American Atheists Missouri

Imagine you or someone you love is desperately in need of alcohol rehabilitation services, and the only provider in the area is faith-based. Counseling sessions are held in a room containing crosses and scripture, but because the center receives federal funds, you know they are required to provide secular alcohol and addiction services.  After a few weeks of attending counseling sessions, you are invited by a church employee who is not a counselor to stay at the center for a Bible class held in the same building. As a nontheist, you politely refuse. The following week this same employee corners you after class and starts a long, awkward conversation about how you need to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You feel as though you cannot comfortably continue to attend this treatment center when you are forced to interact with this individual in the midst of your treatment. You tell your counselor, but you’re told that the law says there is nothing to be done.

Proselytizing to someone in the middle of addiction treatment – at a vulnerable moment — is nothing less than harassment. Since legislation containing so-called “charitable choice” provisions were first enacted in 1996, anyone obtaining counseling at a faith-based substance abuse treatment center could be subject to this kind of treatment by church employees. While counselors are forbidden from proselytizing, there is no measure prohibiting employees or volunteers of a faith-based organization or religious institution from doing so before or after treatment.

Tell your senators to remove “charitable choice” provisions that allows religious organizations to proselytize to  people seeking counseling for substance abuse or mental health issues.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Act (SAMHSA) was just re-introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI). Despite many behind-the-scenes meetings, Mr. Kennedy refused calls by the Secular Coalition for America to introduce this legislation with stronger protections for beneficiaries of social services. The Senate is now working on their version of SAMHSA and it’s important that they hear from you. Tell them to remove charitable choice provisions that allow proselytizing at federally-funded substance abuse and mental health centers—be they religious or not.

So-called “charitable choice” provisions also allow the direct funding of houses of worship with your tax dollars. They are given carte blanche to perform secular social services without having to separate taxpayer money from the funds they receive from their parishioners for strictly sectarian purposes. Before “charitable choice”, all religious institutions and faith-based organizations were required to set up separate 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations to which taxpayer money was directed. This money could then be audited by the federal government. Since 1996, faith-based organizations no longer have to allocate the money they receive from the federal government in a 501(c)3 – they can literally keep it in the same account as money from the collection plate!

It is often impossible to know whether houses of worship are using government funds for sectarian purposes, or whether they are really keeping this money separate. Moreover, IRS rules make it very difficult to audit houses of worship and the lack of 501(c)3s make it even more difficult to pinpoint corruption. If we must send federal dollars to faith-based organizations and religious institutions to perform social services, they must be held accountable for how they spend taxpayer’s dollars.

Click here to send a message to your Senator.

Last night the Secular Coalition for America and its allies discovered that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) had introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization bill that would allow chaplains in the military to use specifically-Christian prayers at official military events. The Secular Coalition for America unequivocally opposes this measure, and released the following statement:

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The Secular Coalition for America strongly believes that prayers of any kind at official military events are harmful to minority rights, but if chaplains do pray for official events, their prayers should be as inclusive as possible-in keeping with the Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Rep. Bachmann’s amendment would force the military to change their regulations and allow chaplains to invoke the religious figures of their choice at official military events, including but not limited to graduations and promotion ceremonies.

“The primary function of the military chaplain is to engage in activities designed to meet the religious needs of a pluralistic military community,” wrote the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in 1985, in Katcoff v Marsh. Army chaplains were hired to serve military personnel “who wish to use them,” the Court observed; they are not authorized “to proselytize soldiers or their families.”

Given chaplains’ mandate to serve a religiously pluralistic population, it is unacceptable for them to advance any one religious viewpoint over any other, including monotheism over other types of theism or nontheism. To change the current policy and permit references to Jesus, for example, is an insult to minority religions and nontheists of all stripes who serve our nation in the United States Armed Forces.

This kind of legislative effort marks a disturbing trend. Last week a Virginia State Police chaplain invoked Jesus Christ in prayers during the police department’s annual memorial service honoring fallen state troopers. Previously, police chaplains were not permitted to invoke religious figures of their choice at government-sanctioned events, but in April Virginia governor Bob McDonnell revoked the ban on sectarian prayers and the invocation of specific religious figures.

