Whenever I hear someone – especially a politician – say that the First Amendment protects freedom of religion, not freedom from religion, I just want to start screaming.

As I’ve pointed out many times on this blog and in other forums, that statement is inane and shows great ignorance of our founding principles. Religious Right figures started using it a few years ago, apparently believing they had stumbled onto something clever. In fact, they are simply spouting puerile nonsense. Read more

The House Armed Services Committee’s markup of the National Defense Reauthorization Act (NDAA) generated a lot of buzz last week in the church-state world.  People were talking about the debate over Senator Rob Andrews’ (D-NJ) amendment, which would have recognized non-theistic military chaplains.  And, people should have been talking—opponents of the amendment said some shocking things about non Read more

Government officials have an obligation to represent all of us, no matter what their personal religious beliefs may be.

Occasionally some officials lose sight of this fact. It happened in Vero Beach, Fla., recently with near-disastrous results for Mayor Craig Fletcher.

During a meeting of the city council, members of the Humanists of the Treasure Coast asked that the council officially recognize Humanist Recognition Week. Such requests are pretty routine and are normally granted without much fanfare.   Read more

Sunday was my 30th birthday, and the Religious Right got me a pretty rotten gift – the latest installment of the so-called “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.”

As you may recall, “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” was created in 2008 by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an Arizona-based Religious Right legal outfit founded by right-wing radio and television preachers. The ADF says it has encouraged pastors to give sermons “that present biblical perspectives on the positions of electoral candidates.”   Read more