politics » Banned Atheist's Network

Atheist group sues over tax code

Nov 172012

EXCERPT from Scott Bauer | AP/MontereyHerald.com:

A federal lawsuit filed by a Wisconsin-based group representing atheists and agnostics argues that the Internal Revenue Service is violating the U.S. Constitution by allowing tax-exempt churches and religious organizations to get involved in political campaigns.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation argues that churches and other religious organizations have become increasingly more involved in political campaigns, “blatantly and deliberately flaunting the electioneering restrictions.”

Its lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Madison argues that the IRS is not enforcing the federal tax code, which prohibits tax-exempt religious organizations from electioneering. Not enforcing it is a violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment and a violation of equal protection rights because the same preferential treatment is not provided to other tax-exempt organizations such as the Freedom from Religion Foundation, the lawsuit contends.

The lawsuit, which was filed against IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, asks that the court order Shulman to initiate enforcement of the electioneering restrictions against churches and religious organizations.

It also asks that the IRS initiate legal action against any churches or religious organizations that are believed to be violating the restrictions.

Churches and religious organizations obtain a significant benefit from their tax-exempt status while also being able to engage in

electioneering that other similar tax-exempt organizations do not do, the lawsuit argues.

A spokesman for the IRS in Wisconsin declined to comment.

Five Ways The Religious Right Imploded In 2012

Posted by Badmin Political News, Religion News No Responses »

Nov 132012

EXCERPT from Jack Jenkins | ThinkProgress:

When election returns began pouring in on Tuesday, progressives were quick to declare the election a resounding victory for President Obama, Democratic candidates, and progressive ideals such as marriage equality and the DREAM Act. A deeper look at Tuesday’s results reveals that the 2012 election season was also a resounding defeat for the political engine that has long catapulted the GOP to power: The Religious Right.

Here five ways the Religious Right imploded during the 2012 election:

1) Evangelicals failed to produce a viable candidate.

….

2) Conservative efforts to shift the Catholic vote flopped.

….

3) Evangelical voter turnout efforts fell short.

….

4) Traditionally evangelical candidates lost en masse because of radical views and bad theology.

….

5) The efforts of anti-gay religious leaders didn’t stop voters from supporting marriage equality.

….

‘Imagine getting a letter from the boss telling you how to vote’

Posted by Badmin Political News No Responses »

Oct 272012

Editor’s Note: I did imagine getting such a letter. I then promptly imagined quitting with a vengeance, and joining a campaign to boycott such corporations out of existence.

EXCERPT from Steven Greenhouse | NYTimes.com:

Until 2010, federal law barred companies from using corporate money to endorse and campaign for political candidates — and that included urging employees to support specific politicians.

But the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has freed companies from those restrictions, and now several major companies, including Georgia-Pacific and Cintas, have sent letters or information packets to their employees suggesting — and sometimes explicitly recommending — how they should vote this fall.

In these letters, the executives complain about the costs of overregulation, the health care overhaul and possible tax increases. Some letters warn that if President Obama is re-elected, the company could be harmed, potentially jeopardizing jobs.

David A. Siegel, 77, chief executive of Westgate Resorts, a major time-share company, wrote to his 7,000 employees, saying that if Mr. Obama won, the prospect of higher taxes could hurt the company’s future.

“The economy doesn’t currently pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job, however, is another four years of the same presidential administration,” Mr. Siegel wrote. “If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current president plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company.”

In an interview, Mr. Siegel said he was not ordering his employees to vote his way. “There’s no way I can pressure anybody,” he said. “I’m not in the voting booth with them.”

Mr. Siegel added: “I really wanted them to know how I felt four more years under President Obama was going to affect them. It would be no different from telling your children: ‘Eat your spinach. It’s good for you.’ ”

Bishop: Damn You to Hell if You Vote Obama

Posted by Badmin Political News, Religion News No Responses »

Oct 272012

EXCERPT from Wendy Gittleson | Addicting Info:

About a month ago, I wrote about a Catholic Bishop in Illinois who warned his parishioners that their souls might be in danger if they vote for Obama. It’s happened again – this time in the neighboring state of Wisconsin.

