel of the small park to the Fraternal Order of Eagles, which had originally donated the tombstone-like monument in 1965. The board refused to consider an offer by the Foundation to buy the plot of land for fair market value, or the Eagles' original offer to house the monument on their own property across the street from the park. Offers by local churches to host the monument on their private property were also refused.
"The law of this circuit compels a conclusion that defendant violated the establishment clause when it displayed a monument of the Ten Commandments on public property without a secular purpose for doing so. Furthermore, defendant's sale of a minuscule portion of the park to the Eagles in order to preserve the presence of the monument proves rather than extinguishes defendant's endorsement of the monument's religious message," wrote Crabb.
In a pivotal finding, Crabb declared the sale of part of the park to be unconstitutional, concluding "there was no reason to sell the land other than to maintain the location of the monument."
". . . a court must look at the entire context of the sale to determine whether the sale demonstrates a preference for religion. . . . a defendant sold a very small parcel of land in the middle of a park to a pre-determined buyer for the purpose of preserving one religious message in the park."
"Neutrality means more than just changing the name on a deed . . . Under defendant's view of the law, [Alabama] Chief Justice Moore [who just lost a similar case before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals] would be permitted to display the Ten Commandments in his courtroom so long as he could convince the state to sell a tiny portion of the courthouse to a private party and erect a disclaiming sign."
". . . it is respect for religion, not hostility toward it, that is the animating principle behind the establishment clause. The First Amendment guarantees persons of all faiths that the government will treat them with equal concern and respect. Individuals must feel free to choose their own paths in their search for ultimate meaning. By prohibiting the government from favoring those who believe over those who do not, the establishment clause helps protect the rights of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, agnostics, Muslims and atheists."
A magistrate refused the Foundation's request last year to protect the confidentiality of the lawsuit's initial two plaintiffs, a married couple. When her husband died unexpectedly, remaining plaintiff Sue Mercier agreed to be named publicly as a plaintiff, if the Foundation could find additional plaintiffs so she would not be alone in the community. In the lawsuit's most dramatic moment, an outpouring of sympathetic offers came into the Foundation office. Foundation member Hank Zumach, who signed up as a plaintiff, spearheaded a campaign to recruit additional plaintiffs.
"We gratefully acknowledge and thank our 22 La Crosse plaintiffs for standing up to support the First Amendment in this small community," said Foundation president Anne Gaylor.
Although headlines and letters to the editor in the La Crosse Tribune have been dominated by news of the court victory, most plaintiffs say they have taken little flak. One of the plaintiffs received two threatening phone calls. Another received some on-the-job harassment after the lawsuit was filed, which was stopped by supervisors.
The Foundation office has received some predictably unfriendly emails and phone calls, and its sidewalks were chalked with religious graffiti (see photo below) the day after the opinion was handed down. The Tribune printed a letter from the wife of a local police officer about "our annoying problem with the Freedom From Religion pests," saying others should "help squash those pesky insects."
Some local plaintiffs told the Foundation they had acquaintances come forward after the lawsuit was filed, actually expressing disappointment that they were not part of the lawsuit. A "save the Ten Commandments" lawn sign campaign had lost steam, until the ruling was handed down.
State/Church Bulletin
Colorado Coalition Fights Vouchers
A coalition of parents, teachers' unions and civil rights groups filed suit on May 20 challenging Colorado's new law permitting low-income students at "unsatisfactory" public schools to attend parochial or private schools at taxpayer expense.
Colorado is the first state to enact such a program since the Supreme Court gave school vouchers the green light last summer. The lawsuit, filed in Denver County district court, invokes the Colorado constitution, which forbids public money from supporting schools "controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatever."
Groups fighting the law include People for the American Way, Colorado branches of the NAACP, the American Jewish Congress, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
VMI Prayers Unconstitutional
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ban on prayers before evening meals at the Virginia Military Institute.
"In establishing its supper prayer, VMI has done precisely what the First Amendment forbids," ruled a unanimous 3-judge panel on April 28. "Put simply, VMI's supper prayer exacts an unconstitutional toll on the consciences of religious objectors," wrote Robert B. King.
Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore vowed to appeal the ruling to the entire appeals court, saying prayers are "part of the fabric of our country."
A Vicar We Could Like
Hundreds of villagers in Taarbaek, Denmark, demanded the reinstatement of Thorkild Grosboel, 55, after he was suspended in June by the state Lutheran Protestant Church for not believing in a god. Grosboel recently told a newspaper that "there is no heavenly God, there is no eternal life, there is no resurrection."
Although about 85% of the population belongs to the state church, only 5% regularly attends church services.
Firefighters Fight Chaplain Corps
Six California firefighters filed a lawsuit this spring seeking to end the chaplain's corps of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention, saying the evangelical minister who runs the corps improperly injects Christian religious faith into a government organization.
The two-year-old corps replaced a longstanding peer-counseling program. Of the first 52 people to join the chaplain's corps, all but two are Christians wearing crosses on their uniforms.
The litigants, who refer to themselves as "the Satanic Six," include a Baptist, an Episcopalian, a Christian Scientist, a Jew and a rationalist agnostic. They allege that wearing religious insignia while on duty is only a short step from proselytizing fellow firefighters. They want the corps disbanded and are asking that no religious language be used at ceremonies.
Federal Courts Hijacked?
Pres. Bush's many nominees to the federal courts include such controversial choices as:
James Leon Holmes, an Arkansas lawyer who wrote in 1997 that a wife is to "subordinate herself to her husband" and likened abortion rights activists to Nazis.
William Pryor, 11th Circuit nominee, whose record as Alabama attorney general is antiabortion, anti-state/church separation, antigay, and pro-"states' rights." He is best known for rallying on behalf of Judge Roy Moore to promote government prayer and the Ten Commandments. In 1997, he said: "God has chosen, through his son Jesus Christ, this time and this place for all Christians to save our country and save our courts."
Dennis Cook, 6th Circuit Court, who has a record of not upholding enforcement of fair employment laws, and is a member of the Federalist Society. Confirmed May 5.
Carolyn Kuhl, 9th Circuit nominee, who argued in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade and granting tax-exempt status to Bob Jones University, and dismissed a claim by a woman whose doctor invited a drug company representative to witness her breast exam without her consent.
Charles Pickering, 5th Circuit nominee, who voted for a constitutional amendment to outlaw abortion and against state-funded family planning as a Mississippi senator, and was critical of the Voting Rights Act.
John Roberts, D.C. nominee, who argued in favor of a gag rule barring doctors working in buildings receiving federal funding from mentioning the option of abortion, and supported Operation Rescue. Approved by Judiciary Committee in May.
Claude A. Allen, 4th circuit nominee, 42, described as a campaign pitchman for U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, and who once accused a Helms opponent of having links "with the queers."
Legal Briefs
Legal Briefs
Study: Faith-based Not Better
A study released in May by researchers at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis found no proof that religious charities do a better job of providing social services.
Studying 2,830 people who went through religious and secular job training programs in two Indiana counties, the researchers found no difference in job replacement rates or starting wages between secular and religious programs. However, clients of faith-based groups worked fewer hours on average and were less likely to receive health insurance.
The study is based on the first two years' data in a three-year project funded by the Ford Foundation.
Unveiling Photo ID's
Florida Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe ruled on June 11 against the request by converted Muslim Sultaana Freeman to keep her face veiled for her state driver's license photograph. Thorpe said "having access to photo image identification is essential to promote" the state's "compelling interest in protecting the public."
Freeman, whose case was brought by the ACLU of Florida, wears a black niqab that shows only her made-up eyes. When she was arrested in 1998 on a domestic battery charge, she and her husband cited religious reasons for hindering child welfare workers, who were investigating bruises on twin foster children under their care. The twins were removed from the Freeman home.
Women Fight Veil
Sheikh Mohammed Al-Fartousi, Baghdad's most powerful Shiite cleric, announced on May 23 he would impose a "hand of iron" in enforcing a new fatwa banning alcohol, closing cinemas, and veiling women.
More than 1,000 Shiite protesters marched in Baghdad on May 19 against the American presence in Iraq and supporting the influential council of Islamic clerics.
As ayatollahs compete for authority and influence, Iraqi women are begging for freedom and a chance to live without wars and embargo. "I want to move freely, live a joyful life out in the open," a hairdresser told the New York Times in May. "I don't want a government of religion."
Similarly, clerics are pushing for the veil in Afghanistan. A council of Islamic scholars recently urged Afghan women to wear the hijab, "and it shouldn't be too tight," said Fazil Ahmed Manawi, deputy chief of the Supreme Court.
