The question no longer seems to be if Cardinal Bernard Law will resign for his role in the cover-up of pedophile priests in the Boston Archdiocese, but when. Another timely question: How many bishops will be felled directly by being exposed as pedophiles themselves? A.W. Richard Sipe, a former priest and author of Sex, Priests and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis, predicts future scandals will involve eight or ten bishops or other high church officials, according to the West Palm Beach Post. Sipe, who conducted a 25-year study of sexual misconduct within the church, maintains that in 1990, he had "validation of 16 bishops in the country who had been abusers." The most shocking fallout of the Boston scandal to date has been the resignation of Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell of Palm Beach, Fla. Appointed to replace a bishop removed for pedophilia, O'Connell admitted he had abused a teenager 27 years ago at a Missouri seminary. A $125,000 settlement by the Diocese of Jefferson City in 1996 allowed O'Connell to guard his secret and become bishop. Even more pressing: When will a prosecutor finally criminally indict a bishop for covering up these crimes? Sixteen years ago, a confidential report to the Catholic Conference of Bishops predicted the church would pay out a billion dollars within a decade to victims of priest abuse. The authors warned the Catholic Church would be perceived as providing "sanctuary for perverts" if immediate reforms weren't adopted. Associated Press in March estimated the range of mostly confidential payouts to victims is from $300 million to the prophesied $1 billion. The Palm Beach Post placed the total cost to the Catholic Church at $600 million to $1.3 billion. The New York Times, quoting attorneys for victims, reported that in the past two decades, dioceses have reached more than 1,000 settlements in priest sex abuse cases, many of them sealed. The revelation that the Boston archdiocese--and four other church officials besides Law who are now bishops--directly covered up for molesting priests for 20 or 30 years has set off aftershocks in diocese after diocese. The Boston Globe's legal fight to unseal records over recently defrocked priest John J. Geoghan resulted in the release of 10,000 pages of damning documents in January. The archdiocese subsequently was forced to admit it has known about more than 80 priest-molesters. (The Boston Archdiocese revealed in March, in the midst of a $300 million fundraising campaign, that its insurance policies won't cover an estimated $100 million in settlements over priests accused of sexually abusing children.) A few other dioceses followed Boston's example, such as the Diocese of Manchester, NH, giving prosecutors the names of 14 priests, and Philadelphia firing "fewer than 10" priests. The Boston Globe reported on Feb. 25 that the largest dioceses "continue to allow priests who have abused children to return to parish work and keep accusations of clergy misconduct secret from police." The diocese in Portland, Me., initially took no stand against two parish priests who are admitted molesters. Portland's new policy, according to the Globe, permits a priest who has molested a "single minor" multiple times to stay on the job, but not a priest who molests more than one minor once! The Archdiocese of New York, publicly exposed by a New York Times columnist for its policy to keep such scandals in-house, announced in March that for the first time it would report new incidents of child sexual abuse directly to law enforcement authorities, if victims agree. The diocese ruled out reporting old cases. The Diocese of Rockville Centre, on Long Island, NY, completed a review of 300 clergy files, but will not release the names or number of priests with allegations against them, claiming no one currently working in the diocese has been "credibly" accused. Long Island's bishop was named as a defendant in lawsuits by Geoghan victims. So was Bishop Thomas V. Daily of Brooklyn, newly under fire for ignoring three nuns who came forward in 1996 to report three priests sexually abusing boys, as well as allegations by a priest in New Jersey who told the bishop in 1998 that he was abused as a youngster by another priest. "There have been 1,800 priests named in civil and criminal proceedings over the last 15 years, and there are 47,000 priests in the U.S. That approaches 4 percent, and that is a staggering number," says Catholic reporter Jason Berry, author of Lead Us Not into Temptation. The pope included a one-paragraph apology to victims of clergy for "great suffering and spiritual" harm in a 120-page missive