By Nate Hennagin
Tomorrow, November 18 at 10:30, Americans United’s own Barry Lynn will testify at a House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties hearing Faith-Based Initiatives. The hearing will focus on the new Executive Order signed today by President Obama and the issue of employment discrimination in government funded positions.
Despite the fact that voucher subsidies for religious schools undermine church-state separation, hurt the public schools, are opposed by voters and have not improved student performance, they keep popping up around the country.
The latest is a voucher program being considered in Colorado’s third largest school district.
The next event in Naple's First Voice Series features Douglas L. Wilson, Esq., speaking on: "A Lifetime Written Guarantee? Church & State Separation: Now & Then"
The event takes place Sunday, November 21, at 3:00 PM, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 6340 Napa Woods Way, Naples, Florida 34116.
Back in 1979, a group of ultra-conservative religious leaders began holding meetings to discuss the fate of President Jimmy Carter.
Many of these leaders had voted for Carter, an evangelical Christian, in 1976 but had soured on him. They were looking for a new political leader – one who would parrot their line on social issues – and found him in Ronald Reagan. Thanks in part to their support, Reagan went on to win election in 1980, and the modern Religious Right learned what it could do when it flexed some political muscle.
Is history about to repeat itself?
We have some good news out of Louisiana today – news we can hardly believe.
By a vote of 8-4, the state’s Textbook/Media/Library Advisory Council voted to support biology textbooks that uphold sound science and do not allow fundamentalist religious concepts to interfere.
For once, Louisiana has provided a glimmer of hope that maybe it no longer wants to be a science-education laughing stock.
When I read about some of things the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has done over the years – calling for boycotts of Disney parks and products, passing resolutions telling wives to be submissive to husbands, bashing gay people, etc. – I must remind myself that there are still plenty of good people who bear the Baptist name.
Some of them work with at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty here in Washington. A host of others are across the Potomac River in Virginia.
As we feared, Religious Right activists are moving to undermine Louisiana’s public school science curriculum.
When Gov. Bobby Jindal signed into law the “Science Education Act” in 2008, Americans United warned that it was merely another attempt for creationists to slip fundamentalist religion into biology classes.
It looks increasingly like the first major church-state battle in the new Congress will be over voucher subsidies for religious schools.
“The Wall of Separation” reported last week that vouchers could be on the horizon, and now we have confirmation from a source close to congressional Republicans.
The British must find American politics endlessly amusing. We have a tendency to tolerate (and often elect) candidates whom I suspect would quickly be relegated to the fringes of obscurity in Europe.
Consider Christine O’Donnell, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Delaware. Have we ever had a candidate before who had to make a special TV ad to explain that she’s not a witch?
Rob Boston, the Senior Policy Analyst for Americans United for Separation of Church and State in Washington, DC, will be in Rochester Wednesday, November 17, at the First Unitarian Church, 220 Winton Road South, Rochester 14610. Boston will speak about "Church-State Separation: Where We Stand Now." The event takes place at 7:15 PM.
