It's 11 days until Christmas and as each day goes by, we continue to hear more "War on Christmas" rants from the Religious Right.
The latest comes out of Alvarado, Texas, where a pastor plans to put on a production called "A Politically Correct Christmas."
It's always nice when we can end the week on a high note. News reports indicate that Congress seems to be on board with adding new regulations to the school voucher scheme in the District of Columbia and eventually closing it entirely.
Sometimes when I'm attending a meeting of a Religious Right group and feeling all of the anger in the room, I think to myself, "There are some seriously unhappy people here. What is it about America that has these folks so riled up?"
It's been a little while since we've had an update on the Mt. Soledad cross controversy, but today, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is finally hearing oral arguments to decide if this cross is a religious symbol or a generic and secular emblem of death.
It seems like it would be such an obvious answer – the cross represents Christianity!
And that's just what Alex Luchenitser, AU's senior litigation counsel, told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Part of my job here at Americans United is to correspond with the general public. Frequently I find myself engaged in answering the most basic of questions. I'm often explaining the significance of Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists wherein he coined the phrase "wall of separation between church and state."
Do you celebrate Christmas? If so, how do you celebrate it – as a religious or a secular holiday? Maybe you do a little bit of both. Perhaps you celebrate the Solstice. Maybe you celebrate another holiday or do nothing at all.
I'm glad we have the choice about what to do at the time of year. But I'm troubled by the fact some people don't want us to have that choice.
Some years ago, I attended a press conference held by notorious anti-abortion zealot Randall Terry. There weren't many people at the event, and afterward Terry asked me where I was from.
When I told him I worked at Americans United, he replied, "You and Barry Lynn had better watch it – you're going to hell!"
I rolled my eyes and shrugged it off. I expect that sort of thing from a guy like Terry, so it was no big deal. In his view, pretty much everyone is going to hell.
But I wouldn't expect such a comment – and I wouldn't tolerate it – from a government official.
"We could do today what we couldn't do yesterday," stated George Daley, a researcher at Children's Hospital in Boston, in response to yesterday's clearance from the Obama administration for scientists to begin using new lines of human embryonic stem cells in federally funded experiments.
It's always fun to report on church-state victories, and yesterday, we had a big one.
The District of Columbia Council voted 11-2 to permit same-sex couples to marry in the nation's capital. And despite threats from the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, the council refused to unduly broaden the measure's religious exemption, which already adequately protected religious freedom.
Religious Right leaders love to invoke Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King engaged in civil disobedience to oppose Jim Crow laws in the South, they argue, and so can we to fight abortion or same-sex marriage.
