Protecting the constitutional principle of the separation of state and church

Freethought Today

Vol. 25 No. 2 - Published by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. -
March 2008

View the Table of Contents for this issue

Theocracy Alert

Ministry Fundraises for Huckabee

Televangelist Kenneth Copeland--under investigation by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee--turned a national ministerial gathering in January into a fundraiser for presidential candidate Rev. Mike Huckabee.

The event, which raised thousands for Huckabee, was held at the Kenneth Copeland Ministries' campus in Newark, Texas. Tax-exempt entities, according to IRS code, may not endorse a candidate, make contributions or engage in fundraising. The ministry and Huckabee averred the event was not improper because the campaign paid $2,500 for use of the facility for three hours.

At the event, Copeland said of Huckabee, "That's my man," and said Huckabee vowed to side with Copeland as he battles Congress:

"He [Huckabee] said, 'I will stand with you anytime, anywhere, on any issue.' "

Trinity Foundation, which monitors televangelist excesses, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the event took in more than $100,000, and generated pledges nearing $1 million. Huckabee admitted the idea was his. Huckabee has called Copeland a "delightful human being," and termed him a "friend" he would stand by on the Feb. 10 "Meet the Press."

The Gazette reported that Copeland, a multimillionaire, gave Huckabee nearly a week of free airtime on "The Believer's Voice of Victory" telecast in November.

(A political fundraiser was convicted of criminal charges after presidential candidate Al Gore attended a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at a buddhist temple in 1996.)

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has requested information from six high-living televangelists, including details about a $2 million personal gift that Copeland and his wife, Gloria, received at the 2007 Ministers Conference. Copeland refused to turn over financial data and vowed to go to jail if necessary. He lives in an 18,280-square-foot parsonage and flies a $17.5-million ministry jet.

About two-thirds of people who donate to televangelists are elderly, and most are female, according to the Trinity Foundation. Another 30% of donors were classified by the group as being "people in desperate circumstances."

Bush Pushes Faith Initiative

Pres. George W. Bush asked Congress to make his faith-based initiative permanent in his 2008 State of the Union address. At a Jan. 29 event at the Jericho Program, Baltimore, Md., Bush devoted a speech to the faith-based initiative.

"It starts with the notion that there is a higher power. It helped me in my life--it helped me quit drinking."

Bush noted that when he took office, "There was the notion that somehow that there needed to be a clear separation of church and state. . . .

"Unfortunately, in some instances where there was an interface with government, people were told that in order to interface you have to take the cross off the wall, or take down the Star of David. In other words, you had to abandon the very principle by which you existed in the first place. And it made no sense. If a program was effective because they were willing to recognize a higher power, if a program was effective because people responded because they felt a call from a higher power, then to deny the higher power really reduced the effectiveness of the program.

"So seven years ago my administration created the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, to deal with this problem.

"When we begin [sic] the work we didn't settle for just opening an office in the White House; we opened 11 offices for faith-based and community initiatives throughout the federal government. It's one thing for the White House to have an office. But most of the money--or all the money, for that matter--is appropriated to different Cabinet officers and their secretariats [sic], and then those distribute the money. And so we wanted to make sure that this faith-based initiative was rooted throughout the government."

On Jan. 24, the Coalition to Preserve Religious Freedom, a coalition of multifaith and secular groups, wrote to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee:

"Charitable Choice is a highly controversial proposal that authorizes government-funded religious discrimination in employment, threatens local antidiscrimination laws, and undermines the critical religious liberty protections for both houses of worship and beneficiaries of government programs."

CARD requested major changes to the "charitable choice" provisions of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration Act. The bill would fund Access to Recovery, a voucher program permitting recipients to choose from faith-based or secular groups for addiction treatment.

For the past three years, the federal government has also awarded vouchers for substance abuse treatment through the Access to Recovery program, as part of the faith-based initiative. One-third of federal voucher money has gone to faith-based groups.

Pell Grant Proposes Parochial Aid

In his State of the Union address, Pres. Bush called for a $300 million "Pell Grants for Kids" program, denounced by teachers' unions and top Democratic officials as a national "voucher" program.

The program would be modeled after the federally-funded "scholarship" program in Washington, D.C., in which $14 million a year goes to help low-income children attend religious/private schools.

"On top of a $70 billion shortfall in funding for his own education reforms, he again proposed to siphon scarce resources from our public schools to create new voucher programs," said Sen. Ted Kennedy, chair of the Health, Education and Labor Committee.

Faith-Based Mentoring Continues

New federal mentoring vouchers targeting intensively religious groups and funded at $5 million, will be administered by MENTOR, a national nonprofit begun in 1990. MENTOR will help identify children in need of mentors and establish a national call center. The program is part of the Health and Human Services Mentoring Children of Prisoners program authorized by Congress, now in a second three-year funding cycle, and receiving $50 million annually.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation won a landmark court decision ending funding of one such mentoring grant to MentorKids USA, an overtly Protestant fundamentalist program, in 2005.

