The panel tonight included an actual atheist from the US, Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheist. The other members were Rachel Maddow of Air America and Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a conservative minister who once referred to blacks stranded in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina as “welfare-pampered,” “lazy” and “immoral.”
Tag: civil rights
Karen Hunter and Debbie Schlussel’s comments were just plain factually wrong. Schlussel has an article on her website where she claims atheists are the next terrorists. It was like having members of the KKK complaining about civil rights. It was simply disgusting.
I got to meet him in person at the American Humanist Assocation conference when it was in Columbus in 1999 and then again when I went to the 2001 Conference in Los Angeles. Very tall guy and loud. That answered the reason he stuck with his lawsuit for 17 years when someone of a lesser constitution would have given up.
The bill I mentioned in my previous post, the so-called “Public Expression of Religion Act”, was passed by the US House on Tuesday and now moves to the Senate as S.3696 and it has a new title to further mask its true intention. It is now called “Veterans’ Memorials, Boy Scouts, Public Seals, and Other Public Expressions of Religion Protection Act of 2006”. It is still a bad bill and does nothing but to give special protection to Christians. It is now to be used to “protect” crosses at Veterans’ Memorials and on local government seals as well has give the Boy Scouts an exemption from federal rules against discrimination when they get aid and comfort from federal agencies.
Back in March, I posted about an effort, supported by the American Legion, to pass a law that would stifle religious liberty by prohibiting the winner of a consitiutional violation case from collecting legal fees from the loser – as is done in most civil cases in the US. H.R. 2679 — the “Public Expression of Religion Act” — would amend a portion of the current U.S. Code and eliminate attorney fees in legal cases where government violated the constitutional separation of church and state. A vote is expected in the US House on Tuesday 9/26.
It seems that Pastor Rick Scarborough, the founder and leader of Vision America, in introducing Rep. Tom DeLay, former majority leader in the US House of Represenatives, told the audience that DeLay was in legal trouble because he stood up for Jesus. The inference being that DeLay’s legal troubles came about because he is a hardcore religious conservative – as if the charges aren’t really true. Their BIG issue is called “The ValuesVoters’ Contract with Congress: A Declaration of American Renewal” which is similar to the infamous “Contract for America” that Republicans signed when they won the majority in the US House back in 1994. Being a religious group there are the usual religious conservative wish items like a ban on abortion, forcing religious expression in government, ban on gay marriage, and a ban on cloning.