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"Mobilizing America's Nonbelievers for Political Activism"

Issues Briefing

[Go to: Full list of Church/State bills and summaries.]

Issues menu

Stop Congress from acquiring an
Easter Cross

Write to your representatives right away

H.R. 5683 is legislation to acquire a giant Christian Cross on public land in California. It is objectable to those of us who are not Christians for our government to use its funds to discriminate against those of us who do not want our money going to fund the Christian religion or acquire huge religious idols in order to force all of us to worship that religion.

[Go to: Action Alert]

Republicans opposed to damages and attorney fees for successful establishment of religion cases

H.R. 2679 would amend the Civil Rights Attorney Fees Act to stop courts from awarding legal fees or damages to any individual or group which successfully brings suit under the Establishment of Religion clause of the First Amendment. Supporters of the measure argue that organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union have reaped enormous compensation from such actions, costs which are ultimately paid by taxpayers. They add that the mere threat of lawsuits is having a “stifling effect” on religious practices, specifically the public display of the Ten Commandments and other sectarian symbols on public property.

Attempts to outlaw or discourage litigation over church-state separation issues are occasionally introduced in Congress and state legislatures under the pretext of protecting religious freedom and ending “excessive” attorney fees. A proposal by Rep. James DeMint of South Carolina disallowed “attorney fees in any action claiming that a public school or its agent violates the constitutional prohibition against the establishment of religion by permitting, facilitating, or accommodating a student's religious expression.”

Attorney Eddie Tabash who has been involved with state-church separation issues said that the “Public Expression of Religion Act” was “patently unconstitutional,” and was simply another strategy to discourage litigation over government practices that violated the First Amendment.

Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists, added that the Hostettler bill “is not for the benefit of the taxpayer, but for government and religious leaders who insist on eroding the wall of separation between church and state.”

“They know, as do we, that most attorneys are simply unable to work on long-term, complex litigation if they don’t receive some compensatory fee,” Johnson said. “We’re not talking about donating a few free hours ‘to the cause.’ These cases require an enormous amount of time and effort.“

Johnson said that governments are often quite willing to squander taxpayer funds in order to defend their unconstitutional practices.

“Whether it is school prayer or defending a religious monument in the public square, state and local governments are frequently very short-sighted and belligerent when caught doing something that violates the First Amendment,” Johnson said.

[Go to: Action Alert]

[Go to: Detail on this bill]

Utah Crosses Legislation

There are Twelve Foot Latin Crosses posted on Utah public land and bearing the state seal. Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield has disengeniously prepared legislation that states these 12 foot high Latin Crosses are not religious symbols. Rep. Ray through this legislation says the Latin Cross is a symbol of Death marking the passing of public servants of the Utah Highway Patrol.

Everyone else in the world believes the Latin Cross is a symbol of Christianity, and in this case, they clearly state that the fallen patrolmen for which these Latin Crosses mark prayed to a God for protection and he deserted them in their hour of greatest need. Although I do not know anyone who seriously believes the dead will rise from their graves to complain, it is still wrong to mark their passing with Twelve Foot Latin Crosses that demonstrate the fallibility of God to protect Utah Highway Patrolmen.

This alert is for those in Utah who should write to their Utah state delegation and demand they reject HCR4. A Twelve Foot Latin Cross is clearly the symbol of Christianity and those that bear the Utah state seal on Utah public lands are clearly in violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, Sect. 4 of the Utah Constitution.

Remember, the only reason Rep. Paul Ray introduced this legislation is because he is afraid the Federal Courts will agree with American Atheists, that the cross is a religious symbol and therefore, it is a violation for a state government to support one religion over all the others or none at all.

[Go to: Action Alert]

Pay to Pray

H.R. 4364 is a real piece of work. It is legislation introduced by two Baptists from South Carolina designed to provide for those appointed or elected to public office to be able to engage in public prayers without their actions reviewable by the Federal Courts.

Get it? They want us to pay them to pray. My question is: “What if I am not a Baptist? Why am I paying two Baptists to pray? Can’t they pray without me being forced by law to pay them to pray? And why does their Baptist God demand that all of us non-Baptists pay the Baptists to pray to the Baptist God? Is the Baptist God that hard up for followers that the only way he can get anyone to pray to him is to pass a law that all non-Baptists pay the Baptists to pray to the Baptist God?”

[Go to: Action Alert]

Tax Breaks For Madrassas?

Tax breaks for those who send their children to Madrassas? Not in New York. Tell your NY State Senator and Assemblyman to stop this legislation. S. 1939 and A 8203 will cost New Yorkers $460 million dollars to provide tax breaks to those who elect to educate their children at home or in parochial schools (that is what we call Madrassas).