A prime minister in Pakistan's Islamist-ruled North West Frontier Province submitted a bill in May proposing that all women be forced to wear head-to-toe veils, known as "purdah," in public. "It is the order of Allah, in his holy book the Koran, that all women should be veiled," said Pir Mohammad Khan.
Historic Churches Get Tax Money
Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced on May 27 that the nation's historic preservation program "will end a discriminatory double-standard" and make churches eligible for federal subsidy.
She announced that the first church to receive federal grant money for refurbishment will be Old North Church in Boston, where the two lanterns were placed to signal Paul Revere that the British were coming. The 280-year-old church, which is still active and has a congregation, will receive $317,000 in public money to repair and restore windows and "make it more accessible."
HUD Permits Discrimination?
The Bush Administration stepped up its campaign to allow religious groups receiving federal housing aid to discriminate against employees on the basis of religion.
"If an organization considers it important to hire within their religion, we don't think the federal government should substitute its judgment for theirs," said Frank Jimenz, chief of staff to HUD Secretary Mel Martinez.
Six HUD programs have regulations that can be changed administratively.
The nondiscrimination policy of two other HUD programs--the Community Development Block Grant Program and HOME Investment Partnerships Program--is in the statutes and may only be repealed by Congress.
In January, HUD proposed allowing religious groups and churches to apply for federal funds to erect and refurbish buildings where religious activities are held, so long as social services are also provided.
In early May, the House passed a bill reauthorizing a job training program which removed a provision prohibiting religious grantees from workplace religious discrimination. The Workforce Investment Act provides $6.6 million in job training and services at government centers serving more than 19 million people.
Religious Head Start
A House panel voted on June 12 to approve a bill letting federally funded preschool programs refuse to hire teachers based on faith.
The House Education and Workforce panel on education reform voted to exempt religious groups from the bill's anti-discrimination clause.
"Faith-based organizations cannot be expected to sustain their religious mission without the ability to employ individuals who . . . practice their faith, because it's that faith that motivates them to serve," said sponsor Rep. Mike Castle, R-DE.
The bill, creating a pilot program in eight states to overhaul Head Start, is regarded as the first step in dismantling the 38-year-old program.
Baptist Feet Firmly in Mouths
About 7,000 believers convened in Phoenix in mid-June for the notorious annual Southern Baptist Convention, which announced an initiative to "liberate" gays from homosexuality via Jesus.
Showcased was former Muslim-cum-Baptist minister Rev. Ergun Caner, who told delegates: "I went from worshipping a false, dead idol to knowing the one true living sovereign Lord."
Rev. Jerry Vines, who at last year's gathering infamously called Muhammad a "demon-possessed pedophile," received a standing ovation for his sermon denouncing the "culture of perversity" and for positing that "All religions are not equally true."
Previous conventions have attracted ridicule for boycotting Disney, for issuing a booklet in 1999 saying "Hindus are living in the hopeless darkness of Hinduism," and for such pronouncements as "God almighty did not hear the prayers of a Jew."
Hundreds of Canadian kindred spirits the same week gathered outside Ontario Superior Court in Toronto, to protest the June decision by the Ontario Court of Appeals to legalize same-sex marriages.
Evangelist Ken Campbell, B.C., told 600 demonstrators:
"We believe that SARS will cease when the AIDS parade is cancelled. Lord God have mercy on this city and upon the nation."
Infidel Info
The Archbishop's new clothes. The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowman Williams, wore a "set of enthronement vestments" costing £9,500 at his February Canterbury Cathedral enthronement. The togs were paid for by an anonymous donor after the National Assembly of Wales refused to subsidize them. Source: The Times [UK], Feb. 22, 2003
16% of Canadians boasts no religion. New census data reveal Canadian church affiliation is dropping steadily. The percentage of the Canadian population claiming no religion rose to 16% from 12% a decade ago. According to Statistics Canada's 2001 census, prior to 1971, only 1% of Canadians admitted having no religion.
Immigration is credited with Canada's loss of faith. One-fifth of immigrants to Canada between 1991 and 2001 have no religion, especially those from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Source: Toronto Globe & Mail, May 13, 2003
BC: Heavenly to freethinkers. One in three residents of Greater Vancouver, B.C., says s/he has no religion. Nonreligious residents in Vancouver proper have jumped to nearly 40% since 1991. Unorthodox beliefs also flourish, with Vancouver being home to more "witches" and Wiccans (2,625) than Salvation Army "soldiers" (1,545). Source: Vancouver Sun, May 14, 2003
Canada's most godless city. Some 80% of Canadians over age 15 in Victoria, on B.C.'s lovely Vancouver Island, reported they do not attend a place of worship. Source: The Times Colonist [Victoria], April 1, 2003
Yukon gold! The Yukon is the most secular of Canadian provinces and territories with 37% reporting no religious affiliation. British Columbian nonreligious are a close second, and 23% of Albertans cite no religion. Only 2% of the population in Newfoundland and Labrador reported no religion, while Quebec nonreligious are at 6%. Source: Vancouver Sun, May 14, 2003
9 in 10 Scots avoid kirk. Only 1 individual in 10 in Scotland goes to church each Sunday. Worshippers at the national Church of Scotland fell by 22% in the last eight years, with the Catholic Church reporting attendance down by nearly 20%. Source: The Scotsman, May 20, 2003
Great Scot--more infidels! The 2001 census reveals more than a quarter of Scots have no faith, an 8% leap since the last census. About 7.7 million said they have no religion. "We may observe that in Scotland, as in many lands evangelized centuries ago and steeped in Christianity, there no longer exists the reality of a 'Christian society,' that is, a measure of its life and values," the pope told Scots bishops at the Vatican. Sources: Scotsman, Feb. 14, 2003, The Herald [UK], March 6, 2003
Crisis in the kirk! The number of children baptized in the Scottish Kirk slumped by a third in the past 40 years--a statistic described by the press as posing "an existential crisis." Five in six babes were not baptized in 2001. Up to 19,000 people drop out of congregations each year. Source: The Herald [UK], April 18, 2003
Swiss enlightenment. More than 11% of Swiss have no religious affiliation, a rise of 10% in just 30 years, according to a 2000 survey by the Federal Office of Statistics. Some 70% said they have little interest in organized religion. Source: Swissinfo.org, Jan. 30, 2003
Arizona not rising on Sundays. Fewer than half of Arizona adults report routinely going to church, according to a survey by WestGroup Research of Phoenix. Highest regular church attendance was (over)reported by Mormons, at 88%, Catholics, at 62%, and nondenominational Christians, at 60%. Source: Arizona Republic, March 29, 2003
Lucre not so filthy? Twenty-two percent of Americans with no religion make $75,000 or more a year, compared to 19% of Protestants, 25% of Catholics, and 44% of Jews. Baptists have among the lowest incomes of any Protestant group, and Episcopalians and Presbyterians have the highest Protestant incomes. Mormons are slightly below average, according to Gallup Poll, with 20% making above $75,000. Source: Gallup Poll/Kenosha News [WI], March 3, 2002
"Atheist capital of Britain." Nearly 1 in 3 in the city of Norwich checked the "no religion" box on the 2001 census form, which makes church-filled Norwich the inexplicable home to the largest proportion of unbelievers in the United Kingdom--at almost twice the national average. Source: The Times [UK], Feb. 14, 2003
Being atheist John Malkovich. Actor John Malkovich, in a recent interview with Telegraph Magazine, described himself as an atheist. Source: The Age [Australia], April 25, 2003
Not "naughty" to us. More than 50 Members of Parliament, dubbed "naughty boys and girls," opted for a secular affirmation, minus "So help me God," on their first day in Parliament.
