Category: Politics

June 5, 2006

Judge outlaws prison group’s Bible program

A judge in Iowa ruled that a program for inmates in the Newton Correctional Facility was a Bible-based prison program that violated the First Amendment’s freedom of religion clause by using state funds to promote Christianity to inmates.

Prison Fellowship Ministries was sued in 2003 by Americans United for Separation of Church and State led by Rev. Barry Lynn.

The judge ruled that the Iowa program advanced evangelical Christianity at the expense of other religions and the non-religious with special perks for inmate participants and it used state tax money to do it.

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May 22, 2006

Church and State news in brief

While checking out the Sunday “papers” I came across some stories about church and state. Including the Vatican’s dirty secret and it isn’t The Da Vinci Code, The judge in the Dover PA court case talks about the founders true intent with religion and the state, a new book is coming out focusing on the Christian rights attempt for extra special unconstitutional treatment from our government, an Iranian dissident talks about how good we have it in the states by having separation of church and state, and a story about another poor use of tax money for an abstinence-only sex education program in South Carolina.

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May 15, 2006

Bill would force Ohio schools to promote God

Well the religious authoritarians in the Ohio legislature have been busy. Instead of finally coming up with a plan for the equitable funding of Ohio schools – as the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled since 1997 – some members of the Ohio House passed a bill last year that would require Ohio schools to post the US or Ohio mottos in classrooms and cafeterias. Sounds harmless but both mottos refer to “God”. The US motto is “In God We Trust” and the Ohio motto is “With God All Things Are Possible”. So indirectly, the bill would force God into the schools. House Bill 184 was passed in June 2005 sits in a committee in the Ohio Senate for consideration. If passed in the Senate then it would become a law.

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May 10, 2006

Enough is enough San Diego – move the dang cross

A federal judge last week gave the city of San Diego 90 days to remove the 29-foot-high Mt Soledad cross or face $5,000 a day in fines to enforce a rulling he made back in 1991. The Mayor and Pat Robertson don’t seem to get the fact that the city lost the battle and they now need to move the cross.

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May 5, 2006

Ohio Prayer Protest a Success

My friend Dan Birtcher, who organized a protest of the so-called National Day of Prayer, reports that the protest went well and no one was arrested. Read a note he sent out about the event and I included a link to some photos.

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April 27, 2006

Atheist Activist Newdow and Humorist Sweeney Join Secular Lobby