This legislation was stopped this year, but will be back on the agenda starting in January 2006. Public school children need all the assistance we can provide them and those we provide to teach them. No matter what Cardinal Egan says to the contrary about the motives of New York school teachers, they are dedicated civil servants who deserve our support. Providing material support from public funds to proslytize for any religion is just plain wrong. Tell your state Assemblyman and Senator hear.

[Go to: Stop the tax breaks for those who send their children to Madrassas]

Rebuilding Churches and Vouchers

Religious organizations are about to make a killing off Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Between the bureaucracy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Administration, and now the Democratic and Republican Senators of Louisiana, our government is preparing to give several hundred million dollars to Catholic and Evangelical organizations.

Senator Landrieu (D-LA) and Senator Vitter (R-LA) have introduced identical bills in the Senate that have been sent to the Committee of Finance in the U.S. Senate.

S. 1765 and 1766 will pour millions of dollars into rebuilding churches; reimbursing faith based organizations for their so-called good works during the Gulf Coast disaster; and then fund hundreds of children to go to parochial schools.

The Catholic and Evangelist organizations are actively lobbying Congress and the Administration for their share of the billions dollars being projected to rebuild Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.

This is the most serious breach of the wall separating religion from the state in our countries history. There won’t be a single brick left in that wall if S. 1765/66 get passed. The Catholic News Service reports on the lobbying efforts by parochial schools before the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee’s Education Subcommittee for school vouchers.

Sister M. Michaeline Green O.P., the Baton Rouge, Louisiana Superintendent, of Catholic Schools Office testified on September 22, 2005 for the need of “An Equal Entitlement Certificate” to place children in nonpublic schools. The Catholics are pressing Congress to ignore the U.S.Constitution's First Amendment Establishment Clause because of the tragedy caused by an Act of God (a hurricane).

We have to write our Representatives and Senators today and tell them that we do not want our government to become a theocracy and force us to worship Gods not of our choosing.

[Go to: Oppose S. 1765 and Stop the Rebuilding of Churches and Vouchers]

Stop the Broadband Investment & Consumer Choice Act

  1. Contact your congressional leaders today and tell them to oppose S. 1504
  2. Keep our local access stations alive and providing public, educational, and local governmental programming.
  3. Congress wants to severely curtail the franchise fees that local governments receive from our local cable and satellite providers that are used to put on informational programming like the Atheist Viewpoint that is shown from Vancouver to Manhattan on local cable access channels. Ours and many other educational programming will be unable to find air time if this legislation is passed.

[Go to: Oppose S. 1504 – Broadband Investment & Consumer Choice Act]

One State Delegate Proposes New York Get Into The Proslytizing Business

Daniel L. Hooker (R-Saugerties) has proposed two Fundamental Evangelist bills to require the state of New York engage in proslytizing citizens of the state.

One bill requires that school children be indoctrinated into bible studies during science lasses by requiring them to study intelligent design.

Del. Hooker’s second piece of legislation allows the state to post the Decalogue in New York state buildings and on public grounds. In Del. Hooker’s myopic view of New York, there are only Christians in New York. Please write to your state representatives today to inform them how wrong Del. Hooker really is.

[Go to: take action – 10 C’s bill]

[Go to: take action – Intelligent Design bill]

Evolution v. Creationism

From Alabama with its biology textbook disclaimers about evolution that a Federal court has struck down as unconstitutional right across our nation, Intelligent Design Creationists are working over time introducing legislation to require school teachers to teach creationism to our children in locked school rooms where they can be proslytized unmercifully.

GAMPAC has provided the state legislative attempts in Alabama, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Florida. Please use these alerts to help stop these legislative attempts to turn our public schools into sectarian schools by communicating with your state legislators.

And if this doesn’t work, consider placing the following disclaimer in your schools textbooks:

“This book offers Intelligent Design as an explaination for life on earth. Although this book has a really cute animal on its cover, the author is a lunatic with a faith-based approach to logic. Please consider the book with an open mind, and then quickly move your children to a different school district.”

[Go to: take action]

A bill to limit the jurisdiction of Federal courts in cases involving god(s)
(H.R. 1070 & S 520)

[Go to: Senate: S. 520 - take action
 AND House: H.R. 1070 - take action]

This legislation will eliminate the role of Federal Courts in cases involving the First Amendment’s religious establishment clause. The U.S. Supreme Court and lower Federal Courts would be prohibited from considering the current Ten Commandments Cases if this legislation was now in force. It would allow all types of proslytizing on municipal, county, state and federal agencies such as schools, the legislatures and courts.

By eliminating the role of Federal Courts in cases involving public officials acknowledgement of god(s), school boards could return to the practice of required daily state mandated prayers for all children.

