Freethought Today

Vol. 22 No. 9 - Published by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. -
November 2005

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State/Church Bulletin

Newdow Wins Round One

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton, Sacramento, Calif., ruled on Sept. 14 in favor of the latest challenge of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance by Michael Newdow, M.D.

Karlton wrote that the reference to one nation "under God" violates the rights of school children to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God."

Requiring them to recite a religious pledge places them in the difficult "position of choosing between participating in an exercise with religious content or protesting."

Karlton noted he was bound by precedent of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which famously ruled in favor of Newdow in 2002. The Sacramento school district appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. The high court last year refused to rule on the merits, instead finding that Newdow, as a noncustodial parent, lacked standing to sue.

Karlton announced he would sign a restraining order to prevent recitation of the pledge at Elk Grove Unified, Rio Linda and Elverta Joint Elementary school districts, which the plaintiff's children attend.

Newdow went back to court on behalf of three parents and their children:

"Imagine every morning if the teachers had the children stand up, place their hands over their hearts, and say, 'We are one nation that denies God exists.' I think that everybody would not be sitting here saying, 'Oh, what harm is that?' They'd be furious. And that's exactly what goes on against atheists. And it shouldn't," Newdow told AP radio after the ruling.

The Becket Fund, a religious right group working with the school district, announced an immediate appeal to the 9th Circuit.

Newdow has carefully documented the religious intent of the addition of "under God" to the secular pledge by Congress in 1954. "From this day forward the millions of our school children will daily proclaim . . . the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty," intoned Pres. Dwight Eisenhower, after passage of the amendment.

John Shimkus, R-Ill., immediately (re)introduced the Pledge Protection Act to limit the jurisdiction of federal courts such that "no court created by Act of Congress shall have any jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court shall have no appellate jurisdiction, to hear or decide any question pertaining to the interpretation of, or the validity under the Constitution of, the Pledge of Allegiance."

Secular Lobbyist Announced

Lori Lipman Brown started work in September as a secular lobbyist and executive director of the Secular Coalition for America. A self-described "soft, fuzzy atheist," Brown has worked as a teacher, and was a Nevada state senator from 1992-1994, where she fought for gay rights and abortion rights.

"It's important to do the work, even if you're not a high-paid lobbyist. At least there'll be an atheist voice in the mix," she told USA Today.

HHS Awards More Faith Funding

The flood of federal funds to "faith-based" groups continues unabated. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Sept. 29 announced $49 million in awards through its "Compassion Capital Fund." The money is to help "faith-based" and other groups provide social services to the homeless, at-risk youth, rural, elderly and welfare-to-work families.

The awards came in three grants. The first, CCF Demonstration Program, totals $17,695,299 for 20 groups serving as intermediaries to give sub-grants to smaller religious and community groups.

OneStar Foundation in Austin received $1.1 million, The Black Ministerial Alliance in Roxbury, Mass., got $1.4 million, the Latino Pastoral Action Center in the Bronx got $708,334, and World Vision, in Federal Way, Wash., received $750,000.

The second set of $15,192,810 went to 310 "faith-based and community groups," for various purposes, including "strengthening marriage."

Awards of $15,740,265 went to currently-funded CCF programs.

Since the CCF program began in 2002, $148 million has been given to more than 3,000 organizations.

* * *

HHS on Sept. 30 announced $12 million in grants to support minority health for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. "Faith-based" groups were specifically included.

HHS announced "an aggressive outreach effort will be initiated through faith-based and community organizations."

The Interdenominational Theological Center was given $210,000 in tax monies to support their "Caring for the City" Emotional Support Center Program, providing counseling through churches.

Miers Nominee Fundamentalist

Harriet Miers, the White House counsel nominated in October by Pres. Bush to replace swing-voter Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, as president of the Texas State Bar unsuccessfully urged the national American Bar Association in 1993 to reconsider its pro-abortion rights stance.

"She is on the extreme end of the antichoice movement," colleague Lorlee Bartos told the Dallas Morning News (Oct. 3). "I suspect she is of the same cloth as the president."

After Miers' widely-reported June 1979 conversion from Roman Catholicism to born-again, Miers was baptized at Valley View Christian Church--a conservative Protestant congregation in north Dallas. The church preaches that the bible is literally true, abortion is murder, and homosexuality is a sin.

Rev. Ron Key of Dallas told the Moonie-owned Washington Times (Oct. 5) that Miers, a longtime friend, phoned him late on Sunday, Oct. 2, asking him and his wife to "pray for her" for a reason she could not disclose.

"Of course, I did pray for her, and the next morning woke up to find out with the rest of the nation that she had been nominated for the Supreme Court," he added.

According to the Times, "Christian friends and confidants say she is a solid believer who, like President Bush, had a religious conversion in her 30s."

Close friend Nathan Hecht, a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, told the Times Miers tithes 15% to the church. After her conversion, "She realized life begins at conception," Hecht said.

Hecht also spoke with The Washington Post (Oct. 5), which described him as "one of the most conservative judges in Texas": "I know she is pro-life," and that abortion is "taking a life," Hecht told The Post.

