Protecting the constitutional principle of the separation of state and church

Freethought Today

Vol. 25 No. 1 - Published by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. -
January/February 2008

View the Table of Contents for this issue

Theocracy Alert

SCLC Scandal

Southern Christian Leadership Conference officials have failed to file required annual financial reports with the IRS for nearly three years, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

"Without the filings, the IRS and the public do not know how the SCLC has spent donations raised from some of Atlanta's biggest corporations, including Georgia Power Co., Coca-Cola and Delta Air lines," the Constitution report (Jan. 14) noted.

The group says it raised more than $6 million over the past three years, including $3.3 million to build a new headquarters.

Vatican Renews Potter Attack

A January article in the Vatican official paper renewed attacks against J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, saying it poses a danger to children by promoting witchcraft and the occult. The Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, called the teenage boy wizard "the wrong kind of hero."

Two years before he was elected Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger called the Potter story "a subtle seduction," which has "direct effects in undermining the soul of Christianity."

Pushing Faith-based Initiative

The White House estimates that $206 million in grants has been awarded to more than 4,300 "faith-based and community" groups through its Compassion Capital Fund since 2002. White House figures show 2-3% of federal welfare-to-work money in the mid-1990s went to faith-based organizations. Today about 11% of all federal competitive grants go to faith-based organizations.

But that figure is misleading, according to a study by the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy showing that the total amount of federal spending on social services is declining.

According to a Dec. 2007 study by the Roundtable, 7.1% of American congregations are contracting with the government to deliver social services.

The White House has stepped up its government-hosted faith-based conferences and outreach, since the Supreme Court ruled last year that taxpayers do not have the right to challenge their constitutionality in the Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation decision.

Late last year, Jay Hein, who runs the White House Office of Faith-based Initiatives whose constitutionality was at the heart of the Foundation's challenge, stepped up government faith-based conferences. The 33rd conference sponsored by the White House since 2001 was held in Indiana on Nov. 4-5, attended by 800 and hosted by Hein and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Hein hosted three gatherings at the White House over one week and a half period in November, inviting faith-based providers, business leaders and Conservatives for Social Justice to encourage partnerships between religious organizations and government. Hein hosts a monthly "Compassion in Action Roundtable" to honor mostly Christian groups. White House faith-based staff also hosted a November "National Summit" in Los Angeles on prisoner reentry.

Faith-based centers at other federal agencies continue to sponsor training and "capacity-building" sessions around the country. In November, federal agencies sponsored at least eight such training workshops, showing participants how to write grants or become approved as tutors or treatment providers. The White House estimates the federal agencies have trained more than 70,000 faith-based and community leaders at workshops since 2001.

The U.S. Agency for International Development's Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives held its first international outreach conference in Moldova, in December.

Religious Earmarks Continue

Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, and Kit Bond, R-Mo., recently directed $1 million to an area group, World Impact, Inc., "empowering the unchurched urban poor for the kingdom of Christ." Roll Call reported last fall the same group received nearly $2 million in earmarks in the 2008 spending bill.

Earmarks are spending projects, usually "pork" for local constituents, sneaked into the federal budget. As of last year, earmarks must now carry the name of the sponsor.

The 2008 spending bill passed in December had more than 9,000 earmarks totaling $23 billion.

Texas Silence Moment Upheld

A mandatory moment of silence for Texas schoolchildren was upheld by a federal judge in early January. U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn of Dallas opined that the statutory requirement has a secular purpose of encouraging thoughtful contemplation.

Lynn's decision admitted "there is no doubt" that several legislators, including bill author Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, expressed a purpose to "put prayer back in schools."

Parent plaintiffs David and Shannon Croft consider the law a "back door" prayer, because it directs that students are to use the silent moment to reflect, meditate or pray.

Catholic Church Gets $500,000 Grant

The National Park Service in late December announced a $500,000 federal grant to Mary's in the Mountains Catholic Church to help restore the Nevada "landmark" in the Comstock Lode town. The church, which has about 20 members and no fulltime priest, was originally built in 1869. Total restoration is estimated at $1.9 million by church officials.

The grant was through the "2007 Save America Treasures" awards and will go to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Reno, the governing body.

Perry's Evangelical Ties Probed

The IRS has been asked to investigate whether an evangelical foundation funded by financial backers of Texas Gov. Rick Perry improperly spent more than $1 million to boost Perry's reelection.