Scottish Socialist MSP Colin Fox refused to take any oath and sang Robert Burns' song, "A Man's A Man for A' That" instead of swearing allegiance to the Queen. Glasgow MSP Rosie Kane wrote a message on her fist reading "My oath is to the people."Source: Daily Record, May 8, 2003
Christian Science numbers sickly. The number of Christian Science practitioners and teachers dropped from about 5,000 in 1971 to 1,800 in 1996. The number of churches fell from 1,800 to 1,100 between 1971 and 2003. Christian Science teaches that illness is an illusion caused by faulty beliefs and cured by prayer. Source: Quackwatch.com
Educating Catholics. Whether going to Catholic or nonsectarian colleges, most Roman Catholic students are antiabortion when they enter college, but a majority support legalized abortion by the time they graduate. A survey of thousands of students was conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles. By the way, enrollment is significantly down in Catholic schools, coinciding with the unending pedophile priest scandals. Sources: New York Times, March 5, Jan. 22, 2003
5 companies control 90% of media? Media mogul and infidel Ted Turner, creator of CNN, recently criticized the concentration of ownership of most newspapers, TV and radio networks and stations, for being in the hands of a few corporations. "There's really five companies that control 90% of what we read, see and hear. It's not healthy." Source: Reuters, April 25, 2003
Mo' and mo' Mormons. Utah tops the 50 states in claiming family tax breaks on federal tax returns, a sign that Utah has some of the biggest families in the nation. Source: Salt Lake Tribune, March 4, 2003
That's kinda insulting. Atheists, Muslims and Mormons topped the list of groups viewed by Americans as least like themselves in values and beliefs, according to a national survey by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research. Two out of three adults said people "who do not believe in religion" were unlike themselves. Nearly six in ten (56%) saw Muslims and Mormons as different. Only one in three saw Jews or Christian fundamentalists as being different, and even fewer rated blacks, Latinos or Catholics as dissimilar. Source: Washington Post, Jan. 21, 2003
Women, thou shalt suffer. It is estimated 500 women are killed as witches in Tanzania each year. Source: Harper's Index, 2003
Barbarism against women. The World Health Organization estimates that about 130 million girls and women in 28 countries undergo some form of female genital mutilation ("circumcision"), often justified by religious belief. Source: BBC News, Feb. 27, 2003
Your tax dollars at work. The federal government will spend a record $120 million on "abstinence education" (no contraceptive information, etc.) in fiscal year 2003. That includes $67 million in ongoing programs included in the omnibus spending bill signed by Bush on Feb. 20, $2.6 million in one-time earmarked grants, and $50 million in Title V Abstinence Education Grant Program funding included in pending welfare reform legislation. Source: Washington Times, March 24, 2003
Rape victims revictimized. Only 28% of Catholic hospitals, surveyed in 47 states and the District of Columbia, would consider providing the "morning after pill" to rape victims. Many set up up barriers before administering the drug, according to a survey commissioned by Catholics for a Free Choice. Source: Womensenews.org, Feb. 4, 2003
Religion gap. In 1992, three out of four "seculars" voted for Clinton, while religious conservatives chose Bush by 2 to 1. In 2000, secularists comprised about 16% of the white electorate, and backed Gore with two-thirds of their votes, according to an article by Profs. Louis Bolce and Gerald De Maio, of Baruch College, for Fall 2002 Public Interest.Source: The Weekly Standard, Jan. 8, 2003
We don't do God.
-- "Avowed atheist" Alastair Campbell
Tony Blair's director of communication
News Telegraph, [UK] May 5, 2003
The European Union is utterly godless. Let's keep it that way. --Columnist Joan Smith The Independent (UK), Jan. 23, 2003
It doesn't matter to me: two, four, 10. As long as I'm doing God's work, it doesn't matter how many people I execute. --Saudi Arabian executioner Mohammed Saad-Al Beshi Detroit Free Press, June 6, 2003
It is Islam versus democracy. It is Allah versus Satan. It is Muslims versus unbelievers. . . . You can go to India and if you see a Hindu walking down the road you are allowed to kill him and take his money. --Muslim cleric Abdullah el-Faisal Convicted of soliciting murder The Guardian, Feb. 25, 2003
People who believe they have God in their pocket and know what God wants for them have proven time and again that they're capable of doing anything because it's not their will but God's will being carried out. You see this most obviously in a suicide bomber--someone who is convinced he or she knows what God wants, and can end up doing the most horrific things to innocent people. --Religion Prof. Charles Kimball Wake Forest University Beliefnet.com, May 6, 2003
Presidents and rogues have always invoked the Deity when heading into battle, to galvanize their people, demonize the enemy and excuse violence. --Editorial writer Gord Barthos Toronto Star, Jan. 9, 2003
With Scalia's complicity, atheists and agnostics find themselves among the most maligned groups in our country. --Rev. Jeffrey G. Jones, UU Minister UU Fellowship, Fredericksburg, Virg. Freelance Star, Jan. 31, 2003
To hear people the week after 9/11 constantly talking up the need for more faith and the importuning of our God was, to me, the very definition of being "part of the problem." --Author Bill Maher When You Ride Alone You Ride with bin Laden (Submitted by Catherine Fahringer)
Although there is no Bible on Capitol Hill written in the blood of George Bush, we are obliged to accept the fact that Bush is more religious than Saddam: of the two presidents, he is in, in this respect, the more psychologically primitive. . . . Unbelievably, born-again doctrine insists that Israel must be blindly supported, not because it is the only semi-democracy in the crescent, but because it is due to host the second coming. --Author Martin Amis The Guardian, March 4, 2003
Why do these bishops [who lay roadblocks for investigators] still serve, despite their damnable failures and despite the damage they have done to the church's moral credibility? Because the Holy See allows them to. Accountability is virtually nonexistent. --Red Dreher, Catholic National Review senior writer Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2003
The reluctance to believe that women have been abused by those in spiritual positions is baffling, given the long history in all sorts of circles--literary, legal and spiritual--to document the link between religious fervor and sexual misbehavior. --Columnist Jan Jarboe Russell San Antonio Express-News Jan. 19, 2003
Bush's proposal [to allot federal housing money to churches for building projects] is impossible to enforce, subsidizes religious organizations (a term open to definition) that already skate by tax-free, discriminates among churches, and robs public institutions of funding that could go toward alleviating the critical shortage of affordable housing. --Editor Lisa Sorg San Antonio Current Feb. 5, 2003
From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist. --Albert Einstein Line expunged from 1945 letter in Banesh Hoffmann bio The California Aggie, Jan. 15, 2003
I realized I was God when I was praying suddenly and realized I was talking to myself. --Peter O'Toole Parade Magazine April 27, 2003
[Writing the nonfiction book Under the Banner of Heaven due in July, about a notorious 1984 double murder by Mormon brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, is] my attempt to understand religious passion and the terrible things people do in the name of God. --Author Jon Krakauer Salt Lake Tribune, May 16, 2003
Of all deceivers who have plagued mankind, none are [sic] so deeply ruinous to human happiness as those impostors who pretend to lead by a light above nature. Science has never killed or persecuted a single person for doubting or denying its teachings, and most of these teachings have been true; but religion has murdered millions for doubting or denying her dogmas, and most of these dogmas have been false. --Headstone of sworn atheist George Spencer d. 1908, Lyndonville, Vermont Newindpress.com (India), May 20, 2003
Many religious fundamentalists see dying coral reefs, melting ice caps and other environmental destruction not as an urgent call to action, but as God's will. Within the religious right worldview, the wreck of the Earth can be seen as good news! --Glenn Scherer, "Religious Wrong" E Magazine, May/June 2003
We ourselves as citizens have to build the republic of heaven. --Atheist and children's author Philip Pullman The Guardian June 3, 2002
I don't think there's anybody sitting in the sky watching you. You're on your own. All you have is other people around you, and how you treat them. I actually think that not having a focus on God would make life better, because there would be more of an imperative to be nice to each other. There would be no more brandname wars over stuff, and pointless arguments over east side/west side/go-fight-win. --Andy Richter, former co-host Late Night with Conan O'Brien The Onion AV Club, Oct. 9, 2002
[Is there a God?] No. . . . That's a very important and necessary thing to learn. --"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon The Onion AV Club, Oct. 9, 2002
Is there anyone in the world more lonely than a child who has been abused at Maryville [Catholic] Academy? Could you turn to the "house parents" in your cottage? A girl who was gang-raped at Maryville tried that. Would you feel comfortable turning to the Rev. John Smyth, who has run Maryville for decades? He says "there were no problems there." The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, perhaps? No, wait. They probably put you there in the first place. When the abuse is at Maryville, [Cook County public guardian Patrick] Murphy rushes to tell the world how wonderful the place is and how the real victim is poor Father Smyth. --Richard Wexler, executive director National Coalition for Child Protection Reform Chicago Sun Times, Dec. 20, 2002
