American Atheists Missouri

American Atheists is incredibly proud to announce a new Affiliate!

Please take the time if it so pleases you to contact this new Affiliate and welcome them to the Affiliate program. American Atheists continues to be proud of the Affiliate program and the individual Affiliates that make the program work!

If you have a local group that is interested in affiliating with American Atheists, or if you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the Affiliate program, please contact Blair Scott, the National Affiliate Director, at bscott@atheists.org or visit the Affiliate Web Page at http://alabamaatheist.org/naod.

St. Joseph Skeptics

http://stjosephskeptics.org

mail@stjosephskeptics.org

For more information, please contact:

Ed Buckner, President 908-499-9200 (cell) or 770-803-5353 (office/fax)

Dave Silverman, Communications Director 732-648-9333

Kathleen Johnson, Vice President and Military Director 318-542-1019

ATHEISTS HAIL REMOVAL OF BIBLE CITATIONS, CALL FOR MORE SCRUTINY IN MILITARY TO PREVENT RELIGIOUS PROSELYTIZING

An Atheist public policy group praised  plans to remove Bible citations from hundreds of thousands of rifle sights sold to the U.S. military under contract following an outcry from civil liberties and state-church separation groups.

A Michigan-based manufacturer, Trijicon, has announced that it will no longer imprint the citations on rifle sights used by troops in the Middle East, and distribute a special kit for removing the offensive lettering on existing rifles.

Dr. Ed Buckner, President of Americana Atheists, charged that the Bible passages “conveyed a message of intolerance and religious bullying to the very people in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq we are ostensibly trying to liberate.”

“By eliminating these ‘Christian crusader’ references, we are no longer handing al Qaeda and other Islamic religious fanatics a priceless propaganda vehicle,” added Buckner.

Kathleen Johnson, Vice President and Military Director for American Atheists, also praised the elimination of the offending Bible citations, but wondered why this issue even came up.

“The military has strict rules in place to prohibit actions that make it appear as if US Forces are proselytizing or are crusading against the Muslim faith” said Johnson. “There were apparently no controls or oversight here, as tens of thousands of these ‘Christian rifle sights’ were being sold at public expense and distributed in theaters of operation.

Johnson called for more explicit regulations, including a written requirement that any materials purchased by the Department of Defense be “religion-free and neutral”. Johnson further added a demand that senior leaders within the military ensure the imprinted bible citations are removed. “We cannot have a situation where individual commanders elect to keep the imprinted bible citations and the only way to prevent that is to make leaders accountable for compliance” said Johnson.

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.

American Atheists, Inc.

PO BOX 158

Cranford, NJ 07016

Tel.: (908) 276-7300

Fax: (908) 276-7402

American Atheists is incredibly proud to announce a new Affiliate!

Please take the time if it so pleases you to contact this new Affiliate and welcome them to the Affiliate program. American Atheists continues to be proud of the Affiliate program and the individual Affiliates that make the program work!

If you have a local group that is interested in affiliating with American Atheists, or if you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the Affiliate program, please contact Blair Scott, the National Affiliate Director, at bscott@atheists.org or visit the Affiliate Web Page at

http://alabamaatheist.org/naod.

Springfield Freethinkers

http://meetup.com/SpringfieldFreethinkers

An Atheist public policy group praised  plans to remove Bible citations

from hundreds of thousands of rifle sights sold to the U.S. military

under contract following an outcry from civil liberties and state-church

separation groups.

A Michigan-based manufacturer, Trijicon, has announced that it will no

longer imprint the citations on rifle sights used by troops in the

Middle East, and distribute a special kit for removing the offensive

lettering on existing rifles.

Dr. Ed Buckner, President of Americana Atheists, charged that the Bible

passages “conveyed a message of intolerance and religious bullying to

the very people in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq we are ostensibly

trying to liberate.”

“By eliminating these ‘Christian crusader’ references, we are no longer

handing al Qaeda and other Islamic religious fanatics a priceless

propaganda vehicle,” added Buckner.

Kathleen Johnson, Vice President and Military Director for American

Atheists, also praised the elimination of the offending Bible citations,

but wondered why this issue even came up.

“The military has strict rules in place to prohibit actions that make it

appear as if US Forces are proselytizing or are crusading against the

Muslim faith” said Johnson. “There were apparently no controls or

oversight here, as tens of thousands of these ‘Christian rifle sights’

were being sold at public expense and distributed in theaters of operation.

Johnson called for more explicit regulations, including a written

requirement that any materials purchased by the Department of Defense

be “religion-free and neutral”. Johnson further added a demand that

senior leaders within the military ensure the imprinted bible citations

are removed. “We cannot have a situation where individual commanders

elect to keep the imprinted bible citations and the only way to prevent

that is to make leaders accountable for compliance” said Johnson.

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.

American Atheists, Inc.

PO BOX 158

Cranford, NJ 07016

Tel.: (908) 276-7300

Fax: (908) 276-7402