Bishop David L. Ricken of the Green Bay Diocese sent this email to his congregation (emphasis added):

October 24, 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

AN IMPORTANT MOMENT

It is almost time to vote and to make our choices for president and other political offices both local and national.

You have often heard it said that this is a turning point in our country’s history and I could not agree more.

The Church is not a political organism, but as you hopefully have learned in the US Bishops Faithful Citizenship material (which we have made widely available to you in the parishes, in the Compass and on-line), the Church has the responsibility to speak out regarding moral issues, especially on those issues that impact the “common good” and the “dignity of the human person.”

I would like to review some of the principles to keep in mind as you approach the voting booth to complete your ballot. The first is the set of non-negotiables. These are areas that are “intrinsically evil” and cannot be supported by anyone who is a believer in God or the common good or the dignity of the human person.

They are:

1. abortion

2. euthanasia

3. embryonic stem cell research

4. human cloning

5. homosexual “marriage”

These are intrinsically evil. “A well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program that contradicts fundamental contents of faith and morals.” Intrinsically evil actions are those which have an evil object. In other words, an act is evil by its very nature and to choose an action of this type puts one in grave moral danger.

But what does this have to do with the election? Some candidates and one party have even chosen some of these as their party’s or their personal political platform. To vote for someone in favor of these positions means that you could be morally “complicit” with these choices which are intrinsically evil. This could put your own soul in jeopardy.

The other position to keep in mind is the protection of religious liberty. The recent aggressive moves by the government to impose the HHS mandate, especially the move to redefine religion so that religion is confined more and more to the four walls of the Church, is a dangerous precedent. This will certainly hurt the many health care services to the poor given by our Catholic hospitals. Our Catholic hospitals in the Diocese give millions of dollars per year in donated services to the poor. In the new plan, only Catholic people can be treated by Catholic institutions.

It has never been our mission to be exclusive of those who are not of our faith. This mandate also places Catholic business owners in a very precarious position in that they, too, will have to pay for those medical “services” which violate Catholic teaching. This has never been the American way and now these moves and others by the present government, will significantly alter and marginalize the role of religious institutions in our society.

These positions are indicators of a broader societal disposition to remove God from the public square and from any relation to society whatever. It is precisely religion and the free exercise thereof which has made this country great in the past.

Many people in our Diocese are presently without work. Our Catholic Charities is serving more and more people who are unemployed or under employed and can barely keep up with the demands. Work is so critical to the family and to the sense of human dignity. An economy which does the most for the common good is an economy that works and provides people gainful employment for the country’s citizens. A government that works pays its bills and models for citizens what it means to be responsible and contributive.

Let us pray for the electorate and let’s take action, that we may vote for good and moral leaders for this great country which will only remain great, if she continues to be and to do the good.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

The Most Reverend David L. Ricken, DD, JCL

Bishop of Green Bay

Almost 1.4 Million Pledge For Jesus as Write-In Candidate in 2012

Posted by Badmin Political News, Religion News No Responses »

Oct 262012

Editor’s Note: If Jesus saps votes away from Romney and hands Obama the election, then did Jesus pull a Nader, or did Nader pull a Jesus? Also, isn’t it counter-revolutionary to vote for a Monarch for President?

EXCERPT from Bruce Wilson | Alternet:

As of October 18, 2012, when I reported in my story Graham’s Romney Endorsement Accidentally Spreads “Mormonism is a cult” Meme to Millions - about superstar evangelist Billy Graham’s disastrous effort to woo Protestant evangelical voters to vote for Mormon Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 election, I was unaware that the meme might, by then, already have spread to over a million disgruntled evangelicals who had reportedly pledged to vent their anti-Mormon (and anti-Obama) ire at the ballot box this November 6th.

Candidate “A” is clearly a tool of Satan. But candidate “B” is a tool of Satan too and, if elected president, he’ll suspend the Constitution and implement a theocracy to be run by his satanically-inspired cult.

