The Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation has a display up in the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison to counter one from the Concerned Women for America, based in Washington, D.C.
FFRF’s display on the first floor of the rotunda says “Nobody died for our sins. Jesus Christ is a myth.” FFRF received a permit for its display April 14 after learning of CWA’s. The CWA Easter display has a cross and a plethora of conservative materials, including antiabortion literature (one reading: “Equal rights for born and pre-born”).
“It’s unfortunate to see a sectarian symbol that is increasingly used as a symbol of political intimidation in our state capitol,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “It’s also unfortunate to see women a serving as a front for a patriarchal religion based on women’s subservience and second-class status. This is the same group that helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment citing its allegiance to biblical principles, instead of civil liberties under our secular government.”
CWA, founded by archconservative Beverly LaHaye in 1979 in San Diego, says it’s “the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization with a rich 30-year history of helping our members across the country bring Biblical principles into all levels of public policy. There’s a cultural battle raging across this country and CWA is on the frontline protecting those values through prayer and action.”
CWA says it focuses on “seven core issues: the family, the sanctity of human life, religious liberty, education, sexual exploitation, national sovereignty and support for Israel.” LaHaye, 84, says she started CWA to counter the “anti-God” National Organization for Women. A recent CWA initiative is Young Women for America, which has the same goals — to bring conservative Christianity into high schools and colleges.
Kim Simac, a tea party activist from Eagle River, Wis., heads Wisconsin’s chapter, according to CWA’s website.
LaHaye and others within CWA have blamed gay people for a “radical leftist crusade” in America and have equated homosexuality with pedophilia. Last August, CWA President Wendy Wright said gays were using same-sex marriage “to indoctrinate children in schools to reject their parents’ values and to harass, sue and punish people who disagree.”
