"Mobilizing America's Nonbelievers for Political Activism"
Articles
December 14, 2007
Candidates need refresher on First Amendment
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Mitt Romney declares, "Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone." Barack Obama opens his speech at his South Carolina Oprah rally with "Giving all praise and honor to God. Look at the day that the Lord has made." Mike Huckabee explains his surge in the polls thus: "There's only one explanation for it, and it's not a human one. It's the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of 5,000 people."
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November 26, 2007
Giuliani Adviser is an Accused Pedophile Priest?
Since 2002, Msgr. Alan Placa has worked for Rudy Giuliani as a consultant at Giuliani Partners. In 2003 a grand jury report of Suffolk County, NY, accused Placa of sexually abusing multiple victims.
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- October 17 , 2007
ONWARD, CHRISTIAN PANDERERS -
A poll finds that 55 percent of Americans think the U.S. was created as a Christian theocracy. "The strong support for official recognition of the majority faith appears to be grounded in a belief that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, in spite of the fact that the Constitution nowhere mentions God or Christianity," says Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center.
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- August 11 , 2007
Authoritarian or Libertarian? Ron Paul on Church/State Separation, Secularism
Austin Cline -
Ron Paul is frequently portrayed as a "sensible" conservative and staunch libertarian, thus making him increasingly attractive as a presidential candidate. He's being strongly promoted to libertarians, conservatives fed up with Bush and the Christian Right, and Democrats dissatisfied with the current crop of Democratic candidates. At the same time, though, Ron Paul demonstrates the limits of wedding libertarianism with social and political conservatism. They simply don't mesh well..
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- September 8, 2005
Intelligent Design: It’s Not Even Wrong
Rush Holt As a research scientist and a member of the House Education Committee, I was appalled when President Bush signaled his support for the teaching of “intelligent design” alongside evolution in public K-12 science classes. Though I respect and consistently protect the rights of persons of faith and the curricula of religious schools, public school science classes are not the place to teach concepts that cannot be backed up by evidence and tested experimentally.
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- December 9, 2004
Stand on the Pledge spurs recall effort
Monte Whaley -
David Habecker swears he loves America and its flag. Just don’t ask the two-term town board member to pledge his allegiance to either.
Much to the ire of the town’s 5,500 residents, Habecker refuses to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance before each meeting of the town Board of Trustees. His stance has earned him a recall attempt that could cost him his seat.
- June 10, 2004
Safe Harbor for Churches
Alan Cooperman Introduction by Jeff Lewis -
In yet another deceptively named piece of legislation, the Republicans have tacked a section on to a major jobs bill in yet another attempt to stealthily pass a law objectionable to all except regular church-goers. The section, named "Safe Harbor for Churches", should be named "Rewarding Our Friends For Breaking the Law in a Close Election Year".
(The “Safe Harbor for Churches” provision to the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 has been dropped due to lack of congressional support from both the secular side and the sectarian side. Our Action Alert on this issue has been archived.)
- June 4, 2004
USA Today: Churchgoing closely tied to voting patterns
Susan Page -
Where will you spend Sunday morning? Will you go to church or Home Depot? Sing in the choir or play golf? Answer that question and you've given the most reliable demographic clue about your vote on Election Day. Voters who say they go to church every week usually vote for Republicans. Those who go to church less often or not at all tend to vote Democratic.
- The Interfaith Alliance: "…this is an astonishing abuse of religion."
The Interfaith Alliance reacts to the Bush-Cheney "Friendly Congregations" campaign.
- June 3, 2004
Bush Campaign Seeks Help from Congregations
David D. Kirkpatrick -
"The Bush-Cheney '04 national headquarters in Virginia has asked us to identify 1,600 'Friendly Congregations' in Pennsylvania where voters friendly to President Bush might gather on a regular basis."
- May 4, 2004
Church Should Pay for its Politics
Jimmy Breslin -
A cardinal has called for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to be denied the right to receive communion at a Catholic Mass because of his position on abortion. This is a church matter. But now, Catholic cardinals have called for not inviting Kerry to the Alfred E. Smith memorial dinner in the fall. Every four years, the presidential candidates attend this dinner and it becomes a news item to see how the cardinals react. Jimmy Breslin thinks not inviting Kerry amounts to endorsement of President Bush, which would cost St Patrick's Cathedral its tax-exempt status.
- April 4, 2004
Reaching Out to Non-believers
Paul Weyrich
Commentary by Jeffrey K. Lewis -
It's getting to the point where saying "Lord" in a reverential manner in public is tantamount to mouthing a four-letter word.
The pressure will only increase if a small but motivated political action committee called the Godless Americans Political Action Committee (GAMPAC) has their way.
- March 19, 2004
"Establishment", The Noun
Jeffrey K. Lewis -
President Bush has violated the spirit of the founders and the letter of the First Amendment by giving tax money to religious organizations through the Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives. His approach was either naïve or sneaky and disingenuous.
- March 9, 2004
Ellen Johnson's Press Conference Remarks at the National Press Club
By ELLEN JOHNSON -
So, today, we take ANOTHER STEP by launching the Godless Americans Political Action Committee. And it is just that, a STEP. Every other group you can think of is knee deep in the American political process, endorsing or opposing candidates, lobbying for or against legislation, mobilizing a constituency.
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January 20, 2004
The new discrimination against the nonreligious
By CATHY YOUNG -
... Yes, it was indeed Newsweek. And, after a series of questions about a variety of public policy issues, Dean was asked, out of the clear blue, the following question: "Do you see Jesus Christ as the son of God and believe in him as the route to salvation and eternal life?"
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August 29, 2003
God and the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party
By LENNI BRENNER -
All right, Godless CounterPunchers, we know that you are snickering about Alabama's Chief Justice Roy Moore's 10 Commandments rock. Now his eight associate judges have repudiated "Roy's Rock," and the state's Attorney General removed it. So all is well. Or is it?
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July 4, 2003
Jefferson Is For Today
By LENNI BRENER -
"The Mass of Mankind Has Not Been Born with Saddles on Their Backs"
Thomas Jefferson to Roger Weightman, declining to attend the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in the District of Columbia. This was the last letter written by Jefferson, who died 10 days later, on July 4, 1826. --LB
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May, 2003
Electoral Activism By DOUGLAS CAMPBELL -
We could give up in disgust, forget the whole thing and let it pass. Three years ago, I was there, my activist days apparently behind me and just about cynical enough to abandon voting altogether.