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Posted on 07/13/2011 3:19:25 PM PDT by TaraP
A Wisconsin-based religious freedom group is suing Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a possible Republican presidential contender, in an effort to block his promotion of and participation in an all-day Christian prayer event to be held Aug. 6, arguing that it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
The Freedom From Religious Foundation, which claims more than 16,000 members, including 700 in Texas, filed the federal lawsuit Wednesday in Houston, contending that Perry’s actions violate the Constitution's Establishment Clause by “giving the appearance that the government prefers evangelical Christian religious beliefs over other religious beliefs and non-beliefs.”
“We always say, beware prayer by pious politicians,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, who co-directs the group with her husband, Dan Barker, a former evangelical Christian minister who is now an atheist.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Ping
Gov Perry knows that there is only 1 that can fix our country and our world...
2 Chronicles 7:14
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Amen and Amen...
That is not a “religious freedom group”
Is this group going after the Alabama churches that are supporting illegals?
Well, if the atheists are acting up, the Westboro loons won’t be far behind.
“We always say, beware prayer by pious politicians,”
And I always say, beware of busybodies who want to limit the religious freedom of others through unconstitutional means.
Isn’t “Religious Freedom” the ability to pray where and when you want? This organization is nuts.
There is no reference to “separation of church and state” in the US Constitution...that phrase came from a letter that Jefferson penned years later.
I want to “go after” this Wisconsin bunch for violating my constitutionally-protected rights.
and it was put in the US Constitution by judges in 1947. The fact that that statement was by Jefferson is a historical curiousity. It was made law by the SCT, and it doesn’t matter who said it.
What did Satan promise this group for their loyalty???
Rick Perry is going to do just what everyone else that is sued or threatened for praying should do - he is going to do it anyway! What are they going to do! Shoot him, put him in jail?
He will proceed regardless of what anyone says or does.
Look at the students that were told not to say ‘Jesus’ or ‘God’ at their graduation speeches and they did it anyway. People just need to stand up and not back down.
I agree...People are tired of being door-mats and giving into the liberalism that has been destroying the fabric of our country....
“A Wisconsin-based religious freedom group is suing Texas Gov. Rick Perry...”
I believe that it was this same group of yankee bass turds that were down here in South Carolina raising cain because the city council prayed before each session. The city council told them to pound sand.
I think it’s about time for some carpetbaggers to get a ride on a rail out of town after being tarred and feathered.
Amen and amen! Power, glory, honor and praise to the Lord.
I agree with “beware prayer by pious politicians” but I wonder what part of “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” the Freedom From Religious Foundation doesn’t understand.
http://ffrf.org/uploads/images/executivecouncil.jpg
DAN BARKER and ANNIE LAURIE GAYLOR are co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and co-hosts of Freethought Radio. A former minister and evangelist, Dan became a freethinker in 1983.
Annie Laurie was also editor of Freethought Today from 1984 to 2009. Her 1997 book, Women Without Superstition: ‘No Gods, No Masters’is the first collection of the writings of historic and contemporary women freethinkers. After graduation, she founded, edited and published the Feminist Connection,a monthly advocacy newspaper, from 1980-1985. She joined the Foundation staff in 1985. She has been co-president since 2004.
http://ffrf.org/uploads/images/danalgbench.jpg
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is delighted to announce the formation of a new FFRF Honorary Board of distinguished achievers who have made known their dissent from religion.
The FFRF Honorary Board includes Richard Dawkins, Daniel C. Dennett, Ernie Harburg, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Christopher Hitchens, Susan Jacoby, Mike Newdow, Katha Pollitt, Steven Pinker, Ron Reagan, Oliver Sacks, M.D., Robert Sapolsky, Edward Sorel and Julia Sweeney.
“We are so pleased that these outstanding thinkers and freethinkers have agreed to publicly lend their endorsement to the Foundation, and its two purposes of promoting freethought and the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause,” said Dan Barker, Foundation co-president.
Ron Reagan, media commentator, describes himself in a radio ad he taped for FFRF as: “Unabashed atheist, not afraid of burning in hell.”
Richard Dawkins, probably the world’s most famous contemporary atheist and a distinguished evolutionary biologist, is Oxford professor emeritus. In his blockbuster book, The God Delusion, Dawkins writes: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction.”
Christopher Hitchens, the iconoclastic journalist, is author of the bestselling God Is Not Great: “Since it is obviously inconceivable that all religions can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong.”
Julia Sweeney, comedian and actress, is writer/performer of the play, “Letting Go of God”: “How dare the religious use the term ‘born again.’ That truly describes freethinkers who’ve thrown off the shackles of religion so much better!”
Daniel C. Dennett is Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, Tufts, and author of the bestselling book about religion, Breaking the Spell. In a newspaper article about his nonbelief, Dennett once wrote: “I’ve come to realize it’s time to sound the alarm.”
Katha Pollitt, “Subject to Debate” columnist for The Nation, author and poet, has spoken out regularly and energetically as a freethinker, in such columns as “Freedom From Religion, Sí!”
Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard, is author of The Blank Slate: “I never outgrew my conversion to atheist at 13.”
Oliver Sacks, M.D., the compassionate neurologist and bestselling author, describes himself as “an old Jewish atheist.”
Jennifer Michael Hecht, poet, historian and author of the acclaimed Doubt: A History and The End of the Soul, told the FFRF 2009 convention audience: “If there is no god — and there isn’t — then we [humans] made up morality. And I’m very impressed.”
Edward Sorel, satiric cartoonist and irreverent illustrator who is a regular contributor to The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and whose caricatures have been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, has been a Foundation member since the 1980s.
Mike Newdow is working pro bono to challenge such violations as the addition of “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. He told the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments: “I am an atheist. I don’t believe in God. And every school morning my child is asked to stand up, face that flag, put her hand over her heart, and say that her father is wrong.”
Robert Sapolsky, a neurologist, Stanford professor and bestselling author, once suggested FFRF put up a sign at its conventions: “Welcome, hellbound atheists.”
Ernie Harburg, a retired research scientist, is president of Yip Harburg Foundation and co-author of Who Put the Rainbow in the Wizard of Oz? Ernie has dedicated his retirement to furthering the lyrics, music, memory and progressive views of his freethinking father, the lyricist Yip Harburg, author of classic songs such as “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and of Rhymes for the Irreverent, recently republished by FFRF.
Susan Jacoby, bestselling author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, and program director of the Center for Inquiry-New York City, told FFRF convention-goers in 2004: “[President] Kennedy had to speak about his religion because he was suspected of insufficient dedication to the Constitution’s separation of church and state. Today’s candidates are suspect if they display too much dedication to secular government.”
http://ffrf.org/about/ffrf-honorary-board/
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