Category: History - Page 5

December 5, 2012

Christians Believe No Nativity Scenes In A Park Makes God Sad

created image of a park with a canceled sign for a Nativity scene and Jesus saying he quit

December isn’t the Christmas season – it’s the ‘War on Christmas’ season. It’s the time when the religious right and their propaganda machine called FOX “news” whine and complain if they aren’t allowed to shove their religion down your throat through the use of a diorama of the fictional birth of the savior of said religion based in a public spot like a park or a court house. Listening to the religious right one would assume God would quit if he didn’t see said dioramas in said park. Yeah, right?

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November 25, 2012

We Need To Fight All Violations Of The Wall Between Church And State

In the news recently was a press release from American Atheists announcing they had appealed a court case to the US Supreme Court. The case, American Atheists, Inc. v. Kentucky Office of Homeland Security, is against a Kentucky law that would require state training materials to proclaim a reliance on God for protection of the state. One response I read about the appeal on an e-mail list I’m on wondered why American Atheists would waste time on such a case that was, in their view, giving lip service to believers. Unfortunately, many believers live for such lip service so those of us who want to protect the separation of church and state have to file law suits against what on the surface looks like minor offenses.

Here is some detail on the case American Atheists, Inc. v. Kentucky Office of Homeland Security:

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November 13, 2012

President Obama Wins A Landslide From The Religiously Unaffiliated

President Obama carried Religiously Unaffiliated voters 70% to Mitt Romney’s 26% according to a report from The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life exit poll data of the 2012 election. Although the President’s percentage was lower than in 2008, it still continued a trend of the nones supporting the Democratic candidates. The exit poll numbers were larger than a similar election poll in September when the President held a 65 to 27 lead on Romney.

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November 8, 2012

Mixed Bag For Church-State Issues On Election Night

created image with text 2012 US Election

The big news is that President Barrack Obama won a 2nd term as President. Three states voted to allow same sex marriage. Florida’s Amendment 8 went down to defeat but the only publicly known atheist serving in the Congress lost his race. For those of us who support church and state separation, the 2012 election turned out to be a mixed bag but better than if Mitt Romney had won.

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November 6, 2012

Voting Locations In Churches Cross Separation Line

Exterior view of a Church used as polling location, showing a anti-abortion sign

While checking out my hometown newspaper Monday I found a listing of the voting locations for the Presidential election on Tuesday November 6th. The thing that bothered me is a majority of the voting locations are located in churches. Back when I was a kid the majority were in schools. I can understand why they don’t have them in the schools today but having them in churches is not a good idea either for a government based on secular principles.

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October 22, 2012

Pulpit Freedom Sunday Was A Failure Due To Bureaucracy

Alliance Defending Freedom, which sponsored Pulpit Freedom Sunday on October 7th, claimed over a 1,000 pastors would be taking part in violating the tax laws prohibiting a tax exempt group, such as churches, from electioneering at the pulpit. If the law breaking pastors had done some basic research they would have seen that having a protest now was a waste of time. The IRS suspended investigations of churches in 2009 due to a federal law suit. Basically Pulpit Freedom Sunday was a failure.

As I posted previously:

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