American Humanist Association (AHA)

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Comment by Brian Magee on July 2, 2012 at 10:53am

Take Action: Tell Congress To Support The Military Spouses Equal Tr...

Dear Friend,

 

Now that the disgraceful “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy has been repealed, most Americans think our troops are serving freely and fairly alongside each other. Unfortunately, this is just not the case.

Federal law unfortunately still discriminates against married gay and lesbian service members, veterans, and their families by denying them crucial protections and creating two classes of service members in our armed forces.

Thankfully, Representative Adam Smith(WA) recently proposed legislation that would extend these benefits and protections to same-sex partners of military service members.

HB 6406, also known as the Military Spouses Equal Treatment Act, would enable same-sex spouses and partners of military personnel and veterans to “obtain essential benefits, including insurance, housing allowances and survivor benefits.” This legislation would finally remove the discriminatory gap in our armed forces and allow gay and lesbian service members and their families to get the benefits and rights that they deserve.

Stand up for the rights of LGBT soldiers who risk their lives every...

The American Humanist Association firmly believes in the right of all Americans, regardless of sexual orientation, to be treated equally and justly by their government. Congress must pass legislation such as HB 6406 that works to protect the rights of all Americans and removes the remnants of institutional discrimination.

Please take a moment to contact your Representative today and ask him or her to support the Military Spouses Equal Treatment Act.

Sincerely,

Roy Speckhardt

Executive Director

Comment by James M. Martin on July 1, 2012 at 4:22pm

The truly scary part, at least here in Texas, is that the Christer bigots in the legislature run the majority party with a thoroughly theocratic platform, no doubt to show there'll be none of that Sharia stuff in the Lone Star State.  But what they emphasize is terrifying: abolition of any sort of learning that calls for "critical thinking."  Critical in this context is synonymous with rational, and with analytical.  We have far too many anti-critical people right now.  They claim fossils are God's plants to make fools of evolutionists and that God allowed Adam to dominate dinosaurs.

Comment by Brian Magee on July 1, 2012 at 6:55am

The Parade of Privilege: How Government Favors Religion

Luis Granados, director of the AHA’s publishing house, Humanist Press, responds to the Catholic bishops' Fortnight for Freedom, a 14-day campaign which, according to the Washington Post, “purports to champion religious freedom, but in actuality distorts it by promoting the use of religion as a license to discriminate.”

Religious Privilege #6: Sabotaging Secular Education

The only way religion can survive is by constant brainwashing of impressionable young minds. It’s a rare bird indeed who is raised without religious indoctrination, then after reaching the age of reason looks at the evidence, slaps his forehead and says “Of course! A Trinity! It must be so.”

America’s bishops fought a bitter battle for decades against secular education, sternly admonishing the faithful that it was the gravest of mortal sins to send their children to public schools when a parochial school was available.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Visit the American Humanist Association’s Facebook page every day beginning June 27 where we counter the Catholic Bishop’s Fortnight for Freedom by posting a special privilege experienced only by churches in the United States.

Comment by Brian Magee on June 30, 2012 at 10:39am

The Parade of Privilege: How Government Favors Religion

Luis Granados, director of the AHA’s publishing house, Humanist Press, responds to the Catholic bishops' Fortnight for Freedom, a 14-day campaign which, according to the Washington Post, “purports to champion religious freedom, but in actuality distorts it by promoting the use of religion as a license to discriminate.”

Religious Privilege #5: The Government PR Campaign

The most astonishing conundrum about the bishops’ “Fortnight for Freedom” campaign is how anyone could imagine that a government so bent on promoting religious belief could be accused of persecuting people for it.

We have a government that in 1954 changed the longstanding Pledge of Allegiance every school child must recite, to insert an “under God” proviso that marginalizes millions of non-religious Americans. This persecutes religion?

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Visit the American Humanist Association’s Facebook page every day beginning June 27 where we counter the Catholic Bishop’s Fortnight for Freedom by posting a special privilege experienced only by churches in the United States.

 

Comment by Brian Magee on June 29, 2012 at 1:40pm

The Parade of Privilege: How Government Favors Religion

Luis Granados, director of the AHA’s publishing house, Humanist Press, responds to the Catholic bishops' Fortnight for Freedom, a 14-day campaign which, according to the Washington Post, “purports to champion religious freedom, but in actuality distorts it by promoting the use of religion as a license to discriminate.”