In your heart of hearts, you know, and the court likely knows, that deleting "under God" from the pledge is the right answer in a nation that is supposed to respect those who believe in no God or believe in other higher beings with other names. --Supreme Court correspondent Tony Mauro American Lawyer Media & Legal Times USA Today, May 5, 2003
[Equating evolution and creationism is] educational debauchery. These children are being deliberately and wantonly misled. --Biologist Richard Dawkins The Guardian, April 29, 2003
The rhetoric coming out of the White House and the G.O.P. these days is in fact of the anti-ecumenical variety associated with hard-core evangelicals who purport to have a finished, proprietary version of divine truth. Mr. Bush has invoked the evangelical war cry, arguing that religion is under attack at a time when it is actually flourishing as never before. Even more troubling is the Bush administration's battle to create "faith-based" initiatives, which could potentially open a direct line of funding to church-related social programs--while allowing those organizations to proselytize with federal dollars. --Columnist Brent Staples New York Times, April 27, 2003
Soul is not even that Crackerjack prize that God and Satan scuffle over after the worms have all licked our bones. That's why, when we ponder--as sooner or later each of must--exactly what we ought to be doing about our soul, religion is the wrong, if conventional, place to turn. Religion is little more than a transaction in which troubled people trade their souls for temporary and wholly illusionary psychological comfort--the old give-it-up-in-order-to-save-it routine. Religions lead us to believe that the soul is the ultimate family jewel and that in return for our mindless obedience, they can secure it for us in their vaults, or at least insure it against fire and theft. They are mistaken. --Character Stubblefield Villa Incognito by Tom Robbins (Submitted by Elsa Kramer)
America is a very religious, almost puritanical country. In Canada, secularism is triumphant, and to talk noncynically, nonironically about religion is strange. --French Canadian writer Yann Martel New York Times, March 26, 2003
He thinks he is serving some higher power, but this is religious terrorism. Say Grace and pass the ammunition. --Prosecutor Joe Marusak Re: Dr. Slepian's murderer James Kopp Reuters, March 17, 2003
We've [Democrats] got to prove we're as God-fearing and churchgoing as everyone else. --U.S. Sen. John Kerry (Vogue magazine profile) Boston Globe, March 3, 2003
Religion of every kind involves the promise that the misery and futility of existence can be overcome or even transfigured. One might suppose that the possession of such a magnificent formula, combined with the tremendous assurance of a benevolent God, would make a person happy. But such appears not to be the case: unease and insecurity and rage seem to keep up with blissful certainty, and even to outpace it. --Christopher Hitchens "Holy Writ," The Atlantic, April 2003
Two crucial issues are at stake in deliberations about President Bush's faith-based initiative. One is separation of church and state. The other is separation of powers. If President Bush has his way, both principles will be set aside to the nation's detriment. . . . --Waco Tribune-Herald editorial April 1, 2003
Letter Box
"Hallelujah for Successful Complaint"
Here in Litchfield, Minnesota, Community Education is a part of the public school system, a tax-funded entity designed to provide opportunities for students and adults to enrich their lives and make maximum use of the public school facilities. Year-round activities such as recreation programs, sports, lessons, classes for kids and adults are just a few of the offerings.
Imagine my surprise last spring (2002) when I read the publicity announcing an upcoming Easter Cantata musical which was being co-sponsored by Community Education and the local Ministerial Association, with plans being made to make it an annual event! Though it was too late to change the sponsorship for 2002, I felt I should try to "educate" the school superintendent and the school board. It didn't seem justifiable that taxpayers should finance a musical, religious experience for adults.
A letter to the Freedom From Religion Foundation produced a quick and firm letter from Annie Laurie Gaylor to the school superintendent. The result was an affirmation by the superintendent and the board that Community Education will not be co-sponsoring any more religious musical cantatas. We decided to "wait and see." This year, 2003, the Ministerial Association sponsored The Messiah without the support of Community Education. Thanks to FFRF!
What is so amazing is that people just don't get it. Last year, "after the letter," one of my acquaintances told me that her pastor (one of the choir singers) had told the congregation: "There's people in this town who don't want us to sing about Jesus! What kind of sick people are they?" Of course, she didn't know I was that sick person.
Jean Christensen Minnesota
Editor's note: Jean can't give all the credit to FFRF. She kept up a diligent correspondence with officials over this violation. Having a local complainant willing to speak out and monitor the situation made all the difference in stopping this violation.
Thank You, Mr. Barnett
When I received a recent membership renewal notice, I decided not to renew because I have been unemployed off and on for the last year.
Last week I received the April edition of Freethought Today. After reading this latest edition, I decided that I enjoy reading your publication too much to not receive it anymore.
Your organization makes me feel that there is actually hope for reason, compassion for the suffering of this world and lifting humankind out of ignorance and hate.
William Barnett Oregon
"Time Traveling" with George
To paraphrase Carl Sagan, FFRF is a "candle in the dark." Freethought Today puts a big smile on my face when it hits my mailbox here in the conservative Christian suburbs of Sacramento.
Thanks to you I no longer feel alone in a loony, superstitious country. And thanks to you also, I read George Erickson's wonderful book Time Traveling with Science and the Saints which I highly recommend for its adventure and relevant freethought content.
Keep up your marvelous work and know you are appreciated.
Brian E. Mulvey California
* * *
I am quite well-read and have graduate degrees from both Norway and California, but this George Erickson's Time Traveling to be one of the most important books I've ever read! It belongs in every library in the world and should be mandatory reading in all high schools and universities.
Jorg Aadahl California
* * *
Just had to tell you how much I'm enjoying George Erickson's book, Time Traveling. My thanks to Mr. Erickson for making these signed copies available to FFRFers at a reduced price, and to Freethought Today for informing us of this great bargain!
Brenda Donoho Michigan
Editor's note: George Erickson is renewing his offer to send an autographed copy of Time Traveling with Science and the Saints (Prometheus Books, 180 pp.), which lists at $24.95, to FFRF members for only $22 including postage. Be sure to identify yourself as an FFRF member for this special rate. Write: George Erickson, 2300 17th St NW, New Brighton MN 55112. Thank you, George!
"Sign Me Up for Another Year"
Sign me up for another year's membership, and my favorite paper which I greatly look forward to every month.
Turned 70 in November; getting up there now. One of the real good things about being an atheist is that when you leave this world you don't have to worry about meeting your maker and explaining your wild life.
Keep up the great work.
Bob Stuckert California
A "Tonic" for Old Age?
Please renew our subscription to Freethought Today. It is the best reading we get and is the best "tonic" that we take for our battle with old age (we are both 81).
Thanks for all the hard work the Foundation is doing to help preserve what the founders gave us. If they were alive today, to see what you are doing, they would be proud, too.
It was wonderful to read the April issue that featured my dear friend, Norman B. LeClair's article, "Delusional Madness," and that his art work is finding a home in the Foundation.
Wendell and Opal Carrick Florida
Doing What "God" Does Best
I would like to say a few words about the recent tragic events in Texas. It seems to me that every bible-believing Christian should find it easy to believe that God told a woman to kill her own children. It would certainly be in accordance with His hideous nature. After all, He's the One who told Abraham to kill his son (Genesis 22). He's the One who murdered all the first-born in Egypt, including the animals (Exodus 12:29). He's the One who commanded Joshua to "destroy all that breathed" on a certain portion of land (Joshua 10:40). He's the One who killed 50,070 men for looking inside a box (1 Samuel 6:19). He's the One who told the Israelites to "utterly destroy" the Amalekites, including every man, woman, child, baby, and all animals (1 Samuel 15:3).
He'sthe One who had 42 little children torn to pieces by bears for making fun of a prophet (2 Kings 2:23-24). He's the One who sent a flood to wipe out every life form on the planet simply because people were behaving the way he made them to behave (Genesis 7:23). I could cite many more disgusting examples from "the Good Book" to demonstrate the boundless cruelty of this bloodthirsty deity, but these should be sufficient to show that He is the greatest mass-murderer in history! So it should come as no surprise if He's still doing what He does best: killing people.
Isn't it perfectly logical to expect that a god who ordered so much killing in ancient times would continue to do so in modern times? Especially since He Himself said, "I am the Lord and I do not change." (Malachi 3:6). Of course, the biggest mystery of all is why anyone would want to worship a god like this.
Gary Depiro Massachussetts
"Freethought Today--My Savior"
Just when I think I may be asphyxiated by the acrid smoke of religion the mail girl delivers a breath of fresh air and I eagerly inhale every word. Freethought Today--my savior! Keep those issues coming.
I am grateful to all inside and outside of FFRF who have struggled--and continue to struggle--in the battle to maintain a separation between church and state. Your determination in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds is truly commendable.