to Catholics in Oceania late last year. In January, it was learned the Vatican had issued secret rules ordering that accused priests must be tried in secret church courts overseen from Rome, without advising whether civil authorities should be informed if a priest is found guilty. The Vatican imposed a 10-year statute of limitations beginning on the victim's 18th birthday. The Vatican sparked renewed anger when spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, in response to New England sex abuse scandals, deflected blame from the church by equating homosexuality with pedophilia, and declaring gay men should not be ordained as priests, despite estimates that as many as half of priests are gay. Wrote New York Times columnist Bill Keller ("Let Us Prey," March 9, 2002): "Every detail of this sordid story has had to be dragged from the reluctant archdiocese, mostly by the dogged investigative reporting of The Boston Globe." "American Catholicism may not be a democracy, but it lives in one," added Keller. "And while the separation of church and state is a precious freedom, the First Amendment was never intended to provide sanctuary for criminals."--Annie Laurie Gaylor

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has asked the Cambridge Public Library, Massachusetts, to remove an eye-poppingly ostentatious Ten Commandments engraving and other religious verbiage on prominent display in the first floor of the main library. "A public library simply has no business saying it was 'built in gratitude to God, to his son Jesus Christ, and to the Holy Ghost,' or to warn patrons, including children, that 'if you obey these commandments you will be happy. If you disobey them sorrow will come upon you,' " the Foundation wrote Cambridge Public Library Director Susan Flannery. The city of Cambridge agreed in 1889 to post the Ten Commandments and additional religious proclamations (see photograph) in exchange for obtaining the building from a religious benefactor. Although it posted a "disclaimer" following a 1995 complaint, explaining that it considers the engravings to be "historic," the Foundation said the disclaimer "does not mitigate the effect of these religious orders, threats, and injunctions." The city, which signed an agreement with the Massachusetts Historical Commission in 1985 to ensure preservation of the architectural and historical integrity of the library building, has taken no action on the Foundation's February complaint. Mayor Michael Sullivan's response to the Cambridge Chronicle was to ask: "Does this mean bibles should be removed from public libraries?" "What civil power could the Cambridge Public Library invoke, which would supersede the dictates of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment?" wrote Annie Laurie Gaylor, Foundation staff member, in the letter of complaint. "Mere financial gain or advantage cannot justify a union between religion and a public library." Now is an ideal time to rectify the violation since the Main Library will soon be renovated. Ask the Cambridge Public Library to remove the religious displays. Write: Ms Susan Flannery, Director Cambridge Public Library 449 Broadway Cambridge MA 02138 Send a copy of your letter to: Mayor Michael Sullivan City of Cambridge Office of the Mayor City Hall Cambridge MA 02139

Pictured on this page: Samples of a rash of letters sent to Foundation president Anne Gaylor by disgruntled supporters of the Liberty Counsel, which recently reprinted a copy of Anne's polite, uninflammatory, 4-line letter protesting a longterm "God Bless America" marquee at a Wisconsin school. The rightwing anti-Establishment Clause group, which has worked with local governments to fight Foundation litigation in the past, reprinted the letter as a fundraising tactic. The wording was removed from the marquee, incidentally. Below are emails received in early February on other issues. Foundation staffer Annie Laurie Gaylor appeared (briefly) in a news segment on Fox News Channel about the Foundation's winning federal lawsuit challenging "faith-based funding" of Faith Works. Others were sent to Dan Barker and the Foundation office by disgruntled Tennessee Christians, following the Foundation's legal victory in February ending bible instruction in Rhea County (Dayton) public schools. The emails are reprinted verbatim including spelling errors. (These emails do not say a lot for Fox News viewership or Liberty Counsel membership.) An anonymous greeting from Kentucky This letter above, threatening "my rifle is loaded," was apparently sent from a Liberty Counsel follower in Michigan. This racist response was sent to us from a man in Texas