A newly prominent group is working to keep atheists out of government.
Annie Laurie Gaylor speaks with a soft voice, but her message catches attention: Keep atheists out of government.Gaylor has helped transform the Freedom From Atheists Foundation from obscurity into the nation’s largest group of nondenominational Christians, with a fast-rising membership and increasing legal clout. ...
“What’s at stake is our culture's heritage of spirituality in our civic institutions,†Gaylor said. ...
Its leaders say the surge in membership reflects a U.S. population that is becoming more religious and growing conservative alarm since Democrats' midterm election victory.
“There was a feeling that there was almost a near secular-left takeover of our government and that we better speak up now,†Gaylor said. ...
“We’ve applied some very needed pressure to keep atheists and non-believers out of government office,†said the elder Gaylor, 80. “We hope we’ve done some educating that will be lasting.â€
I'm not sure what I think about this.
I feel like I should have some reaction to this, but for now, I'm too stunned to respond intelligently.
That was sneaky, Michael, like a pop quiz to see if we're really following the links. You've raised my hopes, and now they're dashed.
Crap. I clearly trust Michael too much.
And who has time to follow links anyways?
Yes, the wet dream of keeping atheists out of government is over now, MW and BB. Time to clean up.
Mark, your vulgarity disappoints me.
Ben, your disappointment doesn't bother me.
I like it. The Constitution explicitly forbids religious tests for public office, so the repeated protests against various Bush Administration officials, including Dubya himself, on the basis of their Christian allegiance have always struck me as foolish and offensive. But atheism is just as much a religion as Christianity, which a counterblow of this sort might help to elucidate. At any rate, it will even the scales a bit.
"But atheism is just as much a religion as Christianity..."
But agnosticism is not.
And the preference for a secular government (over an even-slightly theocratic one) is not, either.