Perry actively encouraged the development of the Texas Restoration Project, a network of pastors working for the election of candidates with a conservative moral agenda. The Project hosted thousands of pastors and their spouses at a series of closed-door Pastors' Policy Briefings in 2005. It also held an inauguration event in 2007.

Perry was the only gubernatorial candidate invited to participate in the briefings. His campaign had access to the nonprofit group's mailing and e-mail lists.

Campaigning with Pastors

GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee met with pastors in Michigan in January, urging them to "mobilize people of like mind and spirit" by using their e-mail lists and phone lists in his support.

According to the Washington Post (Jan. 13), "That strategy helped him in Iowa, where about 80% of his voters identified themselves as 'born again' or evangelical.' " Both Democratic and Republican contenders have made appearances at some churches.

Watch Out, Idaho

Christian Exodus, an obscure group whose followers were instructed several years ago to move to South Carolina to take over the state "for Jesus Christ," is now setting its sights on an Idaho takeover.

In January, the head of Christian Exodus announced plans to move Christian Exodus followers into Idaho county-by-county to take over the government. The intent is to push for national legislation to promote limited government and "God's sovereignty," or secede from the Union.

Anglican Church Stalls Women

Church of England officials in January stalled a plan to let women become bishops, so the resolution could be considered by the General Synod in February. Despite backing by liberal and conservative wings of the church, the plan to promote women bishops was aborted during a closed-door session by male bishops. Women were admitted to the priesthood for the first time in 1994.

Robertson to Buy Virginian-Pilot?

That's one way to shut up your critics. Televangelist Pat Robertson, a sharp critic of The Virginian-Pilot, which has run many investigative pieces about him, is eyeing a bid to buy the newspaper. Landmark Communications Inc., a media company in Norfolk, Va., announced in January that it is deciding whether to sell its assets, which include The Weather Channel.

Blasphemous Journalist Must Die

An Afghan court in northern Afghanistan in late January sentenced a 23-year-old journalism student to death for blasphemy, for distributing an Internet article considered an insult to the prophet Muhammad.

Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh, who works for a local newspaper in Mazar-i-Sharif, was accused of making remarks about Muhammad's ignorance toward women. He has the right to appeal.

This is the third time clerics have called for the death of a "blasphemer" in the six years since Taliban leadership was removed.

"God Told Them to Do It"

In January, an Idaho man who thought he bore the biblical "mark of the beast" used a circular saw to cut off one hand, then cooked it in the microwave before phoning 911. The man, in his mid-20s, was taken into protective custody in the mental health unit of Kootenai Medical Center, near Hayden.

The Book of Revelation quotes an angel saying: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the head, he, too, will drink the wine of God's fury."

The book of Matthew cites Jesus as saying: "And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut if off, and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell."

A million-dollar insurance executive who brutally killed his two-year-old daughter, Yanire, last June, convinced his family was possessed by the devil, was acquitted in mid-January by a London jury.

Alberto Izaga, 36, will be detained at a mental hospital until determined to no longer be a threat to himself or others.

A self-proclaimed 80-year-old holy man in southern India was attacked in December by two men, who chopped off his right leg, believing it had magical powers. Yanadi Kondaiah had claimed those touching his leg would be cured of illness or have wishes granted. He was hospitalized in serious condition.

Onward, Christian Soldier?

New Colorado state lawmaker Douglas Bruce brought a bible to the legislature on Jan. 14, then kicked a photographer who took a picture of him during his morning prayer. Douglas Bruce brought the sole of his shoe down hard on the bent knee of a Rocky Mountain News photographer. Bruce did not apologize.

Hate Crusade Targets Actor

The rabidly antigay Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas announced plans to protest Australian actor Heath Ledger's stateside memorial service, because he played a gay character in the groundbreaking film "Brokeback Mountain." Ledger died in January, apparently of a drug overdose.

U.S. Sides with Iran

Judicial authorities in southern Iran, following strict Islamic law, amputated the right hands and left feet of five convicted robbers in one week in January.

Iranian newspapers reported 23 executions in the first 10 days of January in Iran of convicted murderers or drug smugglers. The Agency France-Presse reported that Iran hanged 298 people in 2007.

In a December vote at the United Nations General Assembly, the United States joined Iran in opposing abolition of the death penalty.i