who is on the Liberty Counsel mailing list. Subject: "Heritage, Not Hate" Miss Gaylor, Your so called win against Faith Works may be a win for your heathen organization, but surely not for the recipients who have been helped by that organization. I'm not as religious as I should be, but I find you and your group of Satan worshiping scum not worthy of the freedom this country provides. Why don't you and your band of anti-God whackos move to China where you won't have to deal with religion? We don't need freedom from religion, but rather freedom from anti-religious and Satanic organization like yours. I find you worse than a whore. JS Bangor, Me. (The email included a waving, full-color confederate flag.) Subject: on your victory I am dissappointed in the view that taking away state funds from Faith Works was a great victory. But soon you will see it as your greatest loss. When your group stands in front of God and Jesus you will see the errors of your ways. When this country was first founded by those who are religious, there was no seperation from God. Your stand on this issue will bring you judgement from God. I am not telling you this will happen, but God can very well take away all of your finances. Your donors can very well stop giving your organization money. You soon could be investigated by gov and lose all that you got. Your personal lives may get up ended where you lose your jobs. When God works not one of us can stop Him. But the worse thing that can happen to you is on Judgement Day God says to you "I do not know you" and you spend eternity away from God. I pray you chose differently. Rev. Gregg Ander Subject: no Guts!?!? From: "F. Steve Troy" If you folks show some GUTS you might "bite-the-bullet" and call yourselves, Freedom from God. God will not bother to stop you in your quest but you can be MOST sure He will allow you to go all-the-way without Him and you and SATAN will go together. You might consider saying, SATAN bless us . . . and he WILL. Satan bless you all!!! From: "Chris McLeod" Please die and go to hell. From: "AJ Hidell" Hello, cheese-eating scumbags: You remind me of the night-riders of the 1960's, coming south in masks and hoods to commit your predations. In case you haven't noticed, the nation has rediscovered it's Christian roots, and it'll be a cold day in hell before we yield willingly to the precious mercies of liberal minions of secular humanism like you again. We put up with forty years of your crap, and it's OVER. Get used to it. P.S.: COWARDS, put your stinking real names on lawsuits. Subject: If you don't like Christianity. . . . . . Then why don't all of you leave America, this country was founded by Christians for Christians. And if you don't like it then go to a Godless heathen nation that agrees with your retard tinged philosophy. Their are way more of us Christians than you losers. Their is NO separation of church and state and you heathens will lose. Thankfully you are old and I hope you get a painful disease like rectal cancer and die a slow painful death, so you can meet your God, SATAN . . . . . . Subject: death From: Dave & Becky Freeman I will pray for the Lord of Lords to deliver you and all who spew your filth unto HIM. To cause a child to stumble with your words will surely lead to discrase and shame will follow you and your seed. Subject: Sickening To: Dan Barker You will never learn will you? God will soar His hand down and punish you for your actions in Chatanooga, Tennessee. America is indeed a Christian nation . . . God is surely angered. You will pay, and when you do, may God have mercy on your souls. From a high school student in Dayton Hey dude this freedom from religion thing sux, I live in dayton tn and i go to rhea county high school and GOD is the american father and god never loses he will strike you guys down So you fags and dykes take it easy and watch where you go cuz whenever you least expect it god will get you

Comparing a "Bible Education Ministry" program to "Sunday School," a federal judge in Tennessee issued a forceful decision on Feb. 8 declaring the classes in Rhea County public schools unconstitutional. The federal lawsuit was brought last April by the Freedom From Religion Foundation on behalf of parents with children in the schools. "Rhea County, Tennessee, is no stranger to religious controversy," wrote U.S. District Judge R. Allan Edgar, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the opening of his 19-page decision. "In 1925, the Rhea County Courthouse was the site of the well known 'Scopes' or 'Monkey' trial, wherein high school teacher John Scopes was tried for violating a Tennessee statute making it