 

Religious Privilege #4: Land Use

Land use laws can be a pain. Most of us have at least a little stubborn streak of “I paid for my property, I can do with it what I want.” But real-world experience with uncontrolled sprawl has led the vast majority of Americans to acquiesce in the need for sensible zoning and historic preservation laws that everyone has to comply with.

Everyone, that is, except God experts. Thanks to a travesty of a federal law called the “Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act” (RLUIPA), governments at every level now have to bend over backwards to change their zoning rules to accommodate anyone who claims to be acting for God.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Visit the American Humanist Association’s Facebook page every day beginning June 27 where we counter the Catholic Bishop’s Fortnight for Freedom by posting a special privilege experienced only by churches in the United States.

 

Comment by Brian Magee on June 28, 2012 at 12:46pm

The Parade of Privilege: How Government Favors Religion

Luis Granados, director of the AHA’s publishing house, Humanist Press, responds to the Catholic bishops' Fortnight for Freedom, a 14-day campaign which, according to the Washington Post, “purports to champion religious freedom, but in actuality distorts it by promoting the use of religion as a license to discriminate.”

Religious Privilege #3: A Blind Eye to Scofflaws

“In the face of an unjust law,” the bishops wrote when first announcing the current Fortnight for Freedom campaign, “an accommodation is not to be sought, especially by resorting to equivocal words and deceptive practices. If we face today the prospect of unjust laws, then Catholics in America, in solidarity with our fellow citizens, must have the courage not to obey them.”

Religiously motivated defiance of the law is already here – and the government isn’t lifting a finger to stop it.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Visit the American Humanist Association’s Facebook page every day beginning June 27 where we counter the Catholic Bishop’s Fortnight for Freedom by posting a special privilege experienced only by churches in the United States.

Comment by Brian Magee on June 27, 2012 at 3:42pm

The Parade of Privilege: How Government Favors Religion

Luis Granados, director of the AHA’s publishing house, Humanist Press, responds to the Catholic bishops' Fortnight for Freedom, a 14-day campaign which, according to the Washington Post, “purports to champion religious freedom, but in actuality distorts it by promoting the use of religion as a license to discriminate.”

Religious Privilege #2: Crime and Punishment

While the bishops prattle on in their “Fortnight of Freedom” about how oppressed religion is in today’s America, the fact of the matter is that God experts occupy a lofty pedestal, with all kinds of special privileges not available to the one-third of Americans who are not religious. Yesterday we looked at the church property tax exemption, worth a cool $26 billion a year. Today, let’s look at crime and punishment.

Should people who claim to have a particular set of beliefs about supernatural spirits in the sky be subject to the same criminal laws that you and I have to obey? Of course they should. Why is this even a question?

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Visit the American Humanist Association’s Facebook page every day beginning June 27 where we counter the Catholic Bishop’s Fortnight for Freedom by posting a special privilege experienced only by churches in the United States.

Comment by Brian Magee on June 26, 2012 at 2:55pm

The Parade of Privilege: How Government Favors Religion

Luis Granados, director of the AHA’s publishing house, Humanist Press, responds to the Catholic Bishop’s Fortnight for Freedom, a 14-day campaign which, according to theWashington Post, “purports to champion religious freedom, but in actuality distorts it by promoting the use of religion as a license to discriminate.”

We’ve just begun enduring the Fortnight for Freedom, the Catholic bishops’ 14-day whine festival to “restore religious liberty.” What a joke! Religion in America today not only has all the “liberty” one could imagine but also enjoys an extraordinary array of special privileges. So, as a brief counterpoint of sanity amidst the sanctimony, we offer the Parade of Privilege: a daily reminder of the myriad ways that government props up religion, favoring God experts over the estimated one-third of Americans who are not religious. When we reach the end of the Parade, ask yourself this: how much higher would that one-third be if government provided a truly level playing field?

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Visit the American Humanist Association’s Facebook page every day beginning June 27 where we counter the Catholic Bishop’s Fortnight for Freedom by posting a special privilege experienced only by churches in the United States.

Comment by Brian Magee on June 25, 2012 at 3:31pm

In 1958, Gallup first asked Americans if they would vote for an atheist for president. Only 18% said they would. In 1978 the number was 40%. In 1999 it was up to 49%. Now, for the first time, 54% of Americans say they would vote for an atheist president!

Organizations like the American Humanist Association are helping to change the culture so that atheists and humanists are recognized and respected, and your support makes a difference.

Become a member today: www.americanhumanist.org/join

Comment by Brian Magee on June 25, 2012 at 3:30pm

@Solmarie: Yes!

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