Bush's Faith-based Budget

Bush's last budget "continues a trend of increased spending on defense and some targeted White House initiatives," according to the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy, with a general decline in funding social services.

The so-called Compassion Capital Fund (CCF), the centerpiece of Bush's faith-based initiative, received $53.6 million this year. Bush is calling for $75 million for the CCF for next year, which was decried as inadequate by the Catholic Charities USA and the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches.

The FY 2009 budget proposal calls for $204 million (an increase of $28 million from 2008) for "abstinence-only education."

Faith Groups Push Discrimination

Ten faith-based groups in Colorado blasted an employment discrimination bill which would not allow faith-based groups using public money to discriminate in hiring.

Under House Bill 1080, groups receiving public funds could not discriminate using religious standards, including over religion or sexual orientation.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, Focus on the Family, Avista Adventist Hospital, Denver Rescue Mission, and many other groups want to take public money, but continue to discriminate.

Headscarves Return to Turkey

Turkey's governing Muslim political party in late January lifted a ban on headscarves worn by women university students. Led by Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, the party agreed to amend several articles in Turkey's Constitution. "Covered women" have been barred from higher education since the late 1990s.

The military and judiciary, which The New York Times refers to as the "secular old guard," seeks to safeguard policies adopted in 1923, with the creation of a secular Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Unsettled is whether headscarves will be permitted in primary and high schools, and at government posts. Critics fear social pressure will force all girls and women back into headscarves, and that the more oppressive hijab, which is foreign to Turkey, will be imposed on Turkish women.

Air Force Evangelizing

Three evangelical Christians pretending to be former Muslim terrorists were paid a total of $13,000 to speak on Feb. 6 at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. One man, Zak Anani, told students that converting to Christianity saved his life. Muslim groups objected, as did some outside professors, who found their stories unbelievable.

Haggard Checks Out Prematurely

Ted Haggard, the founder of a Colorado Springs megachurch who was "outed" by a male prostitute for hiring his services and for buying methamphetamine, ended a "spiritual restoration" process prematurely in February.

Haggard resigned as pastor of New Life Church and as president of the National Association of Evangelicals in November 2006.

Haggard moved with his family to Phoenix, but had agreed to enter the "restoration process" for at least five years.

New Life Church issued a statement that "the process of restoring Ted Haggard is incomplete and [New Life] maintains its original stance that he should not return to vocational ministry."

Newspaper Tries to Save Reporter

The Independent [UK] is launching an international petition drive to save the life of reporter Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, a 23-year-old Afghan sentenced to death for "blasphemy" this year by an Afghan court.

Kambaksh is accused of downloading a report from a website saying Muslim fundamentalists who justify the oppression of women have misrepresented the views of the prophet Muhammad. He was arrested and tried by religious judges, allegedly without legal representation.

The United Nations, human rights groups, journalists and Western diplomats are seeking to free the student, despite a motion by the Afghan Senate to confirm the death sentence.

Sign the e-petition at www.independent.co.uk/petition

Saudis to Execute "Witch"

Human Rights Watch is appealing to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to halt the execution of a woman found guilty of "witchcraft" and "performing supernatural acts" at a 2006 trial.

Fawza Falih of Quraiyat was arrested by the kingdom's religious police and never given the opportunity to prove her innocence in the face of "absurd charges that have no basis in law," said Human Rights Watch. It said judges relied on a coerced confession and on the statements of witnesses who said she had "bewitched them." Among the accusations: making a man impotent--which was also a charge by the Roman Catholic Church during the Renaissance used to condemn thousands of women.

Women in Saudi Arabia cannot drive, appear before a judge without a male representative, or travel abroad without a male guardian's permission. Witchcraft is considered an offense against Islam. Falih is illiterate. An appeals court ruled in September 2006 that Falih could not be sentenced to death because she had retracted her confession. A lower court then reissued a death sentence to "protect the creed, souls and property of this country."

Indiana Prayer Case Over

The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals declined in late January to reconsider a ruling throwing out a lawsuit challenging the practice of sectarian prayers in the Indiana House. In October, a 3-judge panel ruled 2-1 that taxpayers who sued over the Christian prayers did not have legal standing.

U.S. District Judge David Hamilton in 2005 banned the practice of opening the chamber's day with sectarian prayers. Mentioning "Jesus Christ" or using terms such as "savior" amounted to an endorsement of religion, he ruled.

God Wasn't His CoPilot?

An Air Canada flight going to Heathrow airport in London made an emergency landing in Ireland in late January, after a pilot apparently suffered a mental breakdown.

The pilot was carried from the plane shouting and swearing that he wanted to talk "to God."

