Posts tagged Seperation Of Church And State
Born Okay The First Time In Lower Alabama
Fun Fact: “Religious Freedom” Doesn’t Mean “Freedom To Force Everyone To Follow Your Religion.”
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For God and Country: Religious Fundamentalism in the U.S. Military
The Center for Inquiry’s Office of Public Policy today released a new position paper that details a disturbing expansion and entrenchment of Christian fundamentalism in the U.S. military — a cultural force which remains at times both tacitly and overtly endorsed by senior military leaders.
Over the past decade there have been multiple news reports highlighting an intensified tension regarding what constitutes proper religious expression in the U.S. military. However, there has been a scarce amount of thorough research examining the connection between these reports and, in addition, proposing possible solutions. As a result, there has been a lack of information with which to stoke change.
CFI’s position paper, titled “For God and Country,” presents several case studies demonstrating a clear pattern of unconstitutional religiously sectarian behavior; explores the merits of the competing philosophical perspectives on the proper role of religious expression by men and women in uniform; and concludes with recommendations that those in power should implement immediately in order to fully protect the U.S. military’s necessarily secular foundation and the religious freedom of all who volunteer to serve.
“For God and Country” was authored by James Parco, PhD., Lt. Col. USAF (Ret.), an associate professor of economics and business at Colorado College. Parco graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1991, was a member of the faculty for many years, and retired from active duty as a lieutenant colonel in 2011. He has also served on the National Security Council at the White House during the Clinton Administration, as well as in a diplomatic capacity overseas with the American Embassy in Tel Aviv.
Read the full position paper here.
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Are you one of the Voices United for Separation of Church and State?
If so, then please join Join your voice with Voices United for Separation of Church and State and help Americans United reach the nation and spread the word about the importance of church-state separation. We are close to having at least one concert planned in each state and our finale concert will take place in Los Angeles on Oct. 1 and feature Sarah Silverman, Russell Brand, Mary Gauthier and Catie Curtis!
You can help us by doing the following things:
- Visit the Voices United website and see if there is a concert near you to attend
- Follow Voices United on Facebook and Twitter
- Tell your friends about Voices United for Separation of Church and State
and…
Create your own Voices Video!
We are looking for a short (two minutes or less) video (speaking into your camera phone is great!) of you telling the world about why you support church-state separation.
- Have you ever felt like a second-class citizen due to your beliefs or lack of belief?
- Are you horrified by the influence the Catholic hierarchy and Religious Right are wielding in the healthcare debate?
- Are you furious at the multiple proposals by Congress to fund religion and deny civil rights to citizens?
To tie the project together, we ask that you end your video with the words, “this is why I am one of the voices united for separation of church and state.”
Please post your video to YouTube, then email us a link to voicesunitedconcerts@au.org.
A selection of videos will be posted at voicesunitedconcerts.com and may be featured on Facebook and Twitter.
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The Loch Ness Monster Is Real; The KKK Is Good: The Shocking Content of Publicly Paid for Christian School Textbooks
Thousands of Louisiana students will receive state voucher money, transferred from public school funding, to attend private religious schools. What will they learn there?
This 2012-2013 school year, thanks to a bill pushed through by governor Bobby Jindal, thousands of students in Louisiana will receive state voucher money, transferred from public school funding, to attend private religious schools, some of which teach from a Christian curriculum that suggests the Loch Ness Monster disproves evolution and states that the alleged creature, which has never been demonstrated to even exist, has been tracked by submarine and is probably a plesiosaur. The curriculum also claims that a Japanese fishing boat caught a dinosaur.
On the list of schools approved to receive funding through the new voucher funding, that critics warn could eventually cut public school funding in half, are schools that teach from the Christian fundamentalist A Beka Book, Bob Jones University Press, and Accelerated Christian Education curriculum.
What’s in that curriculum? Last year, researcher Rachel Tabachnick and I co-produced a 35-minute documentary on the spread of a similar voucher program in Pennsylvania and other US states, titled “School Choice: Taxpayer-Funded Creationism, Bigotry, and Bias”. Embedded at the end of this post is an eight-minute video segment from that documentary with scans from material in currently used A Beka Book and Bob Jones University Press texts (in this May 25, 2011 story Tabachnick provides quotes from those textbooks.)
Could America really have come this far only to be swept back to the dark ages of superstition, pseudoscience, and bullshit? The U.S. is the most powerful nation on earth. An occasional creationist in government we can cope with. But a government and a nation of creationists with dominionsm on their minds and an incredible nuclear capacity should strike fear into the entire planet.
(via skepticalavenger)
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Americans United Hails Obama Administration Ruling On Provision Of Contraceptives
Church-State Watchdog Group Says President Was Right To Resist Sectarian Pressure
Americans United for Separation of Church and State today praised the Obama administration for ruling that church-affiliated institutions must abide by provisions in the health care law and include free birth control for employees in insurance plans.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today that religious groups will be given a one-year extension and after that will have to arrange for contraceptive coverage.
“Today’s announcement is good news for every American who wants to make private medical decisions free from interference by sectarian groups,” said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “We’re thankful that President Obama stood with the American public instead of powerful religious lobbies that are bent on imposing their theology on everyone.”
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Military Chaplains Deny Soldier the Right to Identify As a Humanist
This entire website involves the plight of atheists in the military. These men and women have rights, and those rights should be respected. There is no reason why atheists willing to be in the military should be subjected to crap like this.
A very good friend of mine who is also a nonbeliever served for eight years, some of the stories he’s told me are fucked up.
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Jessica Ahlquist Responds to Questions From Reddit
via youtube.com
Related Posts:
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Ron Paul says being anti-choice is a Libertarian stance based in faith.
Although Paul was a theocrat during the 2008 race, he didn’t campaign on his religious views. It was all there in his resume though.
Also see:
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TUSCUMBIA, AL (WAFF) -
A Shoals school is being asked not to sing a popular Christmas carol at their annual Christmas performance.
Parents are upset about a request to nix “Silent Night” from the program at GW Trenholm Primary School in Tuscumbia because of its reference to Jesus.
Parents said they heard the news about a possible ban on the song from their children’s teachers.
School attorney Jimmy Hughston said despite a letter from lawyers, students will perform the Christmas program as rehearsed.
However, Hughston would not release the person or persons who requested the ban due to confendientiality reasons.
In the meantime, parents and community members are upset at the thought of banning a Christmas song from school.
“…I look back when we came along and we started those songs and we prayed during school hours before the day got started and it’s kind of disturbing to know that their taking prayer out of school…”
Seriously? That’s like a white man saying “I look back to when my parents came up and people used to hang black men for sleeping with white women and black boys would get beat up by white kids in school just for talking to a white girl. It’s kind of disturbing the way they allow interracial relationships in school and society these days. “
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“I have to say, as someone who is not a Christian, it’s hard for me to believe Christians are a persecuted people in America. God-willing, maybe one of you one day will even rise up and get to be president of this country—or maybe forty-four in a row. But that’s my point, is they’ve taken this idea of no establishment as persecution, because they feel entitled, not to equal status, but to greater status.” —Jon Stewart
Bazinga!!!
(Source: epic4chan, via eckleburgs-eyes)
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