[Go to: Senate: S. 520 - take action
 AND House: H.R. 1070 - take action]

Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act of 2005 (H.R. 235)

[Go to: H.R. 235 - take action]

Although the title of this proposed legislation introduced on January 4, 2005 by Rep. Jones (R-NC) suggests restoring the free speech rights of inanimate buildings, its real objective is to politicize religious organizations through elimination of a specific code of the Internal Revenue Service.

Organizations that benefit from charitable organization status are exempt from federal taxes. Those charitable organizations are allowed to engage political activities such as endorsement of candidates or planks of political parties, but they do so at the cost of their federal tax exemption. This legislation will carve out an exception for religious organizations. This legislation died in the last Congress and with your help, we can kill it in the 109th Congress.

[Go to: H.R. 235 - take action]

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to voluntary school prayer (H.J.Res 7)

[Go to: H.J.Res 7 - take action]

H.J.Res.7 is another attempt by the Fundamental Evangelists to change America into a theocracy. They want all school age children to stop studying science and spend their time directing prayer sessions on secular government property. The United States Congress is barred from passing any legislation that establishes an official government religion in America. This legislation is a direct attempt to change this two hundred year history of a country ruled under the authority of the governed and not by a nonexistent deity.

[Go to: H.J.Res 7 - take action]

Job Training Improvement Act (H.R.27)

Oppose Federally Funded
Religious Discrimination

[Go to: H.R. 27 - take action]

H.R. 27 passed the House of Representatives on March 2, 2005, by a vote of 224 to 220. The Scott amendment was defeated by a similar vote count. The legislation will now go to the U.S. Senate and we will ask you to write your Senators to defeat this legislation when it reaches the Senate and we have a Senate number for the bill.

The Job Improvement Act allow religions involved in federal job training programs to discriminate based on the religious affiliation of an employee for these federal tax based services.

The Administration has already made it very clear that they are willing to allow religions to discriminate against job applicants for jobs based on religion, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, HIV status, or any basis that a particular religion may find objectionable. This position totally guts the civil rights of all American citizens.

[Go to: H.R. 27 - take action]

Workplace Religious Freedom Act of 2003 (S.893)

"Section 701(j) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e(j)) is amended-"

[Died in the 108th Congress]

American Job Creation Bill of 2004 H.B.4520

Safe Harbor for Churches

[Died in the 108th Congress]

THE CONSTITUTION RESTORATION ACT OF 2004

[Died in the 108th Congress]

Changes to the Head Start Act

[Died in the 108th Congress]

Missouri H.B.911: Evolution and Intelligent Design

[This Missouri Bill died]

Illinois - HB3858: Historical Writing Display Act

[This Illinois Bill died]

S. 591: Moment of Quiet Reflection
in Schools Act

[Died in the 108th Congress]

S. CON. RES 32: A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of Congress regarding the protection of religious sites and the freedom of access and worship.

[Died in the 108th Congress]

H.Con.Res.313: Presenting
the Presidential Medal of Freedom to
Pope John Paul II

(Details at thomas.loc.gov)

On Tuesday evening, November 25, 2003, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution urging President Bush to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Pope John Paul II. Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Menominee MI, is one of four lead sponsors of the measure, House Concurrent Resolution 313.

Arlene-Marie, Michigan State Director, American Atheists, wrote the following letter to Rep Stupak:

As a Michigan resident and taxpayer, I am appalled that you are one of the sponsors of House Concurrent Resolution 313.

And, I am appalled by your ignorance and arrogance when you stated, "all Americans can applaud the contributions of this holy man".

The thousands upon thousands of nonbelievers in Michigan do not applaud Pope John Paul II. He has chosen to dismiss, insult and ignore us, just as you have.

You state that the Pope has brought hope and inspiration to people around the world. I'm sure he has - to those of blind faith. But, to the informed and abused, the dogmas of the Catholic Church have brought pain and misery to millions upon millions, who committed one of a variety of sins, and were excommunicated and/or rejected by their families.

The Pope rejects 'choice' while, at the same time, rejecting contraceptives. The Pope humiliates and dismisses the homosexual community, without preference of faith, and has consistently degraded women. All women, of all faiths! Yet you state that he has sought to heal divisions between faiths and bring a message of peace.

The Pope has sought to destroy whole communities and a total gender of Americans with his dogmas and traditional theology.

For decades trusting parents, brought their children to the Catholic Church, only to have their children molested by the local priest. And, through these decades, Pope John Paul II protected and harbored these pedophile priests, giving them an opportunity to collect more victims.

Do you still stand by your claim that ALL Americans applaud your bill - your Pope?

Pope John Paul II is the innkeeper of a morally bankrupt institution. He does not deserve an award. He deserves his day in court under RICO charges.

H.R. 1547: Religious Freedom
Restoration Act

[Died in the 108th Congress]

S. 1558: Religious Liberties
Restoration Act

[Died in the 108th Congress]

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