Jane Minner Florida
Sullied by Theological Overcrust
Legislation to enhance the penalty for arson when it involves a place of worship has passed unanimously in the Illinois House of Representatives and is now in the Senate Rules Committee.
Arson normally is a Class 2 felony punishable by 3 to 7 years imprisonment and also is a probational offense. The new bill would classify arson of a place of worship as a Class 1 felony punishable by 4 to 15 years imprisonment, and it would be a nonprobational offense. The legislation was introduced as a result of St. Michael's Catholic Church in Wheaton being burned to the ground by an arsonist in March 2002.
This proposed legislation is clearly an endorsement of religion by our legislature and thus a violation of the First Amendment's establishment clause. A church is made of wood, brick or steel like any other building, so what makes its burning more deserving of a greater penalty than any other form of arson? DuPage County State's attorney Joe Brikett, who suggested the legislation, makes it clear when he tells us, "We all know that a church is not simply a building. These structures, because of what they represent, must be vigorously protected. It is tragic that a building dedicated to religious worship was destroyed by such a callous act of violence."
Our wisest course of action would be to keep god and religion out of these matters and to keep our criminal laws as neutral and objective as we can rather than to sully them with an overcrust of theology. We do not need a theocracy in the State of Illionis.
Theodore M. Utchen Illinois
They Don't Hear Unbelievers
In February, when the court upheld the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' decision that "under God" doesn't belong in the Pledge of Allegiance, 94 senators, including mine, Sens. Cantwell and Murray, endorsed a resolution defending the monotheism-promoting pledge.
I wrote to both senators and indicated my displeasure with their failure to defend the separation of church and state. I sent my comments to Cantwell using the contact form on her website. I didn't mince words. The first sentence read, "It is disappointing that you voted to defend the placement of the words 'under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance."
Cantwell promptly sent an e-mail that included the following text (and I'm not kidding): "You will be pleased to know that on March 4, I joined with 93 of my Senate colleagues to pass another resolution expressing support for the Pledge of Allegiance in response to the Feb. 28 decision." I will be pleased?! What part of "disappointing" didn't Cantwell understand?
Thinking that it might be a fluke, I completed the same Web form a few days later. My first letter had been unambiguous, but this time I was even more direct. Again, I received the identical reply.
Does Cantwell use computers to automatically scan, categorize and respond to letters? Or did a human read my letter but just didn't care enough to send an appropriate reply? I'm not sure which is worse.
Matthew J. Barry Washington
An Exchange of Ideas
Geoff Alexander (letter May 2003) is "wholly in favor" of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He considers "this position to be a moral one" and believes "that the United States is taking the high road of ridding the world of a tyrant and a menace."
There is almost no tyrant in the Mideast or elsewhere who was not at one time on the payroll of the United States. The U.S. helped Saddam to power in 1979, "leaned toward" Iraq for the next 10 years, supplied him with "weapons of mass destruction," encouraged and materially assisted in his war of aggression against Iran, tolerated all his publicly known crimes, and initially gave its OK to his plan to invade Kuwait. "We made the guy," as one commentator puts it.
The "moral high ground" of the U.S. is oil. In 1983, Donald Rumsfeld (yes, the main warmonger in the present administration) visited Baghdad on behalf of an oil pipeline which Bechtel Corporation wanted to build. This was at about the time when Saddam started to use poison gas against Iran. At the time, Rumsfeld said many nice things about Saddam. Today, Bechtel, together with Halliburton, Dick Cheney's old company, have landed major contracts in "rebuilding" Iraq.
The world is definitely better off for being rid of Saddam. But Saddam was never the "menace" that the White House propaganda made him out to be. U.S. citizens need to be better informed, get off their high moral horses, and think of less violent and more respectful means of dealing with the rest of the world.
Ernst Kallenbach Florida
* * *
The last thing I'd want to do is alienate a Life Member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation by challenging his warning to "Steer Clear of War" in the May issue. But I'm hoping that member will use his good judgment as a freethinker to hear why it's necessary to discuss war-related topics among ourselves, particularly in regard to a born-again president who ignores his savior's plea to "love your enemies," "turn the other cheek," and "resist not evil."
Besides George W's hypocrisy, another strong argument can be made as to the real reason Bush felt compelled to invade (he called it "liberate") Iraq. I remember a spokesman for the administration appearing on a PBS newscast when the war was nearing its climax. I'll never forget what he said: "When we win this war--and believe me, we will--President Bush will be so popular, he can get anything he wants from Congress."
Now if you add those sentiments to Bush's close ties to the Religious Right, you can see that he has successfully used the "threat of terrorism" to popularize not only himself, but his anti-democratic agenda. Let us never forget that one of his top "unofficial" advisors has been televangelist Pat Robertson, who suggested that the then-candidate Bush take the Florida recount directly to the conservative Supreme Court, and suggested to the newly appointed president that ultra-conservative John Ashcroft would make "a great attorney general."
When a U.S. president has to rely solely on the bloodshed of war to divert public attention from his disastrous policies at home, we cannot afford to "steer clear of war." We need an exchange of ideas now more than ever. Our democracy is in grave danger of becoming a theocracy--and war only seems to add momentum to the effort.
Herb McClelland Ohio
Atheists in Foxholes and Labs
I have enclosed some news items of interest, in particular a news story that our serial-killer suspect, while fleeing from the law, set up a bible study class. One person who met him in Atlanta, Ga., is quoted as saying, "He talked about the bible a lot. Let me tell you, he knew the bible." Another said, "I prayed with this man." If he's guilty, he's going to have many bible buddies in prison. Based on what I've read, I think I'm going to start answering Christians who claim, falsely, that there are no atheists in foxholes by pointing out there are no atheists in prison cells, but a whole lot of them in science labs!
William Sierichs Jr. Louisiana
Nurturing Freethought Along
Tom and I are nurturing a 17-year-old nephew along in his thinking. He was raised in the Catholic Church and is understandably having a lot of doubts now. In a recent e-mail conversation, he made this observation:
"As I was browsing through web pages, I was thinking about the war a little and how all the Christian sites were gung-ho about war in Iraq. They say that there's no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole. I say that if there was a God, there wouldn't have been a foxhole."
Elsa Kramer Indiana
"Atheists Fighting for Survival"
Below is a letter that I wrote to someone who sent me an unsolicited religious email. It's not much, but I'm fighting back and I'm not giving up or shutting up:
I never object when someone prays before dinner at their house, or when I'm dining with them. I think it's respectful to wait the 30 seconds for my companions in that circumstance. But when you make it public, over a loudspeaker, that's forcing your beliefs on me. You want to pray, do so to yourself or go to church--no one is stopping you. But please respect me enough to not drag me into it.
I want the original Pledge of Allegiance back, the pre-1955 one that included all Americans. I want the same respect for my beliefs that theists demand for theirs. Although we may have a majority of Christians, we are not a Christian country, nor were we founded on Christian principles. Christian beliefs were deliberately left out of our constitution--along with all religious beliefs for a policy of neutrality. Our founding fathers were very aware of what effect mixing church and state had, and were very careful to avoid that. In fact, in 1797 America made a treaty with Tripoli, declaring that "the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." This reassurance to Islam was written under Washington's presidency, and approved by the Senate under John Adams. You will also find no reference to god in the Constitution--not one.
The day that theists are forbidden by law from holding public office (as atheists are in five states), or when they are forced to stand by while their tax dollars go toward atheist initiatives (as atheist tax dollars go towards "faith based initiatives"), the day that they are told "the majority rules so you have no rights," or that you're not a patriot because of your beliefs, is the day that they will know what atheists go through. Theists may consider themselves to be "fighting back" but atheists are fighting for survival.
Keep church and state separate!
Karen Hastings APO
Atheist in a Foxhole Speaks Out
I'd like to comment about the recent proliferation of the myth that "there are no atheists in foxholes."
This is insulting to at least 30 million Americans who have chosen a life of science and reason over one of ignorance and superstition. You can throw a dart at a map of the world today and see what religion has done for humanity.
I have not been in a foxhole, but I have had melanoma, a life-threatening form of cancer, twice, undergone "shark-bite surgery," oral and intravenous chemotherapy, and I never once put myself in superstition's hands. I put my faith in science and medicine. That begins with education.
I would suggest Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World and any of the works by Richard Feynman (the guy who figured out the O-ring problem on the Challenger explosion). Mark Twain and Thomas Edison were atheists or freethinkers, to name just a few.
Twain said, "The only thing wrong with the Baptists is that they don't hold them under the water long enough."
