And what I'm frightened of is that they call it God's love

Cranston High School West in Rhode Island lost the court battle to keep its school prayer banner on display.  Not a big surprise, given the precedent that publicly funded schools have no business officially sanctioning prayer.

Secular activists are lauding the young Jessica Ahlquist for her central role in the push to remove the banner as well as having the courage to come out as an atheist to an intolerant community.

For those who haven't followed the story, here's an image of the offending banner:

At its core, the banner's message really is a good philosophy for the school's students: do your best to grow mentally, morally, and physically; be kind and helpful; be honest; be a good sport; be a good person in general.  I don't think anyone should have a problem with those values.

What is a problem is that they are encapsulated in a prayer.  The assertion that these virtues come from a "heavenly father" rather than within the individual implies that engaging in prayer is essential to being a good student.  No public school should be saying such a thing to its student body.
 

In this country people are free to practice whatever religion they choose, or no religion at all; this certainly applies to students and faculty at a public school.  The school itself, however, is not a person, and ought to be neutral on matters of religion.
*****

In the wake of the court's decision, the good Christians of Jessica's hometown are letting her know how they feel about her role in the lawsuit.  Sweet, benign messages about how they'll "pray for her" and hope that she opens her heart to Jesus, right?  At worst, a fire-and-brimstone warning about the eternal consequences of her atheism?

Wrong.  Her fellow students tweeted about jumping her after school, someone posted her home address on internet forums, and one "AJ St. Angelo" mused about murdering her.  Below are a few samples:

All of this venom and hatred over a banner that shouldn't have been put up in the first place. Read the rest of them on JesusFetusFajitaFishsticks, or catch up on the whole story over at Friendly Atheist.

About those "I Voted" stickers here in Ohio...

I wrote previously about the "Elect Your Sticker" online poll being run by my state to choose a new design for those small, adhesive badges of honor you get for doing your democratic duty.  Two of the proposed designs prominently feature Ohio's state motto: "With God, All Things Are Possible".  I and a number of other secular Ohioans are annoyed (though judging by the wording of their headline, Fox News wants people to think we're in uproar about it) that even something as trivial as an "I Voted" sticker has to endorse the majority religion's deity.  It's as if Christian activists want to use every opportunity they can to rub our noses in the fact that we non-Christians are outsiders in their culture, even as we go to the polling stations on Election Day.

As minor an annoyance as it is, I still pop back on to the Elect Your Sticker website on occasion to cast another vote for #3 and see how the stats are.  When I did so today, I noticed something peculiar:

Last time I checked, both leading stickers had over 500 "likes", and now, suddenly, the leading secular one has dropped down into the double digits.  Seems a little odd, no?

As you can see, the most popular religious sticker is winning again, but that's to be expected when its supporters are in the majority.

The voting ends August 8, and I'm thinking this is the last time I'm going to waste blog bandwidth on the subject.  Anyone who wants to vote for the godless "I ♥ Voting" stickers making a clever visual pun of our state's cordiform silhouette can go do so as often as they want.

One Nation, Indivisible: a godless perspective on America's heritage

"We must, indeed, hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." - Benjamin Franklin

I had originally started this a week ago as an "atheism and patriotism" Independence Day post; as I continued writing and fleshing out ideas, it became something different.

Just over 235 years ago, a group of colonial elite first declared the U.S. as an independent entity from the British Crown. The armed insurrection had started over a year earlier, and this Declaration gave it legitimacy and a united sense of purpose. People from the various colonies had their own (sometimes conflicting) motives and their own ideas of how they should be governed, but they all agreed that monarchical British rule would not be part of their future.

The story of this country's birth is a fascinating one, albeit overly romanticized in popular culture. I know that it is irrational to have pride in something so circumstantial as being born within a country's borders, but it's an emotion I can't help but feel; chalk it up to a sentimental attachment to my homeland and the people in it. Our system may have its inherent flaws and checkered past, but it's less wrong than many of the abysmal alternatives we've seen throughout history. Reason can flourish here, even if it must occasionally struggle against ingrained ignorance for survival.

Unfair censorship, or upholding secular decorum?

Damon Fowler's fight against school-imposed graduation prayer sparked a firestorm of controversy, and it's understandable that other high schools with similar traditions might be rethinking them now.

Another high school decided to play it safe and censor its valedictorian's speech because the student wanted to talk about his Christian faith.

I have mixed feelings about the school principal's decision and the discussion surrounding it.

It really infuriates me that people in this country can't find a happy medium between hateful traditionalist chauvinism and spineless PC-obsessive expurgation.  Having an exclusionary Christian prayer as part of the graduation ceremony in a public school is a violation of the non-Christian students' rights; forbidding a student speaker to mention the effect his religion has had on his life is a violation of his rights.