“Stop!”, cries out evangelist Bill Keller, founder of the Internet ministry liveprayer.com; “CHRISTIANS MUST TAKE A STAND AND SAY “NO” TO SATAN THIS NOVEMBER!!!”, he declares, “Vote for Jesus!”

Keller means it. His website http://www.votingforjesus.com/ claims to have received well over one million pledges from voters who say that they will, on November 6, 2012, cast their votes for the write-in candidacy of Jesus Christ for president of the United States.

Religion, Race And Double Standards

Posted by Badmin Political News, Race & Ethnicity News, Religion News No Responses »

Oct 242012

Editor’s Note: Lengthy and worth reading.

(VIDEO) EXCERPT from Andrew Sullivan | The Daily Beast:

Imagine for a moment that Barack Obama had never attended Jeremiah Wright’s church in Chicago and had decided to attend services, and proselytize for, a black separatist, nationalist church that refused to allow whites to participate in crucial religious services because white people had been condemned by God for their iniquity in the ancient past and had been for ever marked white so black Americans would know instantly to keep their distance. In fact, the definition of white in this black supremacist church was just one drop of white blood in a black person. It was Nazi-like in its racist precision and exclusion. Whites were denied the rites that made a person a full member of the church. Even blacks with a tiny strain of white DNA were kept from full participation.

Imagine further that backing this racist church was not a youthful folly on Obama’s part, but a profound commitment – that he went on a mission abroad to convert Christians to a new religion based on black racial supremacy, and has often said that the most important thing in his entire life to this day is a church whose sacred scripture declares white people to be cursed by God for their past sins – and the sign of this curse is their white skin.

A simple question: Do you think this issue would not come up in a general election or a primary? If Obama was subjected to news cycle after news cycle of clips of Obama’s actual former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, can you imagine the outrage if Obama had actually been a part of a black supremacist church – that denied whites equal access to the sacraments – for over a decade in his adult life?

I raise this because it is a fact that Mitt Romney belonged to a white supremacist church for 31 years of his life, went on a mission to convert Christians and Jews and others to this church, which retained white supremacy as a doctrine until 1978 – decades after Brown vs Board of Education, and a decade after the end of the anti-miscegenation laws.

Nones Form Biggest Slice Of Obama’s Religious Voters

Posted by Badmin Atheism News, Political News, Religion News No Responses »

Oct 242012

Nones form biggest slice of obama religious voters

EXCERPT from Lauren Markoe | Religion News Service:

WASHINGTON (RNS) The largest slice of President Barack Obama’s religious coalition — at 23 percent — is not very religious.

They’re the “nones,” also known as unaffiliated voters, according to a new American Values Survey by the Public Religion Research Institute.

Gov. Mitt Romney’s biggest bloc of religious voters are white evangelical Protestants, at 37 percent, followed by white mainline Protestants and white Catholics, each at 19 percent. Comparing the candidates’ supporters, the more diverse religious and nonreligious coalition that’s favoring Obama tends to be younger and growing, which could make it easier for Democrats to win elections in the future.

But there’s a down side for Obama, said Dan Cox, PRRI’s research director.

“The people most likely to support him are the least likely to vote: Latinos, the millennials (voters 18-29), and the unaffiliated,” Cox said.

Mourdock Changes Tune: ‘God Does Not Want Rape’

Posted by Badmin Feminism News, Healthcare News, Political News, Religion News No Responses »

Oct 242012

Editor’s Note: One might take exception to the notion that “God does not want rape,” at least according to the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy.

EXCERPT from Pema Levy | TPM LiveWire:

Indiana GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock released a statement Wednesday seeking to clarify his comment from Tuesday night’s Indiana Senate debate that he opposes abortion in the cases of rape because God “intended” those pregnancies to happen.

“God creates life, and that was my point. God does not want rape, and by no means was I suggesting that he does. Rape is a horrible thing, and for anyone to twist my words otherwise is absurd and sick,” stated Richard Mourdock.