a misdemeanor to teach 'evolution theory' in the State's public schools. The trial pitted William Jennings Bryan, the 'Great Commoner,' representing the State, against Clarence Darrow for the defense. The legacy of that trial in some respects gives rise to this lawsuit," Edgar wrote. The Foundation's lawsuit on behalf of John Doe and Mary Roe pitted the rights of the parents--under a protective court order in the hostile Dayton-area community--against an obdurate school system, which refused to honor more than five decades of Supreme Court precedent against religious instruction in the public schools. The school board, which remains ineducable, has voted unanimously to appeal the decision. At the Rhea County School Board meeting on Feb. 14, only one community member spoke against appealing the decision. Another speaker called for the "impeachment" of Judge Edgar. (Federal judges are appointed for life.) The audience of 300 erupted into applause when the school board voted to appeal. School board member Bruce Majors said "we want to teach our children that the bible is the truth. Our only course is an appeal." The Herald News, a hostile bi-weekly published in Dayton, quoted a local mother, Rebecca Jones, saying in support of the Bible Education Ministry class: "Whoever took it out should be strung up." The bible instruction, carried out for 51 years in grades kindergarten through five in three Rhea County elementary schools, had been taught during regular school hours for 30 minutes each week without parental consent. The bible program, operated by students from Bryan College (a bible-based college founded after the Scopes trial) to help public school students become "exposed to the Bible," had no public school oversight. An assistant professor who is Director of Practical Christian Involvement supervised the program, which Judge Edgar characterized as what might be found in "a Sunday School class in many of the Christian churches in Rhea County." "The lesson plans retained by Bryan College," Edgar wrote, "reveal that the children are being taught that the Bible conveys literal truth about God and Jesus Christ reflective of the Bryan College 'Statement of Belief,' that the bible is literally true. Students are asked to memorize bible verses, act out skits of biblical stories, and sing [religious] songs. . ." At oral argument, the judge's decision noted, counsel for defendants even admitted the bible is being presented "as the truth." Aside from the content, Edgar said, "the wholesale delegation of the administration of that program to Bryan College, a decidedly religious institution, by itself results in an impermissible entanglement of government and religion." ". . . the government, through its public school system, may not teach, or allow the teaching of a distinct religious viewpoint," wrote Edgar, saying the BEM program has "both the purpose and effect to endorse and advance religion in the public schools." "The Rhea County courses are being taught to the youngest and most impressionable school children by college students who have no discernible educational training and no supervision by the school system." "This is not a close case," Edgar observed, pointing out that since 1948, when McCollum v. Board of Education was decided by the Supreme Court, religious instruction in public schools has been barred. The Rhea County practices do not differ substantially from McCollum, "except that, if anything, they make out an even stronger case for violation of the Establishment Clause," Edgar concluded. Vashti McCollum, the Champaign, Illinois mother who brought the McCollum challenge, is now nearly ninety, and is an honorary officer of the Foundation. The Foundation recently reprinted a new edition of her acclaimed account of her dramatic lawsuit, One Woman's Fight. "The Bible Education Ministry program was a flagrant and atavistic First Amendment violation. It's tremendously satisfying to see the wall of separation between church and state be reinforced by such a strong decision," said Dan Barker, public relations director of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The attorneys representing the Foundation and its plaintiffs are Joseph H. Johnston, Nashville, and Steve Doughty and Alvin Harris, Nashville. The case, John Doe, Mary Roe, and Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Sue Porter, Supt. of the Rhea County School System, and Rhea County Board of Education, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Case No. 1:01-cv-115, is excerpted on pages 8 and 9. The entire decision can be found online at: http://ffrf.org/legal/rheadecision.html