Edison said, "All bibles are manmade."
Like the great Feynman, "All I'm interested in is the truth, not what will make me feel better."
Russ Cardwell Florida
Way to Go, Kelly!
Editor's note: This letter originally appeared in the June 2, 2003, issue of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It was written by Kelly Dennis, an office assistant "alumna" who worked for several years for the Foundation after she graduated from college, and is now working at a book publishing company. Way to go, Kelly!
For two days running, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel gave front-page coverage to a high school student who wanted to sing a religious song at her graduation ceremony (May 29-30). Both days, this story was placed next to articles on potential peace agreements in the Mideast. But wait: Isn't it wanting to impose religion on others that has fueled war and terrorism in the Middle East? Winnecone High School was right to balk at Rachel Honer's wishes. A religious song performed at a public school has a way of establishing a particular religion at that ceremony and school. Rather than praising Honer for honoring her personal religion, let's admit she's simply imposing private beliefs on classmates in a public setting.
As a country, it's important we recognize that the separation between church and state is exactly what distinguishes the United States from so many countries in the Middle East. It's what protects our independent and comparatively revolutionary rights. A graduation ceremony is not intended to honor religion; rather, it is a time to celebrate that our young people have learned to think for themselves.
Kelly Dennis Wisconsin
"Religion Brings Out the Worst"?
Being a subscriber to Freethought Today, I look forward to every issue.
I especially enjoy your "Sharing the Nut Mail" with us. It truly is amazing what kind of "kooks" are out there and how vicious their letters are to FFRF. Religion surely brings out the worst in most people.
Hope to see this "Nut Mail" column on a regular basis.
Victor Sturman Wisconsin
Prof. Marcus Meets DeMille
I read Dan Barker's article, "It's All Showbiz" (May 03) with special interest because I knew Prof. Marcus well during the period shortly after the release of "The Ten Commandments."
I had been friendly with his son, Phil Marcus, for some time during the period 1953-58, and Prof. and Mrs. Marcus often welcomed me into their home. Ralph and I hit it off, though our areas (he in Greek, Oriental Languages & Literature and I in Physics) were quite different.
I remember his recounting his experience with the DeMille organization. As you noted, they wanted to have the 10 Commandments written in the Hebrew of the (supposed) period of Moses. Marcus was perhaps the world's greatest expert on Semitic languages throughout the biblical and post-biblical periods, so they asked him. He was a bit nonplussed, since there are no records of Hebrew writing (if indeed such yet existed) at that time. But he wanted to help, so he used the Phoenician script of the period (Phoenician is--or was--a Semitic language not far removed from Hebrew) and, using the oldest known (but much more recent) rendering of the 10 Commandments, wrote out the brief text that appears both in the movie and, in miniature, on the granite slabs.
For his efforts, he told me, he was rewarded with four tickets to the first Chicago showing of the movie. My memory is not too clear, but they may have paid him $200 in addition. In any case, he was told later that he could have billed them for a much larger sum, but he was not a man who had much interest in money. He found the experience interesting, especially the meeting with DeMille, some or most of the stars, and other Hollywood notables (for whom he held little if any awe). He told me, wryly, "I think Charlton Heston brought a terrific sense of humor to his conceptualization of the role of Moses."
Unfortunately, Prof. Marcus died about 1956 or '57. Mrs. Marcus sold me his desk--the one on which he had written nearly all the works that made him a leader in his field--for $25, and I (and later my wife) used it till 1992. At that time my father died and I inherited his desk which was rather like Marcus's but in better condition. So we sold the Marcus desk together with a lot of the furniture from my father's home, for which we had no space. As far as I know, it's still out there.
Larry Lerner California
"Where Would My Child Be Safer?"
Mike Price, Alabama's would-be coach, was reportedly seen in a topless bar in Pensacola, Fla. To the University's Board of Directors, Coach Price committed a mortal sin and was excommunicated from Alabama. The Board of Directors of the Crimson Tide is the equivalent of the College of Cardinals of the Catholic Church.
Imagine if the Church had been in charge of Alabama football when this happened. First there would have been the grand cover-up. Then Price would have been sent for evaluation. After a short time, Price would have been declared cured of desiring women and transferred to, say Auburn, to be their coach.
No one at Auburn would have known that Price likes to visit topless bars.
The next time Price was caught, he would be sent to yet another university in the middle of the night to become their athletic director. Again, no one would be told why.
Compare Athletic Director Mal Moore to Archbishop Lipscomb of Mobile and the Board of Directors to the College of Cardinals. Now ask yourself, "Where would my child be safer, in a Catholic Church or the University of Alabama?"
Hank Shiver Alabama
Divine Intervention for Hangnails?
"President Bush, who was visiting Little Rock, Ark., said Monday that the federal government would move as quickly as possible to help the storm-damaged areas.
" 'Nature's awfully tough at times, and the best thing we can do right now is to pray for those who have suffered,' he said." (Msnbc.com, 5/6/2003)
Well, dag nab it. The logic of this escapes me. Our glorious pres is assigning blame for the tornado onto nature, which presumably is under the control of his god. If prayer works, I would think the smart money would pray in advance of a tornado to have god shunt it off to an unpopulated area.
What good is praying after the devastation takes place? I know, it's a feel good thing. Seems to me that the best thing we can do right now is have humans pitch in and help with the cleanup. If we wait for god, the mess will be sitting there forever.
I am convinced that the president cannot confront a hangnail or give a speech of any length without pleading for divine intervention.
Allen Wick Wisconsin
South Carolina Is Challenging
Just a short note to say thank you for Robert Sapolsky's address at the "Emperor Has No Clothes" Award presentation.
Having been a former pastor for 26 years, I can appreciate his insights on belief and biology. It was a short but fascinating description of denominations, ministers, elders and members I have observed through the years. I knew religion was based in our needs, fears and hopes, but this was a very excellent description of how it springs from the brain and mind. Thanks for the insights.
I also had a great laugh at the Cadaver Christian Outreach sign. I passed that sign myself a few months ago and had to turn around to read it again. At least there is one church that can admit to being dead outright . . . ha.
Living around some of the most fundamentalist thinking in America can be challenging here in South Carolina. One never knows at Easter whether there will be real people on crosses in front of the church, as there has been in the past, or if the "Hell House" sponsored by locals to scare kids into obeying the Baptist Church will make as big a Halloween hit as in years past.
I personally find Hell House to be child abuse.
Dennis Diehl South Carolina
Leno Poses a Good Question
This is from Jay Leno's monolog on the Tonight Show recently:
"There's more and more information coming out about that Colorado climber who cut off his own arm. This is an amazing story, unbelievable. He says he felt a 'presence' when he was out there, like God gave him the strength to do this courageous act.
"Now, if God was there, why didn't He just move the damn boulder?"
Don Worrell Alabama
Woman Versus Prophet
In my half century in Mormonism, I was often amused by my Catholic acquaintances' ignorance of the history of their church. Later I was embarrased to realize the same charge could be leveled at Mormons themselves. The half-dozen cases itemized in Freethought Today (April 2003, p. 6) are typical of polygamous Joseph Smith/Brigham Young wannabe prophets. But the character of the founders of the Mormon church is a sandy foundation for the ambition of their imitators.
Joseph Smith
In his life-long prowl, Joseph Smith collected 33 documentable surreptitious "wives."1 The fifteenth was Sarah Ann Whitney (1825-73), married to Smith by her father on 27 July 1842. Three weeks later, in hiding from the law, Smith directed her parents to bring Sarah to him.
To her he wrote: "My feelings are so strong for you. . . . Come and see me in this my lonely retreat. . . . I have a room entirely by myself. The only thing to be careful of is to find out when Emma [his legitimate wife] comes then you cannot be safe, but when she is not here, there is the most perfect safety. . . . Burn this letter as soon as you read it; my life depends upon it."2
On 29 April 1843, Smith publicly married Sarah to Joseph C. Kingsbury in what the latter called a "pretended marriage," in order to throw Emma off the track. On one occasion, he posted a lookout to make sure no one saw him climb through a back window for a night's tryst with another of his "wives." And he disguised his first polygamous wife in men's clothing, so that she would pass unobserved.
In 1877, John Doyle Lee blew the whistle on another cruel practice: "In Nauvoo [Illinois] it was the orders from Joseph Smith and his apostles to beat, wound, and castrate Gentiles."