“I’ve struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God,” Mourdock said during the debate. “And even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”

Nuns: Women Who Take Birth Control Cause Men To Crave Gay Sex

Posted by Badmin Feminism News, Healthcare News, LGBTQ News, Political News, Religion News No Responses »

Oct 222012

Joe. My. God.: Catholic Nuns: Women Who Take Birth Control Cause Men To Crave Gay Sex

(VIDEO) EXCERPT from Joe. My. God.:

An order of Catholic nuns called the Children Of Mary has released a video which claims women who take birth control cause the men around them to commit homosexual acts. Or something.

A group of Roman Catholic nuns in central Ohio has produced a short anti-contraception video hoping to get it in front of Catholics in all 50 states, starting with swing states, before the presidential election. The video opens by saying oral contraception can make women less desirable by interfering with chemical hormones. It cites a study from the 1970s in which the alpha male in a tribe of monkeys became “confused” when females were injected with birth control drugs and started having sexual interactions with other males.

Atheists grade presidential candidates: A choice of lesser evils

Posted by Badmin Atheism News, Political News, Religion News No Responses »

Oct 172012

Atheists grade presidential candidates: A choice of lesser evils | Secular News Daily

EXCERPT from Secular Coalition for America | Secular News Daily:

The Secular Coalition for America yesterday released its 2012 Presidential Candidate Scorecard for the general election–a guide for secular-minded Americans on the presidential candidates in the upcoming election.

Candidates from the two major parties, as well as significant third party candidates were included and received the following grades:

Gary Johnson, Libertarian: B
Barack Obama, Democrat: C
Mitt Romney, Republican: F
Jill Stein, Green Party: Incomplete

The scorecard assigned grades of “A”, “B”, “C” and “F” to the four candidates who appear on the ballot in enough states to amass the required 270 electoral votes to be elected President of the United States. Grades were based on their public statements and actions in five areas and on 17 specific issues. The questions related to religion-government entanglement on topics of Government and Values, Health and Safety, Education, Government Funding and Government Acts.

“This scorecard shows that our current politicians still have a long way to go in protecting the secular values that America was founded on,” said Edwina Rogers, Executive Director of the Secular Coalition, and cited a recently released Pew Forum study. “Last week we learned that now nearly 20 percent of Americans are religiously unaffiliated. Too often we see lawmakers shy away from the non-religious, but the statistics show that lawmakers can no longer afford to ignore us.”

In addition to religiously unaffiliated voters, a strong majority of Americans in general want a separation between religion and government. A full 54 percent of Americans believe that churches and other houses of worship should keep out of political matters and 66 percent say that churches and houses of worship should not endorse candidates.

Todd Akin: No ‘Science’ Behind Evolution

Posted by Badmin Political News, Religion News No Responses »

Oct 122012

EXCERPT from Todd Akin: No ‘Science’ Behind Evolution | ThinkProgress:

Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) …. said Thursday at a Tea Party meeting in Jefferson City, Missouri, that there’s no science behind evolution:

AKIN: I don’t see it as even a matter of science because I don’t know that you can prove one or the other. That’s one of those things. We can talk about theology and all of those other things but I’m basically concerned about, you’ve got a choice between Claire McCaskill and myself. My job is to make the thing there. If we want to do theoretical stuff, we can do that, but I think I better stay on topic.

Akin is far from the first member of his party to doubt the scientific evidence behind evolution. Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), a physician who sits on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, last week said that “evolution, embryology, Big Bang theory” are “lies straight from the pit of hell.” During the GOP presidential primary, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) similarly argued that schools should teach students the creationist theory of intelligent design.

Rep. Broun: Evolution, Big Bang ‘Lies Straight From The Pit Of Hell’

Posted by Badmin Political News, Religion News, Science News No Responses »

Oct 062012

Editor’s Note: Wow. This asshat is on the House Science Committee?!

EXCERPT from Benjy Sarlin | TPM2012:

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) tore into scientists as tools of the devil in a speech at the Liberty Baptist Church Sportsman’s Banquet last month.

“All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell,” Broun said. “And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior.”