Something else I missed over the weekend

Graduation was last week at my (high school) alma mater.  It apparently used to be a tradition for the A Capella choir to sing "Beautiful Savior" as part of the commencement ceremony; that stopped in 2002 (the year before I graduated).


This pro-Christian tradition ended because Kate, a Jewish student who was both a choir member and a graduating senior that year, objected to having to sing it at her graduation and fought to have it removed from the ceremony.

I don't recall it being sung at my commencement, but back then I was an apathetic agnostic. I tended to shrug off the school's occasional sanctimonious pandering to the Christian majority.

Nine years later now, Kate left a comment on our hometown's Patch blog asking if that change had stuck.  I noticed the comment last Wednesday and wondered if it was going to spark controversy. Remember all the venom being spewed at Damon Fowler and Jessica Ahlquist for standing up against school-mandated prayer?


Then again, surely no one in my hometown would stoop to such spiteful ad-hominem over something so minor, especially nine years after the fact; I was sure that her question would probably be answered by someone in the know and otherwise ignored.

Well, I was proven wrong. Watch the drama unfold in response to Kate's comment.

Another annoying attempt to inject religion into government

I've learned via Friendly Atheist that the great State of Ohio is looking to revamp the "I voted today!" stickers routinely given out at the polls on Election Day.  Normally this wouldn't be news, but upon closer inspection I find something even tackier than usual about two of the proposed designs...

"With God, all things are possible."  Now, I fully understand that many religious people hold their god near and dear to their hearts, and that they feel that even a task as mundane as going to the polling station is accomplished through said god's grace.  You're entitled to that belief in a free country, but why oh why must my tax dollars go toward printing it on millions of stickers?  A sticker with a slogan that said "With godlessness, all things are possible" or "Without religion, all things are possible" or anything to that effect would be just as tacky and just as much of a minuscule erosion on the First Amendment (though I suspect many Christians would find it downright offensive as opposed to simply irritating).


Of course, "With God, All Things Are Possible" is our state's motto, and therefore can be flaunted on anything the state wants to print without any legal grounds to oppose it (the ACLU already tried that and failed).

Fortunately for those who believe that government should be secular, they're selecting the new sticker design solely by online poll.

So begins another week like any other

A few items of interest as we end this non-Rapture weekend:

• Razib "David Hume" Khan has a unique hypothesis about Harold Camping's bible studies.
• Atheist high school student Jessica Ahlquist, who kicked the metaphorical hornets' nest when she asked her school to take down its prayer banner (pictured), has started a blog. She seems to have a lot to say, and has the writing skills with which to say it.
• Another atheist high school student, Damon Fowler, kicked the hornets' nest and got stung.  He challenged the legality of the traditional school-led graduation prayer at his high school, even getting the ACLU involved; he has only harassment from his classmates, scorn from the teachers and administrators, and being thrown out on the street by his parents to show for it.  At least his brother is being supportive.

I would like to think that the Rapture story has been beaten to the point it's no longer recognizable as a dead horse, but it's just a matter of time until the next crazy doomsday prediction.  As for all the high school atheists out there, keep standing up and speaking out!  Public school officials shouldn't be endorsing any religion, period. Hold them accountable to the law, because you can bet that other Christians aren't going to.

Can you get up off your knees?/Are you brave enough to see?/Do you wanna change it?

Tomorrow, many members of our nation's Christian majority will "observe" their National Day of Prayer (status as a government holiday in dispute) by doing something their Bible says they should also be doing the other 364 days of the year: dropping to their knees, clasping their hands, and talking to the god they believe is listening.  The NDoP Task Force has even been gracious enough to invite members of all religions to do the same (they do have to pander to the religious left, of course), though their instructions are specifically tailored for praying to Jesus.


Good for them.  Their praying does me no injury, and I would strongly oppose any measure to restrict it.  What I do oppose is having a legislative mandate for the President to lead it.  Obama can lead it if he wants to - that's his right as an American, and he can say whatever he wants to the country when he has a microphone in front of him.  It should be his choice, just as it's his choice to acknowledge other religious holidays throughout the year.

While the judicial battle over this event's status as a government-recognized holiday carries on, many atheist and secular humanist groups throughout the country are organizing "National Day of Reason" events in protest.  Many are dedicating the day to volunteer projects to show that two hands working are worth a hundred million clasped in prayer.  Atheists in New York City are organizing to donate blood, which I would have arranged to do tomorrow had I not just done so last week.


I'll be spending the day on the job, so volunteer work is probably out of the question.  I'll make an effort to use my brain to solve a difficult problem, though that's something I try to do every day.  To be honest, I don't think reason needs a special day, and it shouldn't have to be seen as an antithesis to a federal law.  Here's hoping that the courts rule to privatize prayer and take this silly mandate out of our law books for good.