Ashcroft . . . as quoted by conservative columnist Cal Thomas on his radio show on November 9 (and belatedly denied by a Justice Department spokeswoman): "Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends his son to die for you." Not to get too wound up in theology here, but if the Christian God sent his own son to die doesn't that make him, according to Ashcroft's definition, a Muslim? --Katha Pollitt The Nation, March 4, 2002 I think what you have to recognize is I've never gotten a death threat from an atheist or a Buddhist, only bible-quoting, true believers. Most people don't know that there's this dark and hostile side of religion. I think they saw it on Sept. 11. --Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong Chicago Sun-Times, Nov. 23, 2001 No matter what you believe about abortion, a procedure that more than a million women choose in this country every year, those who believe in human rights have to be repelled by the notion of religious fanatics who believe they can harass, injure or murder people on the say-so of a direct pipeline to God, or Allah. There's no real ideological difference between these people and the people who flew planes into the World Trade Center. --Anna Quindlen "The Terrorists Here at Home" Time, Dec. 17 2001 Where has God been since 1973 regarding the New York Knicks? I'd like to know. If one wants proof that God does not side with someone who merely invokes his name frequently, take point guard Charlie Ward (please). --Roger Rosenblatt "God Is Not on My Side. Or Yours" Time, Dec. 17, 2001 Utah is the nearest the western world gets to a functioning theocracy. --Matthew Engel "British Visitor to Utah Finds 'Strangest' State [London] Guardian, Jan. 27, 2002 God almighty will give the United States a pill that will puke them to death. --Brigham Young, late 1850s New York Times, Feb. 3, 2002 Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six. --Tolstoy on his deathbed After being urged to rejoin the Russian Orthodox Church ("Passage," by Connie Willis) So far, that list [of Roman Catholic officials who knew that an area priest was molesting and raping children for years] includes a cardinal, five bishops and several parish priests. In the real world, we send guys who rape children to prison. In the world that is the Roman Catholic Church, guys who rape children get transferred to another parish. Again and again and again. --Columnist Regina Bretta Cleveland Plain Dealer, Jan. 31, 2002

Foundation member Donald A. Mosher was one of five people asked to write an essay about where they would draw the line on sacrificing personal freedoms for the sake of homeland security by the Post-Crescent, the daily newspaper in Appleton, Wis. Here is his response (originally appearing on Nov. 20, 2001). The First Amendment is in serious danger with the present efforts of the religious right to put "God" (whose version?) into our government. The proliferation of "God Bless America" signs assures us that our God is bigger than their God. Should we have a right-wing Christian Taliban, based on Old Testament commandments, running our government and our lives? After all, the terrorist attacks were examples of "faith-based initiatives." The attacks of Sept. 11 are characterized as political by our leaders. The attackers were (and are) religious fanatics who happen to be Muslims. Our own leaders fall all over themselves to stress that Islam is a religion of peace, and that the attackers have contorted the Koran. Actually, the attackers hewed to the fundamentals of their Abrahamic-revealed religion. Their "how-to" manuals were laced with religion and prayer, not political writings. "Kill the infidel" is a key and prominent feature of Islam. Fortunately, most Muslims are not that zealous. Jewish and Christian holy scriptures each advocate the same style of religious violence. The Old Testament is a litany of wars and terrorism in the name of God. The God-given commandments (not just 10 of them) are still there, calling good Jews and good Christians to perform the same gory executions of non-believers today. Again, good thing most Jews and Christians are not that zealous. Jesus did not advocate changing "one jot or tittle" of the Old Testament: "Unbelievers should be brought hither and slain before me." We should call on Muslims, Jews and Christians to disavow these violent writings of the past--but that is something they cannot bring themselves to do. Involved in corporate aviation for some 40 years (pilot, fleet manager) and other aspects of aviation for 10 more, Don Mosher is now retired. He has made a "lifelong study of religions, especially the Bible. That's why I am an atheist."