According to Broun, the scientific plot was primarily concerned with hiding the true age of the Earth. Broun serves on the House Science Committee, which came under scrutiny recently after another one of its Republican members, Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), suggested that victims of “legitimate rape” have unnamed biological defenses against pregnancy.

“You see, there are a lot of scientific data that I’ve found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth,” he said. “I don’t believe that the Earth’s but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That’s what the Bible says.”

Broun — a physician, with an M.D. and a B.S. in chemistry — is generally considered to be among the most conservative members of Congress, if not the most.

….

“What I’ve come to learn is that it’s the manufacturer’s handbook, is what I call it,” he said. “It teaches us how to run our lives individually, how to run our families, how to run our churches. But it teaches us how to run all of public policy and everything in society. And that’s the reason as your congressman I hold the holy Bible as being the major directions to me of how I vote in Washington, D.C., and I’ll continue to do that.”

The Littlest Missionaries: A New Christian Plot to Invade Public Schools

Posted by Badmin Education News, Political News, Religion News No Responses »

Oct 052012

EXCERPT from Katherine Stewart | Alternet:

…. The constitution and the law prohibits adults from, say, establishing ministries within public schools aimed at proselytizing to the children during school hours. But a growing number of religious activists have come to realize that it’s technically legal if they get the kids to do their work for them. OK, so religious proselytizing is not the same thing as running drugs – but manipulating kids to exploit legal loopholes isn’t pretty wherever it happens.

This tactic has been tested and deployed in a great number of situations already in schools across the country. Right now, a large group of fundamentalist organizations and church denominations is making a big bet that they will be able to pull it off on a national scale, starting in 2013.

If you go to the Every Student Every School website, you’ll see that their dozens of promotional videos are first-rate. The music is great, the cameras are professionally handled, the sound bites are short and snappy. Their message is very clear.

As ESES’s name implies, their idea is to proselytize every student in every public school in America through an aggressive “Adopt-a-School” campaign. And the way to do it is to have the kids do what grownups are not allowed to do – establish full-fledged missionary operations inside the schools. A clever map allows viewers to click on their state and type in their area code, revealing every school in the district and determine whether it has been “adopted” by churches or other religious organizations. Kids from those entities are instructed to conduct daily prayer groups during the school day, distribute religious literature and are given numerous other ideas for practicing or promoting their religion at school.

“We must help our teenagers get serious about sharing their faith with those God has place in their lives,” an article on the ESES website advises. According to ESES’s Campus Prayer Guide , evangelical Christian students are in a “strategic position” to proselytize “unchurched” peers, and advises these students to “consider every school a PRAYER ZONE.”

Catholic Bishops use ‘Red Mass’ to Lobby Supreme Court Justices

Posted by Badmin Political News, Religion News No Responses »

Oct 042012

EXCERPT from Simon Brown | Secular News Daily:

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court tied a record last week but that’s not something they should be proud of.

On Sept. 30, six members of the high court attended the annual “Red Mass,” a special church service for the legal profession held by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.

In attendance at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle were Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony M. Kennedy and Elena Kagan. Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas are Catholic; Breyer and Kagan are Jewish.

CNN reported that the high court’s showing last week tied the attendance record for justices at the mass, set in 2009.

The service, which is named because of the red vestments worn by the officiants, is held annually on the Sunday before the Supreme Court begins its new term, which is the first Monday in October. In previous years, prelates have used the occasion to berate the justices on issues like abortion, same-sex marriage and public funding of religious schools.

(It’s worth noting that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is Jewish, stopped attending the mass because of comments made one year that were strongly anti-abortion.)

This year, the mass was led by Timothy P. Broglio, archbishop for the military services. He stopped short of making direct references to controversial topics like abortion, but he did call on attendees to use their faith to guide their decisions.

Broglio said people should be “instruments” of a “new evangelization.”