Another pastor praised Miers' work for years as a Sunday School teacher.

"Friends who know Miers well testify to her internal compass that includes a needle pointed toward Christ," wrote Marvin Olasky in his blog, according to The Post (Oct. 7). Olasky forged the "compassionate conservative" label and much of the "faith-based" initiative.

Focus on the Family's James Dobson, who was briefed on Miers by Bush's chief aide, Karl Rove, told Brit Humes on Fox News:

"We know people who have known her for 20, 25 years, and they would vouch for her . . . . I know the church that she goes to and I know the people who go to church with her. I do know things that I am not prepared to talk about here." On his Oct. 5 radio show, Dobson bragged: "I know the individual who led her to the Lord."

Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., responded that "if the White House gives information to James Dobson, that information should be shared equally with the U.S. Senate."

Also embracing Miers is Jay Sekulow, pitbull legal counsel for Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice. Sekulow called the nomination "a big opportunity for those of us who have a conviction, that share an evangelical faith in Christianity, to see someone with our positions put on the court."

Earlier this year, Miers wore a prominent cross while addressing Republican attorneys at the National Press Club.

Bush:A Holy War?

In a speech before the National Endowment for Democracy on Oct. 6, Pres. Bush accused Islamic radicals of seeking to "enslave whole nations and intimidate the world," while insisting it is not a part of the real religion:

"Some call this evil Islamic radicalism. Others militant jihadism.

"Still, others Islamo-fascism.

"Whatever it's called, this ideology is very different from the religion of Islam. This form of radicalism exploits Islam to serve a violent political vision: the establishment, by terrorism and subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom.

"The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the religion and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia."

Hurricane Vouchers Set Precedent?

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced a scheme for a federal voucher for children of hurricane evacuees, using taxpayer money for public or private schools, or "wherever students show up."

An estimated 372,000 students were displaced from public and private schools damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Spellings offered to cover 90% of their tuition costs. Bush has budgeted $488 million out of the $2.6 billion proposal for federally funded emergency vouchers, or $7,500 per student.

The controversial proposal has been protested by teachers unions, who fear an exodus from needy public schools. Other groups accused Bush of opportunistically using the natural disaster to promote his pro-voucher political agenda.

Spellings noted many Gulf Coast students attended Catholic schools, and should be aided by the public to continue doing so: "We should not penalize those families because they chose to select private schools."

Currently, the only federally-funded voucher program is a $14 million program serving about 1,700 low-income students in Washington, D.C. Spellings called the proposal "a one-year relief aid package."

House: Head Start May Discriminate

The U.S. House voted on Sept. 22 to let preschool providers, including churches and religious groups receiving federal funds, discriminate on the basis of religion when hiring workers.

The Head Start reauthorization bill, which initially had bipartisan support, was approved 231-184, with only 23 Democrats supporting it. The vote on the religion-based hiring amendment passed 220-196, with support from only 10 Democrats.

The bill would allow a Catholic church providing Head Start services to hire only Catholic workers and reject qualified workers of other religions, for example.

Although in fact religious organizations were not denied funding in the past, but were required to conform to nondiscrimination codes, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., argued from the floor: "This is about our children, and denying them exemplary services just because the organization happens to be a religious one is just cruel."

Rep. George Miller, D-California, the ranking Democrat on the Education Committee, said: "It is a violation of our civil rights laws and it has sunk the chances of making this important bill a truly bipartisan bill."

"Congress should not be in the business of supporting state-sponsored discrimination," said Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla.

Everett Decalog OK'd by Court

A federal judge, invoking earlier decisions by the Supreme Court this year, ruled in September that a Ten Commandments monument may remain outside a police station in Everett, Wash.

"The display at issue here poses no threat to the religious freedoms of the citizens of Everett," wrote U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik.

The lawsuit was brought by plaintiff Jesse Card, who was honored with a "Young Activist" scholarship award by the Freedom From Religion Foundation at last year's July "mini-convention" in Seattle.

Las Cruces Crosses Litigated

Two members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation have filed a federal lawsuit challenging a relatively new City of Las Cruces logo that uses three crosses.

Paul F. Weinbaum and his minor daughter, as well as Martin J. Boyd., M.D., filed the lawsuit on Sept. 16, seeking removal of permanent religious symbols from public property. A local radio station responded by distributing free window decals bearing the three crosses within a sun, with the text, "Keep the crosses."

"Whether it's popular or not is not the issue," Boyd told the Las Cruces Sun-News. "It's against the Constitution."

The legal complaint notes that Latin crosses "are recognized throughout the world as Christian symbols." While the city claimed it had documents linking the cross configuration to the city's history, it has not produced them for the plaintiffs.

After the New Mexico Department of Transportation agreed to remove cross logos at Weinbaum's request in a prior complaint, Gov. Bill Richardson intervened with an executive order to retain the crosses.

Air Force Sued by Critic

Mikey Weinstein, the leading critic of Christian evangelism at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, sued the Air Force on Oct. 6 alleging senior officers and cadets illegally imposed Christianity.