The day oral arguments on the Ohio school voucher case were heard before the U.S. Supreme Court, I was one of several guests invited to discuss the topic on arch-conservative Alan Keyes' TV talkshow "Making Sense" on MSNBC. Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, joined me in one segment as an able advocate of secular public-funded schools. Keyes asked what is wrong with giving parents a "choice" to send children to religious schools. "It involves state funding of indoctrination," I replied. "And let's look who the big beneficiary is of the voucher programs in Cleveland and Milwaukee. It's the Roman Catholic Church. Two-thirds of these schools that are being used are Catholic. We're bailing out the failing Catholic church [schools] with this. "It's something that could topple not only the wall of separation between church and state, but it could destroy our public school system, which is supposed to be the great melting pot. "There's no virtue in religiously segregated schools. People shouldn't pat themselves on the back for wanting to segregate children on the basis of their religion. Church schools are not better schools. I think that the Supreme Court, if it approves this, could ruin our country. I think that Bin Laden would support the Cleveland program. Look where the terrorists came from: the religious schools. "And they're divisive. Look at the example of Ireland, what was happening to the Catholic children last September, being assaulted on the way to school, because we have religiously segregated systems in that country where the Protestants and the Catholics never meet. "I think that our public schools are the richness of our country, and we should be supporting them." I could only shake my head for most of the rest of the discussion, which, contrary to the show's title, did not make much sense. A pro-voucher guest, Caroline Hoxby, made the voucher movement's most disingenuous, dishonest and insincere case--that defunding public schools in favor of private (religious) schools actually helps struggling public schools. Hoxby claimed her studies showed test scores had improved in Milwaukee Public Schools as a result of the voucher "competition" (ignoring the effects of Wisconsin's SAGE program to limit class sizes, for instance). The mind-boggling irony is that Milwaukee's voucher schools are exempt from such standardized testing! There is zilch accountability, with harsh standards for public schools and very few for voucher schools. So much is at stake with the similar voucher program in Cleveland now before the Supreme Court. The facts are so damning. More than 99% of the approximately 4,000 students enrolled in the 6-year-old Cleveland voucher program attend religious schools. If that's not enough evidence of state subsidy and endorsement of religion, look at the cozy set-up: Just as in the Milwaukee voucher program, state checks for vouchers of up to $2,250 a year are sent directly to the schools for parental endorsement. Where public dollars go, public accountability should follow. Yet Cleveland voucher schools don't even have on-site inspection. Voucher schools can apply for exemptions from Ohio standards on open records, teacher certification and background checks, and fire, health and safety inspection laws. A notorious case exposed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer involved the Islamic Academy School of Arts and Sciences, which operated under voucher funding for two years. Its 110-year-old building was a fire and lead-paint hazard, a majority of instructors lacked state teaching licenses, and one had even been convicted of first-degree murder. A state audit found misuse of $70,000 in tax dollars when the school claimed tax money for students who were not enrolled. The Golden State Christian Academy, a parent-run school, taught students by videos provided by the Pensacola Christian Academy, "dedicated to serving the Lord through Christian education." After two years it was finally defunded for gross noncompliance, including keeping no immunization records, and safety lapses. The tax money, of course, is raided from the Cleveland district's portion of the state Disadvantaged Pupil Impact AID program, with Cleveland schools losing up to $11 million a year in such aid (and estimated to climb to as much as $22 million this year). Voucher schools can exclude many disadvantaged students, such as those learning English as a second language or severely handicapped children. About the time the voucher program started, all-day kindergartens in many Cleveland public schools were cut--due to lack of money. Tax money could be used for reading programs Cleveland schools would like to inaugurate, and to keep class sizes smaller, a proven method for improving learning. The predictable effect has been that the operating costs of the Cleveland public schools have continued to climb, while it is losing significant state aid. About a third of the children in the Cleveland program, ballyhooed as helping low-income children, were already enrolled in private schools by their families. The U.S. Court of Appeals, in ruling the program unconstitutional, noted that almost 40% of students receiving vouchers in the 1999-2000 school year were above the poverty line. A state-ordered audit found that $1.4 million was spent on transportation in the first year, mostly in funding $15-$18-a-day taxi rides, compared to average nonvoucher transportation costs of $3.33 per day. More than $419,000 in overbilling by taxi companies since 1997 was uncovered in January 1999. Study after study has found no statistical difference in scoring for students in public versus voucher schools. Studies have found lower grades for voucher students attending new start-up schools, according to People for the American Way. Of course, while these problems with voucher schools are maddening, they are not the point. The issue is whether, under our Constitution, taxpayers can be forced to subsidize religious schools. Many of the remarks by Supreme Court Justices at the Feb. 20 oral argument strayed distressingly far afield of this essential question of law and principle. Did you know the Catholic Conference of Bishops first began campaigning in the 1880s to force the government to fund its parochial schools? More than a century of lobbying has finally paid off. If religious prayer and worship in taxpaid public schools are unconstitutional, as the Supreme Court has held since 1948, how then could it be lawful to coerce taxpayers to support and maintain religion-based schools that conduct daily prayer sessions, masses and religious proselytizing that are at the very heart of their religious missions? And how can we taxpayers possibly afford to fund two systems: one secular, the other religious? It would bankrupt the country, and eviscerate the very heart of the First Amendment. Annie Laurie Gaylor is editor of Freethought Today.