The 10 Most Dangerous Religious Right Organizations

Posted by Badmin Political News, Religion News No Responses »

Oct 042012

EXCERPT from Simon Brown | Alternet:

The movement known as the Religious Right is the number-one threat to church-state separation in America. This collection of organizations is well funded and well organized; it uses its massive annual revenue and grassroots troops to undermine the wall of separation in communities nationwide.

Americans United staff members have carefully researched this movement, and here are the 10 Religious Right groups that pose the greatest challenges to church-state separation.

….

1. Jerry Falwell Ministries/ Liberty University/Liberty Counsel

Revenue: $522,784,095

Although Jerry Falwell, a Religious Right icon and founder of the Moral Majority, died in 2007, his empire is going strong thanks mostly to Liberty University, a Lynchburg, Va., school now run by his son, Jerry Falwell Jr.

….

2. Pat Robertson Empire

Revenue: $434,971,231

Known for his years of involvement in far-right politics, TV preacher Pat Robertson has forged a vast Religious Right empire anchored by the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). Robertson also runs Regent University and a right-wing legal group, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).

….

3. Focus on the Family (includes its 501(c)(4) political affiliate CitizenLink)

Revenue: $104,463,950

Fundamentalist Christian James Dobson founded Focus on the Family to offer “biblical” solutions to family problems.

….

4. Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly Alliance Defense Fund)

Revenue: $35,145,644

The ADF may have changed its name, but it still promotes a familiar Religious Right agenda. The Arizona-based organization, which was founded by far-right TV and radio preachers, attacks church-state separation, blasts gay rights, assails reproductive freedom and seeks to saturate the public schools with its narrow version of fundamentalism.

….

5. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Lobbying Expenditures: $26,662,111

The USCCB for years has lobbied in Washington, D.C., to make the hierarchy’s ultra-conservative stands on reproductive rights, marriage, school vouchers and other public policies the law for all to follow. This year, the USCCB escalated its efforts in the “culture war” arena, forming the Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty.

….

6. American Family Association

Revenue: $17,955,438

Founded by the Rev. Donald Wildmon, the Tupelo, Miss.-based AFA once focused on battling “indecent” television shows. When that failed, the group branched out to advocate for standard Religious Right issues such as opposing gay rights, promoting religion in public schools and banning abortion.

….

7. Family Research Council

Revenue: $14,840,036 (includes 501(c)(4) affiliate FRC Action)

This group, an offshoot of Focus on the Family, is headed by GOP operative and ex-Louisiana legislator Tony Perkins. It is now the leading Religious Right organization in Washington. Every year, FRC Action sponsors a “Values Voter Summit” to promote far-right politicians and rally Religious Right forces nationwide.

….

8. Concerned Women for America

Revenue: $10,352,628 (includes 501(c)(4) affiliate CWA Legislative Action Committee)

Founded to counter feminism, Concerned Women for America (CWA) claims to be “the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization.” Its mission is to “bring Biblical principles into all levels of public policy.”

….

9. Faith & Freedom Coalition

Revenue: $5,494,640

This 501(c)(4) advocacy group was founded by former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed. He formed the organization after his run for lieutenant governor in Georgia was derailed because of his ties to disgraced casino lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

….

10. Council for National Policy

Revenue: $1,976,747

The Council for National Policy exists to do just one thing: organize meetings of right-wing operatives, Religious Right leaders and wealthy business interests at posh hotels around the country to share ideas, plot strategy and vet GOP presidential candidates. Membership is by invitation only, and the group seeks no media attention.

Myths and Truths About Atheism+

Posted by Badmin Atheism News, Political News No Responses »

Sep 092012

Editor’s Note: I’ve been wanting to blog about Atheism+, but haven’t had a chance to get a word in edgewise, what with the Spring semester and moving and family and looking for work and subsisting on less than $100/week. As so often seems to happen to me, Adam Lee has already said what I want to say, anyway — and better than I could’ve said it — so I suggest you, dear reader, follow the link and let Lee debunk the myths already swirling around this new wave of politicized, socially-conscious atheism.

EXCERPT from Adam Lee | Daylight Atheism:

Last week, Jen McCreight announced that she was fed up with sexism in the atheist movement and called for a new wave of atheist activism, one explicitly concerned with social justice, which quickly acquired the name “atheism+“.