Father of the Constitution James Madison described government chaplains promoting a majority religion as “majority tyranny.”  It would be wrong if enacted by our federal government just as it is wrong in Virginia-Madison’s home state.

If Rep. Bachmann’s amendment moves to the floor of the House, we urge all Members of Congress to vote against changing current military policy to allow for sectarian prayers.

www.secular.org

Nontheist Advocacy Group Also Asks Pentagon to End Relationship with Dobson Group

The Pentagon should respect the constitutional separation of church and state and cancel a planned National Day of Prayer event, particularly in light of its recent labeling as a “Christian-themed event” by an Army spokesman, the Secular Coalition for America said today. The Pentagon should also sever all operational ties to the National Day of Prayer Task Force, a radical right wing organization headed by the wife of Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, and housed in Focus on the Family’s headquarters.

“It is bad enough that the administration is going ahead with an observance of the National Day of Prayer, correctly ruled unconstitutional by the courts only last week. But for the Pentagon to hold an explicitly ‘Christian-themed event’ around the day of prayer is brazenly out of all reasonable bounds, and explicitly exclusionary to U.S. service members of all non-Christian faiths and of no faith,” said Secular Coalition for America Executive Director Sean Faircloth, referring to a characterization of the event by Army spokesman Col. Tom Collins, as reported by the Associated Press yesterday. “This event should be cancelled, and the Department of Defense should apologize to all non-Christians who are being rendered second-class by this ill-advised program.”

Faircloth also called upon the Pentagon’s chaplain’s office to end its working relationship with the National Day of Prayer Task Force, a right-wing, theocratic group headed by Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family’s James Dobson. “It is difficult to imagine a less wise alliance than one between Pentagon officials and anyone working under the Dobson umbrella. The already-dubious military chaplaincy should end once and for all its connections to Mrs. Dobson’s radical group.”

On Fox News on April 4, Chaplain Terry Brewly asserted that it was “very true” that there is “no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole,” a direct affront to the brave men and women of the military who identify as nontheists. The Secular Coalition for America has advocated strongly for an end to religious proselytizing and coercion in the U.S. military. The group pressed its case for equal rights for nontheist military personnel in its historic meeting with administration officials in February, and its founding director, Lori Lipman Brown, appears in a new documentary on the military chaplaincy, Chaplains Under Fire, premiering at the Newseum in D.C. on April 30.

For Immediate Release: April 22, 2010
Contact: Paul Fidalgo, 202-299-1091 / press(at)secular.org

Led by the Secular Coalition for America, representatives from leading Atheist, Freethought, Humanist and other non-believer organizations met earlier today with White House officials in an historic gathering.

Dr. Ed Buckner, President of American Atheists, praised the Obama Administration for “giving us our rightful seat at the table in the discussion over public policy.”

“Over 13% of the population is considered ‘non-religious,’ and this includes millions of Atheists, Freethinkers, Humanists, Rationalists, and other citizens,” said Buckner. “We are committed to the separation of church and state and to equality for non-believers in the political arena. Religious speakers must not continue to be given special privileges.”

Representatives from American Atheists included: Dr. Buckner; AA Vice President and National Spokesperson Dave Silverman; Vice President and Military Director Kathleen Johnson; Indra Zuno, AA general member, translator, and writer; Ellen Birch, Chair of the American Atheists Life Membership Committee and systems engineer; and Camille A. Brewer, AA general member, political/freethought activist and art expert.

As part of the official briefing, American Atheists Vice President and Military Director Kathleen Johnson told White House representatives: “I have witnessed firsthand how service members who are openly non-theist have been harassed by their commanders, leaders, and peers, and have been disrespected by their subordinates for failing to hold certain religious beliefs.”

Johnson called for the Obama Administration to “demonstrate its commitment to improving the climate for non-theists by ensuring nominees to key senior leadership positions answer hard questions intended to identify if they hold views detrimental to non-theists and if so, that such views be considered a disqualification for that officer.”

Johnson also called for those holding non-theist convictions to enjoy the status of “a protected class throughout the Armed Services on par with the protections afforded to women, minorities, and those belonging to minority faith groups.”

Media inquiries and interviews are welcome.

AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for Atheists; works for the total separation of church and state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.

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Tel.: (908) 276-7300 Fax: (908) 276-7402