He instanced the case of Bishop Warren Stone Snow of Manti, San Pete County, Utah. "He had several wives, but there was a fair, buxom young woman in the town that Snow wanted for a wife. She thanked him for the honor offered, but told him she was then engaged to a young man, a member of the church, and consequently could not marry the old priest. He told her it was the will of God that she should marry him, and she must do so; that the young man could be got rid of, sent on a mission . . . that, in fact, it was contrary to do the wishes of the authorities, so a promise made to the young man was not binding."
The girl and her fiance both refused to give her up. Ordered to go on a mission, the man refused. Snow decided that he should be castrated, saying, 'When that is done, he will not be liable to want the girl badly, and she will listen to reason when she knows that her lover is no longer a man.' "
The bishop called a meeting of the priests. The young man refusing again, the lights were put out, and an attack was made. "He was severely beaten, and then tied with his back down on a bench, when Bishop Snow took a bowie-knife, and performed the operation in a most brutal manner, and then took the portion severed and hung it up in the school-house on a nail." The man dragged himself away to some haystacks, where his friends found him the next day.
Later Snow talked to the people about their duty to the church, and their duty to obey counsel, and the dangers of refusal, and then publicly called attention to the mangled parts of the young man . . . and stated that the deed had been done to teach the people that the counsel of the Priesthood must be obeyed."3 The young woman was then forced to marry him.
A few weeks later, a Bishop Blackburn shouted in a Sunday meeting of all ages and both sexes, "I want the people of Provo to understand that the boys in Provo can use the knife as well as the boys in San Pete. Boys, get your knives ready, there is work for you!"
According to Young's counselor Wilford Woodruff, "When the circumstances were told, President Brigham Young sustained the brethren who presided at Provo."4 Historian D. Michael Quinn (excommunicated in 1993) discovered that Young also approved the castration by Warren Snow: "In May 1857 Bishop Warren S. Snow's counselor wrote that twenty-four-year-old Thomas Lewis 'has now gone crazy' after being inflicted by Bishop Snow. When informed of Snow's action, Young said 'I feel to sustain him.' " Snow was continued in office, given a personal blessing by Young in 1861, and in 1867 was given the opportunity to preach in the Mormon tabernacle. So Lee's conclusion that "Brigham Young did nothing against Snow" has been proved to be truthful.5
If such evidence concerning Smith and Young were more widely known, perhaps excitable opportunists in the Mormon church would be less inclined to imitate the pattern of these exemplars of integrity and honesty, who never hesitated to exploit and oppress any women who crossed their paths, all the way from Emma Hale Smith to . . . Elizabeth Smart.
1Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997), pp. 1-23, 342-63, passim.
2Dean Jessee, editor, The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1984), pp. 539-42, with a photographic reprint of the letter.
3Jerald and Sandra Tanner, editors, Salt Lake City Messenger (P.O Box 1884, SLC 84110) No. 92 (April 1997), "Mormonism's Early Secrets," pp. 11-13, citing Lee's Confessions, first published as Mormonism Unveiled.
4Wilford Woodruff's Diaryfor 2 June 1857 and later (vols. 5:54-55, 571, and 6:319), quoted in Tanner.
5D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, Vol. 2 (Salt Lake City: www.utlm.org, 1997), pp. 250-51.
David L. Kent is a Texas Foundation member, father of five thriving atheists, author of Barbados and America and other genealogical source books, and patron of the book arts. He was a Mormon from 1948 to 1999.
Flex Muscle to Rescue the Establishment Clause
Karl Rove runs into the Oval Office, shakes its current occupant awake and tells Dubya he has "really exciting news!"
Rove adds: "Well, there's good news and bad news. But first the good news. You'll never guess who's on the phone! It's God . . . he's come back to earth to meet with you and answer your prayers! He's going to help you install a theocracy in the USA, just like we've been wanting!"
Bush: "Then what's the bad news?"
Rove: "He's calling from Mecca."
The state of the separation of church and state today in our country is no laughing matter.
Of course, the punchline of that joke is the rub. You saw that Pat Robertson, on the 700 Club in March, actually said, "It's going to be absolutely imperative to set up a constitution and safeguards that say we will maintain a secular state" in Iraq.
Robertson and his cohorts "get" it when the theocracy would be Muslim, but they can't wait to install Jesus Christ as head of our country.
Why is religion bad for government?
You've read the many eloquent quotes: Madison warning of the bloodstained strife when religion and state unite; Thomas Paine noting that persecution is not an original feature in any religion, but is always the strongly marked feature of religions established by law; Jefferson referring to "this loathsome combination of Church & State" (letter to Clay, 1815).
But maybe you'll be as startled as I was when, in preparing for this workshop, I realized the onslaught against the Establishment Clause in just the last month. It's an eye-popping list.
Bush didn't just declare war against Iraq. He's declared war against the Jeffersonian wall of separation between church and state. We are seeing whole chunks of it dismantled before our eyes.
The list below is a small sampling of the recent entanglements between the federal government and religion, revealing an ominous trend toward theocracy.
* * *
April 3. Rev. Franklin Graham announces in an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times that his questionable Christian relief agency, Samaritan's Purse, is lying in wait to attack Iraq with their "20,000 ambassadors of Christ," to "share their faith" along with their relief supplies. Ditto for the Southern Baptist Convention.
The Pentagon, knowing of the plans of this bible brigade to descend on Iraq, nevertheless invited Rev. Graham to give a Good Friday sermon at the Pentagon. Muslim employees naturally protested, since Graham has called the Islam religion "very wicked and evil."
Army Col. George Campbell, in defending the invitation, missed the point entirely, saying: "The service on Friday is not a political service. I don't anticipate Rev. Graham will talk about anything except the death and resurrection of Christ."
April 11. U.S. Secretary of Education Ron Paige told the Baptist Press, which did not misquote the substance of his remarks, that:
"All things equal, I would prefer to have a child in a school that has a strong appreciation for the values of the Christian community, where a child is taught to have a strong faith." This figurehead of our public secular schools also indicated his support for taxpaid vouchers for religious education.
The Baptist Press reporter was fired for some extraneous minor misquotes when this blew up in the press; Paige, who was asked to resign by many groups (including the Foundation) and several politicians, remains the "champion" of our public schools.
April 18. The Boston Globe in May revealed some very bad news on the faith-based front that quietly happened in April. The U.S. Dept. of Labor adopted some good guidelines on April 4 prohibiting job training grants to be used for instruction in "religion, worship, prayer, or inherently religious practices," to purchase "sacred literature" (such as bibles), or to promote religion.
On April 18, the references to "sacred literature" and secular requirements were deleted.
Late April. A U.N. committee on violence against women tried to pass wording that religion and custom should not be used to excuse such violence. These conclusions were tabled, after objections by Iran, Egypt, Sudan and the United States.
Many newspapers carried reports over the "surprise" of our government that Shiites plan to capitalize on the war, take over Iraq with a Muslim theocracy and install sharia laws. Naturally this is frightening especially to the women of Iraq, who have enjoyed western-like freedoms and have all but disappeared from public life since the U.S. launched its war.
How can Iraqi women count on the U.S. to defend women's rights, given this U.N. vote, the cut-off of family planning/maternal health money to the U.N. by Bush, and our country's record of voting in a bloc with Islamist and Catholic regimes in the U.N. on population, AIDS, children's and women's rights?
April. The Associated Press revealed that six Christian fundamentalist members of Congress are living in housing subsidized by a secretive religious fellowship that funds the National Prayer Breakfast, raising many concerns. Harper's magazine in March carried an in-depth report on this fellowship, with its 70-odd years of historic ties to fascist dictators, among many world leaders.
April 30. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft asked the Supreme Court to toss out the 9th Circuit ruling against "under God" in the Pledge, saying:
"Our religious heritage has been recognized and celebrated for hundreds of years in the National Motto ("In God We Trust")."
This motto was adopted in 1956, of course. Ashcroft also said in April that the "U.S. has God's special blessing."
May 1. Ashcroft participated in a National Day of Prayer rally at Capitol Hill. According to Associated Press:
"Attorney General John Ashcroft says President Bush commands America's armed forces, but 'understands that it is faith and prayer that are the sources of this nation's strength.' "
AP also reported:
"An organizer of the event on Capitol Hill asked God to make the United States a righteous example as Iraqis struggle to establish their own democracy."
What's wrong with this picture?
If I had a chance, I would remind Ashcroft and National Day of Prayer organizer Shirley Dobson of Focus on the Family what everyone in this room knows:
We are a secular, democratic republic, governed by the rule of law, not the bible. Our constitution is godless and our sovereignty rests in "We, the People," not in a divinity. Ours was the first godless constitution ever adopted, and it is no coincidence that it is the longest-lived constitution in history.