Weinstein, of Albuquerque, N.M., an Academy graduate and Jewish father of two cadets, one of whom is a junior, called the environment of religious intolerance a violation of the First Amendment.

The Air Force issued guidelines on Aug. 9 following an investigation prompted by Weinstein and other complainants. The guidelines discourage public prayer but minimized the egregious nature of many incidents of official proselytizing.

Weinstein cited the statement by Brig. Gen. Cecil R. Richardson, Air Force deputy chief of chaplains, who told The New York Times in July: "We will not proselytize, but we reserve the right to evangelize the unchurched." Weinstein's request to the Air Force for clarification of Richardson's remark has been ignored.

Canada Nixes Sharia

Canadian Premier Dalton McGuinty announced in mid-September he will ban all religious arbitration from Ontario, Canada's largest province.

The province had allowed Catholic and Jewish tribunals to settle family law matters on a voluntary basis since 1991. When Muslim leaders recently demanded the same right, seeking to invoke Sharia (repressive Muslim family law), an international outcry was provoked in early September.

More of Moore?

Roy Moore, 58, announced in October that he will run for governor of Alabama next year.

Moore, who was removed as Alabama Chief Justice after defying court orders to remove a Ten Commandments marker from the state Supreme Court, will challenge fellow Republican Gov. Rob Riley:

"I will defend the right of every citizen of this state, including judges, coaches, teachers, city, county and state officials, to acknowledge God as the sovereign source of law, liberty and government," Moore intoned.

Life Sentence Upheld

The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 3 let stand a ruling overturning the death penalty for a Colorado murderer, after it was found that jurors were improperly influenced by bible passages.

A Colorado Supreme Court ruling imposed a life sentence for Robert Harlan, after jurors voted for death following discussion about the bible's "eye for eye, tooth for tooth" edicts. Evidence showed jurors improperly brought a bible, a bible index and handwritten notes with biblical passages into the jury room.

Death with Dignity Debated

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Oct. 5 over whether then-Attorney General John Ashcroft had the authority to remove prescription privileges for doctors who complied with Oregon's unique physician-assisted suicide law.

Oregon's Death With Dignity Act was approved twice by Oregon voters and took effect in 1997. Patients with a life expectancy of less than six months, after jumping through many hoops, may request in writing a prescription to end their lives. There is a 15-day waiting period and doctors may prescribe, but not administer, the drugs.

The "states' right" issue is the first such case to come before Chief Justice John Roberts, who replaced "states' right" advocate William Rehnquist.

Auditors Decry Propaganda

The Bush Administration violated the law when it purchased news coverage with public monies to boost its education policies, federal auditors concluded on Sept. 30.

Investigators with the Government Accountability Office called the actions "covert propaganda," a violation of federal statutes.

Conservative broadcaster and columnist Armstrong Williams was paid, and a public relations firm was hired, to praise the No Child Left Behind Act. The auditors blasted the Education Department's release of a prepackaged TV story giving an "A-plus" to the Act, which did not disclose it was prepared by the government. The No Child Left Behind Act has been used as a wedge to punish and defund public schools, while promoting vouchers to private and religious schools, which are exempt from its onerous requirements.

Catholic Home Investigated

Sisters of the Holy Family, who evacuated more than 60 nuns from its New Orleans convent during Hurricane Katrina, failed to evacuate elderly residents from its Lafon Nursing Home, across the street from the convent. Authorities have charged St. Rita's, owner of the home, with 34 counts of negligent homicide.

"Intelligent Design" on Trial

The decision by the Dover (Penn.) Area School District to require teachers to instruct ninth-grade students in "intelligent design" along with evolution went on trial on Sept. 26.

"Nearly 2,000 years ago, someone died on a cross for us," commented intelligent design advocate and Board member William Buckingham. "Shouldn't we have the courage to stand up for him?"

The ACLU suit on behalf of several parents is challenging the Dover school board statement, approved to be read to science students:

"Because Darwin's theory is a theory, it continues to be tested as new evidence is discovered. The theory is not a fact. Gaps in theory exist for which there is no evidence . . . . Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin. . . . With respect to any theory, students are encouraged to keep an open mind."

Three Board members resigned in protest following the board's 6-3 vote last year.

"The resolution they passed raises the question of whether a rogue school board that doesn't listen to people can impose their own beliefs," plaintiff Beth Eveland told the Los Angeles Times. "I care about what my daughters learn in school, and religion doesn't belong in a biology class."

Iowa Profs Oppose ID

More than 120 faculty members at Iowa State University in Ames have signed a petition opposing the teaching of intelligent design as a scientific theory. The petition drive was organized by Hector Avalos, a professor of religious studies.

University of Idaho President Tim White in October forbade anything other than evolution from being taught in the Moscow school's life, earth and physical science classes. Similarly, Jack O'Connell, California Supt. of Public Instruction, announced no intelligent design would be taught in science classes: "I will fight tooth and nail to protect California's high academic standards."

Thirty-eight Nobel Laureates asked Kansas state educators in September to reject proposed science standards treating evolution as a questionable theory. Creationist-favoring standards will be voted on this year.