A fundamentalist campaign to post "In God We Trust" in every public school classroom--an idea floated before state legislatures by rightwing religionists for at least a decade--has gained steam in the religion-equals-patriotism backlash following the Sept. 11 faith-based terrorist attacks. While Sept. 11 is being bandied as the rationale for forcing a captive audience of schoolchildren to eye a religious slogan every day, the American Family Association announced its campaign to put " 'In God We Trust' in every classroom in America" back in May 2001. The American Family Association, based in Tupelo, Mississippi, is run by Donald Wildmon, notorious for leading rightwing boycotts, especially against the entertainment industry, attacking everything from "All in the Family" and Harry Potter to "The Last Temptation of Christ." He served as co-chair of the Buchanan for President campaign. It is no coincidence that the first (and to date) only state requiring "In God We Trust" to be posted in every classroom is AFA's home state, Mississippi, which passed such legislation last year. Michigan saw passage of a law "encouraging" the posting of "In God We Trust" in all public buildings on Dec. 31. Some Michigan public schools are already posting the slogan. Bills in various state legislatures appear to be tailored to make use of the AFA campaign, which is selling 11 x 14" "In God We Trust" posters. Many of the proposals require that the "In God We Trust" posting be 11 x 14" or larger, and contain wording that the motto was adopted by Congress in 1956, which just happens to appear on the AFA poster. Congress had adopted the "In God We Trust" slogan at the behest of the Knights of Columbus, which undertook a national lobbying campaign during the height of 1950s zealotry. The original U.S. motto, chosen by a distinguished committee of Jefferson, Franklin and Adams, is the Latin E Pluribus Unum (From Many, [Come] One). A direct challenge of the religious motto has never been heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, assisted by Colorado attorney Robert R. Tiernan, filed a federal lawsuit in 1994 challenging both the law adopting the religious slogan (1956), and the law requiring it to appear on all U.S. currency (1955). An appeals court upheld a federal judge's decision not to hear the case, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the Foundation's appeal asking for its day in court. Evidence of the unconstitutionality of the motto which the Foundation sought to take before a court was a national opinion poll by Chamberlain Research (900 adults, May 18-23, 1994), finding that 61% consider the motto "religious," 71% believe it endorses a belief in God, and a majority regard the motto as preferring religion over nonreligion. As Foundation president Anne Gaylor says, the religious motto isn't even accurate: "To be accurate it would have to read 'In God Some of us Trust,' and wouldn't that be silly?" Historically, the incursion of religious slogans and symbolism on public imprimatur or property has been the result of crusades by religionists. "In God We Trust" appeared for the first time on a U.S. coin in 1864, directly as a result of a campaign by Baptist minister Mark R. Watkinson, who suggested the motto to "relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism" during the Civil War. It gradually became customary to use the slogan. By 1938 it was on virtually every coin (but not dollar bills). In 1955 Congress mandated that it appear on all U.S. coins and currency. A $1 silver certificate bearing the legend first appeared in October 1957. Similarly, the presence of most Ten Commandments monuments on public land, including many city halls, courthouses and a few state capitols around the nation, is due to a joint campaign by the religious Fraternal Order of Eagles, in cahoots with movie-spectacle director Cecil B. DeMille. The desire of Judge E.J. Ruegemer, an Eagles member, to see the Ten Commandments in courthouses (and to patriotically promote the granite industry of his home state of Minnesota) turned into a public relations coup for DeMille's 1956 epic, "The Ten Commandments." Religionists, thwarted in attempts to force school prayer and place the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, see the national motto campaign as a back-door ploy to finally get "God" into classrooms. "Friends of the First Amendment should take alarm at this campaign," warned Anne Gaylor. "We would hate to see any precedent created to force government-endorsed belief in a deity upon a captive audience of schoolchildren." Some current legislation: Virginia is facing three separate "In God We Trust" bills. One, requiring "In God We Trust" to be posted in every courtroom, passed the House of Delegates