AP reported that Alabama's Attorney General Bill Pryor, nominated by Bush for a seat on the 11th Circuit, filed an "interesting" brief with the Supreme Court on Feb. 18 of this year. In the brief Pryor compared homosexual acts with "necrophilia, bestiality, child porn, incest, and pedophilia."
Yes, Pryor filed this brief even before "Mr. Faith-Based Leader" Rick Santorum, No. 3-ranking Republican in the Senate, made his infamous April 21 statements about gays to Associated Press.
May 7. I was pleased to see that the National Association of Evangelicals meeting in D.C. "rebuked" Rev. Franklin Graham over his comments on Islam. They also "rebuked" Rev. Jerry Vines, past prez of the Southern Baptist Convention, for calling Muhammad "a demon-possessed pedophile," and "rebuked" Jerry Falwell, for calling Muhammad "a terrorist." But the Administration and the Pentagon have not rebuked them, and have in fact rewarded Rev. Graham.
Early May. Not to let the evangelicals off the hook. . . . Some of them met with Benny Elon, Israel's minister of tourism, who came to Washington to court officials--and the Christian Coalition, CBN, Gary Bauer and other evangelicals--to ask them to lobby against Bush's "roadmap for Middle East peace," a two-state solution. Evangelists believe Israel is the site of the second coming, so they are important political allies to Israel in opposing a state for Palestine. The religion-inspired Mideast mess continues.
The U.S government launched an Arabic language satellite TV news station for Muslim Iraq, produced at the studio of Grace Digital Media in DC, which shares phones and offices with "Grace News Network," dedicated to transmitting "evidence of God's presence in the world today."
Mayor Anthony A. Williams of the District of Columbia caved into the Administration and endorsed vouchers for DC schoolchildren, who would attend mainly parochial schools with funds robbed from public schools.
May 8. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve Bush's nominee Carolyn B. Kuhl for the 9th Circuit despite her gruesome record, especially on abortion rights and women's rights. Sen. Orrin Hatch (Mormon-UT) lauded her record as "exemplary." Evidently he can't tell the difference.
May 8. The House voted 220-204 on party lines to allow private groups receiving federal job training money to discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion, nullifying a prohibition in force for two decades. House Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, CA, called it "profoundly unwise to allow the federal government to fund religious discrimination."
As far as I'm concerned, this House vote cancels out the April 9 pseudo-victory of passage of the so-called "Care Act" without specific reference to religion, which has been hailed by some as a great victory for state/church separation. It did fail to deliver what Bush asked for, which was full faith-based funding. But of course, Bush issued an executive fiat on Dec. 12 calling for faith-based funding of religious social services throughout federal government, making the bill redundant. It's scary that the House in May went along with job-based discrimination, one of the primary stumbling blocks for Bush's original faith-based initiatives bill.
Nuf said!
* * *
Focus on the Family, by the way, is giving Bush only a "B" grade for his work on faith-based funding, since he failed to win Congressional endorsement, and a future president could revoke Bush's executive order calling for full faith-based funding. In early May their website also bragged that no legal challenges of faith-based funding have been won.
They manage to overlook our very important case, Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Tommy Thompson [later Scott McCallum] & Faith Works, which was the first lawsuit challenging faith-based funding to be fully adjudicated and won. Federal Judge Barbara Crabb last year found in our favor. She said the government grant of more than $800,000 to a group whose mission was "to lead homeless addicts to Christ" amounted to public-funded indoctrination and is illegal.
Her ruling was not appealed. It was a nationally significant victory, especially since Bush as a candidate had stopped by Faith Works in Milwaukee to "bless" the program and promise to funnel billions of dollars to similar faith-based schemes.
Unfortunately, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion against us in April in a secondary part of our Faith Works lawsuit challenging indirect state funding. Judge Posner ruled that the referral and subsidy of parolees by the state to the Faith Works program is tantamount to the school voucher program approved by the Supreme Court in Cincinnati last year. We have asked for an en banc hearing before the 7th Circuit, contesting the tortured reasoning.
Meanwhile, we carry on. We just filed a new federal lawsuit, challenging a labyrinthine faith-based entanglement between two Montana state offices with the "Montana Faith-Health Cooperative." State and federal taxpayers are subsidizing the activities in the faith-health cooperative, as part of the Montana State University-Bozeman and the Montana Office of Rural Health.
Our attorney is also working on what will, we believe, be the first direct challenge at the cabinet level of public grants to multiple faith-based social service agencies.
* * *
In conclusion, we are seeing a fundamentalist Christian shadow government (maybe not so shadowy) in our own land.
We are seeing public officials, especially at the federal level, thumbing their noses at our precious Establishment Clause in their eagerness to unite church and state.
We have the religious right in control of all three branches of the federal government, with a minimum rightwing 5-4 control of the Supreme Court. As a writer in The Nation recently put it, the three federal branches are "all singing from the same hymnal."
It's truly time for all of us to take alarm and redouble any efforts we can make, as individuals and as members of organizations, at the local, state or federal level, to defend the besieged wall of separation.
The definitive American Religious Identification Survey reveals that the number of "nonreligious" American adults more than doubled between 1990 and 2001, while the number of "religious" and "Christians" declined. The "nonreligious" are now the fastest-growing segment of the population at 14.3%.
There are a lot more of us than Mormons (1.4%), Jews (1.8%), or Muslims (.3%), who are after all considered respected minorities whose rights as nonChristians deserve protection. When the ARIS survey asked how many adult Americans consider themselves secular, our numbers increase to 16%!
Flex some muscle!


text:
WeatherBug for Nokia N900
Shattuck, OK 73858
WeatherBug Mobile
WeatherBug for Nokia N900 provides instant access to local current conditions, extended forecast, radar and satellite images, severe weather alerts and more for your U.S. city and thousands of locations around the world. To download, simply access the Ovi Store on your Nokia N900 smartphone device and search by entering the keyword "WeatherBug".
Standard Features:
- Access to the WeatherBug Network — the source for truly live, local weather with the largest network of professional weather stations in the U.S. and thousands of locations around the world
- Extended 7-Day, Detailed and Hourly* forecasts
- Ten (10) detailed interactive weather maps: Temperature, Radar*, Satellite, Humidity, Pressure, Wind Speed, Today's High, Today's Low, Tomorrow's High and Tomorrow's Low Temperature Forecast
- Interactive weather maps include zoom and road, aerial or hybrid view options
- Radar animation*
- Easily switch between unlimited saved locations
Severe weather alerts (NWS alerts) for any saved location*
[Note: Alerts update in background at interval options of 15 minutes to 8 hours.]
- National Weather Outlook broadcast provided by WeatherBug meteorologists* (updated 2x daily)
- Weather camera images and time-lapse animation*
- Unique weather data presentation for your location – view maps, radar animation, camera images and videos in full-screen mode or side-by-side current conditions
- View weather in Metric or English Imperial (U.S.) units
* U.S. locations only
Press Releases
- Apr 07, 2014Little League and WeatherBug Launch iOS and Android App to Promote Lightning and Weather Safety
- Feb 25, 2014Earth Networks - WeatherBug Promotes Michael Lombardi to Lead Advertising and Commercial Enterprise Business
- Feb 20, 2014Earth Networks - WeatherBug Promotes Keith Sklar and Adds Three Professionals to Advertising Team
- More Press Releases...
WeatherBug Featured Products
Weather News
Other Top Weather Headlines
Cargo Ship Runs Aground In Windy Chesapeake Bay
A thunderstorm with wind gusts of more than 70 mph ripped a cargo ship's anchors from the seafloor and caused it to run…More >
Cold Winter Leaves Fla. Panhandle With Dead Trees
The region's palm trees are mostly brown and withering because of the region's unusually cold…More >
Florida Has Had A Hurricane Lull, Expert Says
Florida's last hurricane was Wilma in 2005, which also was the last major storm - a Category 3 or stronger - to hit U.S.…More >
WeatherBug Featured Content
Green Living
You too can help save our planet and put money back in your wallet. Learn how you can take the first steps to reduce your environmental impact, including driving green, easy ways you can conserve water, and energy saving tips. To learn more and discover the benefits of going green, visit WeatherBug's green living section. More >
Be Prepared, Know Before
Get faster alerts and better forecasts from the exclusive neighborhood-level WeatherBug network.Learn More

subset: commoncrawl