Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, a federal court ruling from Pennsylvania that was a serious blow to "intelligent design" creationism. Read more
Last month, "The Wall of Separation" reported on the case of David Paszkiewicz, a public high school history teacher in Kearny, N.J., who was found to be proselytizing for his Christian fundamentalist faith.
A student, 16-year-old Matthew LeClair, blew the whistle on Paszkiewicz by secretly recording some of his in-class sermons. LeClair said he did so because he suspected school officials would not believe him. Read more
President George W. Bush's "faith-based" initiative may be headed for some long overdue scrutiny from the U.S. Congress.
The Boston Globe reported recently that two leading Democrats who sit on the House of Representative's International Relations Committee say they want to investigate the initiative to determine whether taxpayer funds are being used to reward Bush allies in the conservative Christian camp and if the initiative is being used for proselytism. Read more
Should government buildings feature religious symbols? Some prominent – and not so prominent – religious leaders seem to think so.
Last Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI told the Union of Italian Catholic Jurists that religious symbols should be allowed in government offices, schools, courtrooms, hospitals, prisons and other public places. Read more
The former White House lawyer who helped expose religious discrimination at the U.S. Air Force Academy, has again uncovered an effort to push evangelical Christianity in the military.
Michael "Mikey" Weinstein's Military Religious Freedom Foundation hosted a press conference Monday to air a 10-minute promotional video produced by the Christian Embassy, an evangelical group organized to bring government leaders "into an intentional relationship with Jesus Christ." Read more
U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) last week spent a night behind bars in a high-security prison in Louisiana in a somewhat over-the-top effort to promote government funding of religious rehabilitation programs for inmates.
The senator, a staunch advocate of the Bush administration's "faith-based" initiative, told the prisoners at the Louisiana State Penitentiary that although he believes in a separation of church and state, he does not "believe in removal of faith from the public square."
Added Brownback, "Our motto of our land is, 'In God We Trust.'" Read more
In our continuing effort to keep readers informed about developments in the "War on Christmas," we'd like to note the emergence of some new combatants: President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.
The White House 2006 holiday card is just out – and it does not once mention the word "Christmas." Read more
It has come to this: So desperate is the Religious Right to prop up its claims of a "War on Christmas" that it is actually trolling retailers' Web sites and blowing the whistle on those that fail to use religiously correct terminology.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell's legal outfit, Liberty Counsel, has actually issued a list of companies it deems "Naughty" or "Nice" depending on the firms' use of the word "Christmas." (No, this is not a parody from "The Onion.") Read more
Religious Right leaders often try to depict court decisions upholding church-state separation as hostile to Christianity. In fact, most American religious leaders know that separation is good for religion. Here's a recent example.
Last June, a federal judge ruled that a state-funded religious prison program in Iowa violated the First Amendment's promised separation between church and state. Read more
A group of Pagans in Albemarle County, Va., was recently given permission to advertise their multi-cultural holiday program to public school children – and they have the Rev. Jerry Falwell to thank for it. Read more