and moved on to preliminary approval in the Senate Courts of Justice committee on Feb. 13 in a 10-3 vote. Dissenter Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, demurred: "I believe in God, but there are others who don't." Sen. Janet D. Howell, D-Reston, objected that the bill's intent is to permit one religion to dominate others. Another bill requiring Virginia's public schools to post "In God We Trust" was approved 30-10 by the Virginia Senate. A similar bill passed the state's House of Delegates. (Each house needs to consider the other's bills.) Only Senate Democratic Leader Richard L. Saslaw spoke against this bill, saying it trivialized the word "God." Yet a third Virginia bill would require "In God We Trust" to be posted in other public buildings. Arizona: A bill encouraging the posting of "In God We Trust" in Arizona public schools was killed in committee in early February. Still pending action is a bill promoted by state Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, a Mormon legislator who wants to require the motto be displayed in every classroom, school auditorium and school cafeteria. The Arizona Republic (Feb. 13, 2002) editorialized against the bills: "The Arizona Legislature does not need to cram patriotism and religion down the throats of schoolchildren," saying if the bill survives, supporters "should be condemned for a shameless, election-year promotion of their religion in public schools." Utah's house passed a bill in late January making it mandatory for all public schools to display "In God We Trust." The bill will now go to the Mormon-dominated state Senate. Florida's House Council on Lifelong Learning in mid-February unanimously passed a bill requiring school superintendents to allow "In God We Trust" to be posted prominently in schools. The bill now goes before the full House. Editorialized Florida Today (Feb. 13): "More than two centuries ago, British satirist Samuel Johnson astutely observed that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels. "Were Johnson alive today, and aware of the goings on in the Florida Legislature, he might well conclude that public piety serves the same function. . . . the idea of posting 'In God We Trust' in public schools should go no further . . . Just because Congress long ago ignored the Constitution in approving the motto for some U.S. currency notes and coins, that's no reason for the Florida Legislature to repeat the mistake." Indiana's State Senate voted in February to put the motto in 60,000 classrooms across the state. The bill goes before the Indiana house. Connecticut Rep. Art O'Neill, R-Southbury, introduced a bill in February to place "In God We Trust" in every public classroom. Countered Senate President Pro Tem Kevin Sullivan, D-West Hartford: "I don't trust politicians who come up with ideas like this to make headlines." Louisiana: The Tangipahoa Parish public schools voted in February to distribute the AFA "In God We Trust" placards with a recommendation, but not a mandate, to display them. State Rep. Almond Gaston Crowe, Jr., R-Pearl River, donated 100 posters and claims 600,000 AFA posters have been given to the nation's schools.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation contacted Dr Pepper's consumer relations department to thank it for keeping a patriotic design on its cans secular, after Christian groups targeted the company. The can, featuring an image of the Statue of Liberty, displays the words "One Nation . . . Indivisible." The company distributed more than 41 million special edition cans to regions in a dozen states starting in November. Mike Martin, director of Dr Pepper's communications office, told the Dallas Morning News the design reflects "our pride in this country's determination to stand together as one" after September 11. A bible academy in Iowa, soon joined by Donald Wildmon's American Family Association, recently targeted the company for "leaving out God on the cans." "It wouldn't have been practical to print the entire pledge in the area available on the can," Martin reasonably pointed out. Martin said many of the thousands of emails Dr Pepper received revealed confusion. Some complained Dr Pepper had "changed the words in the Declaration of Independence" or believed the entire Pledge of Allegiance was written in the can with the phrase "under God" deleted. The Freedom From Religion Foundation received media coverage for asking its members to thank Dr Pepper "for not tying patriotism to a belief in a god in their marketing campaign." You can still email your thanks to them to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The phrase "One nation, indivisible," ironically was turned divisive when Congress, in 1954, belatedly inserted "under God" into the secular Pledge.