These posts landed like a cannon shell, generating a huge wave of excitement and feedback – the vast majority of which, to my surprise, was positive and enthusiastic. Clearly, they’ve tapped into a powerful vein of pro-equality sentiment in the atheist movement, crystallizing the frustrations that those of us who care about this have been feeling for the last year or two. This is an idea whose time has come, and all it needed were some excellent posts like Jen’s to kickstart it.

But since then, even though atheism+ doesn’t officially consist of anything yet other than a few blog posts, it’s come under attack by people who are certain they know what it stands for and don’t like it at all. However, most of the counterarguments I’ve seen are based on misunderstandings or false frames, some more egregious than others. As someone who strongly identifies with the goals of this new movement, I want to address some of the more common misconceptions and offer my perspective on what atheism+ means and why we should all get behind it.

Phil Zuckerman: One Nation Under God — Not!

Posted by Badmin Atheism News, LGBTQ News, Religion News No Responses »

Sep 092012

EXCERPT from Phil Zuckerman | HuffingtonPost.com:

At last week’s Republican National Convention, Florida Senator Marco Rubio was loud and clear: What makes us Americans is our shared belief in God. That’s it — above all else. Forget adherence to the Constitution, forget a hatred of tyranny, forget a love for baseball. Forget watching reality TV while ingesting a double-cheese burger, large nachos and a 32 ounce orange soda. No — what binds Americans together is, according to this Christian politician, theism.

As Rubio proclaimed: “We are special because we’re united not by a common race or ethnicity. We’re bound together by common values … that almighty God is the source of all we have.” And furthermore: “Faith in our Creator is the most important American value of all.”

Rubio’s wrong. There are countless values that are far more important than having faith in an invisible, invertebrate, unknowable deity. Valuing education, for example. Valuing democracy. Valuing human rights. Valuing free speech. Valuing trees, mountains, valleys, lakes, rivers and the ozone layer. Valuing affordable healthcare. Valuing nutritious school lunches. Valuing one’s spouse, one’s friends, one’s neighbors. It is far more important to value and love one another, and to act on that love, than to have faith in a god.

Rubio is also wrong about something else, too: faith in God is not shared by all Americans. In fact, millions of hard-working, child-raising, military-joining, coal-mining and liberty-loving Americans live their lives without faith in God. And millions more live their lives without any interest in religion whatsoever. The statistics are surprisingly clear on this front. Back in the 1990s, about 8 percent of Americans claimed “none” as their religion. Then, in 2007, the Pew Forum found that the percentage of non-religious Americans had doubled, up to 16 percent. In 2010, Putnam and Campbell’s national survey put the percentage at 17 percent. In 2011, the General Social Survey reported it at 18 percent. This year, the Pew Forum bumped it up to 19 percent. (Anyone see a pattern here?) And then, according to the WIN-Gallup International “Global Index of Religion and Atheism” released about two months ago, a whopping 30 percent of Americans describe themselves as nonreligious. So whether we’re talking 16 percent, 19 percent or 30 percent, we’re talking tens of millions of Americans who are more secular than not.

Conventions leave atheists asking: What political party represents me?

Posted by Badmin Atheism News, Political News, Religion News No Responses »

Sep 072012

EXCERPT from Dan Merica | CNN Belief Blog:

Washington (CNN) – This convention season has not been good for atheists.

The word “God” was reinserted in the Democratic platform after it had been removed. A plan to raise atheist billboards in the convention cities was stymied by opponents. And though there were preachers and rabbis and other religious leaders opening and closing each day of each convention, there wasn’t an avowed atheist talking up unbelief on either convention’s speaking list.

The political lockout has left many nonbelievers asking, “What political party represents me?”

“We are deeply saddened by the exclusion of a large number of Americans by both parties,” said Teresa MacBain, a spokeswoman for the group American Atheists, in an interview on Thursday. “It amazes me that in modern-day America, so much prejudice still exists.”

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