More Religion on Coins

Congress has mandated that the phrase "In God We Trust" must appear on the front or back of new presidential dollar coins, at the behest of the religious right, which objected to the religious motto appearing on coin edges. The change will not take place until the 2009 series of presidential coins is issued, honoring Presidents Harrison, Tyler, Polk and Taylor. Coins honoring Presidents Monroe, Adams, Jackson and Van Buren are coming out this year. In 2007, coins for Presidents Washington, John Adams, Jefferson and Madison were issued with "In God We Trust" on the edge.

"I certainly can't imagine growing up in a country and under a government that is atheistic and denies the existence and dependence upon God," said a Focus on the Family spokesperson.

"Devil Killed My Wife"

A Texan accused of killing his wife in early February says he was trying to exorcise a demon from her, when the devil entered his body and caused her to die.

Jan David Clark, 60, Odessa, Texas, was arrested after authorities found Susan Kay Clark's body wrapped in a bedsheet with a cross and sword on top of it.

Catholic Church Pushes Exorcists

A Polish priest's plan to build Europe's only center dedicated to performing exorcisms has the blessing of his local archbishop and theological support from the Vatican, according to The Washington Post (Feb. 10).

Rev. Andrzej Trojanowski plans a "spiritual oasis." Last July, more than 300 exorcists gathered in Poland for the fourth International Congress of Exorcists. There are an estimated 300 exorcists active in Italy and 70 in Poland. Most prominent is Rev. Gabriele Amorth, 82, who performs daily exorcisms in Rome. In 1976, a Bavarian woman in her twenties died of starvation after two priests subjected her to more than 60 exorcisms. A more recent scandal occurred in 2002, when a German bishop resigned after a woman said he sexually abused her during an exorcism.

MySpace Deletes Atheists, Agnostics

Networking website MySpace deleted a 35,000-member "Atheist and Agnostic Group" on Jan. 1, according to Bryan Pesta, the Cleveland State University assistant professor who founded the site.

Late last year, hackers had renamed the site "Jesus is Love." Two years ago, MySpace had deleted the group after an organized campaign by Christians, but then restored it.

Tennessee Proposes "Gay" Ban

A Tennessee state representative has filed a bill preventing public elementary and middle schools from mentioning anything about gays. The bill would bar "any instruction or materials discussing sexual orientation other than heterosexuality." For example, students could not learn that playwright Tennessee Williams was gay.

Modest But Not Hygienic

The UK Telegraph reported in February that Muslim women training in several hospitals do not want to remove arm coverings during surgery or roll up their sleeves while washing their hands, because it is "immodest" under Islam.

The Islamic Medical Association insists: "No practicing Muslim woman--doctor, medical student, nurse or patient--should be forced to bare her arms below the elbow."

Florida Ain't Evolving

Nine of Florida's 64 counties have passed resolutions in December and January condemning new curriculum explicitly calling for the teaching of evolution. The resolutions demand that evolution be "balanced" with creationist theories.

"Students need an education that prepares them to live in a forward-thinking way, not backwards. They're losing a 21st-century understanding of the world," said a Florida professor. The counties are: Baker, Clay, Hamilton, Jackson, Madison, St. Johns, Taylor and Washington.

Dutch Film Questions Koran

A 10-minute film on Islam produced by maverick Dutch MP Geert Wilders--considered the successor to Pim Fortuyn, the murdered anti-immigration Dutch politician--is creating controversy. Wilders plans to broadcast the film about the Koran in March. He lives under police protection.

Iran's ambassador to the Netherlands, Bozorgmehr Ziaran, said he will rally global opinion against the film. Ziaran warned that Dutch troops would be regarded as "representatives of people who besmirch the Koran."

Muslim Cleric Refused Visa

A Muslim cleric who supports the death penalty for gays was refused entry to Britain to receive medical treatment in February.

Egyptian-born Yusuf al-Qaradawi has defended suicide attacks on Israeli civilians, and is banned from entering the United States. His fatwas, or religious rulings, are considered binding by many Muslim followers. The Muslim Council of Britain attacked the government's decision.

Muslim Prayer Creates Division

A prayer by the imam of the Islamic Center of Des Moines to open the Iowa legislature in late January has caused a furor. Mohammed Khan, in his 4-minute prayer, said: "You are the pardoner, supporter and protector; and give us victory over those that disbelieve."

The remarks offended some Iowa Christians and lawmakers.

"(Muslims) invoke this prayer to God almighty to shield them and protect them from Satan," explained Mohammed Fahmy, prayer leader at the Waterloo Islamic Center.

Catholics Remove Woman Referee

Basketball referee Michelle Campbell was removed as referee minutes before a Feb. 2 high school basketball game at St. Mary's Academy in Kansas. A school administrator there told her it would be placing a woman in a position of authority over boys, contrary to beliefs at the Catholic academy. Campbell is one of five referees with the Topeka Officials Association, a branch of the Kansas State High School Activities Association, which is looking into the incident. St. Mary's is not a full member of the Association, but is on the association's list of "approved schools."