”Christian?” “Patriots?”

by Groff Schroeder

Between years 0 and 33, true non-violent revolutionary Jesus Christ rejected greed, selfishness, self-righteousness, and violence, teaching us to treat others as you would have them treat you (aka the golden rule), and to “render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s” (aka pay your taxes and avoid politics). Between 1776 and 1783, true American patriots fought the Revolutionary War, and freed themselves from the deeply entwined King and Church of England. In 1789, America’s patriots ratified the United States Constitution (aka established a secular government based upon Enlightenment principles, legal precedent, and the rule of law). And in 1791, America’s patriots ratified the Bill of Rights (aka Constitutional guarantees of human freedoms and civil rights).

Religion’s Monopolies

By Ken Burrows

A spokesman from Colorado Christian University was recently quoted as saying the crux of the abortion debate is how to handle the “competing interests” of pregnant women and fetuses. Which sounds reasonable except that such competing interests are too often not that competitive. With abortion, when religious fervor leads to outlawing what should be a woman’s right to a critical health care choice, the interest of the woman no longer competes.

December 21

by Groff Schroeder

We humans have long gazed into the night sky at beautiful objects we, at first, did not understand. Late at night and far from artificial light, you can still see them. The inky black sky, split by a diagonal, thickened band of seemingly infinite, shimmering points of light we called stars. Fleeting streaks of light. Rarely, a star grows suddenly very bright, then fades away. The moon, first full bright, then cyclically darkening, as if being eaten by an impossibly large mouth. Several lights were especially bright and moved faster than the others - sometimes in inexplicable ways. We called them planets - and thought them gods. And every day, the bright, warming sun seems to rise in the east, arcs across the sky, then sets in the west. The seasons came and went. The flowering of spring, the growth of summer, the chilling fall, the cold of winter. Time after time. Year after year. When the food moved or the climate changed, so did we. And from the beginning, many of our lives depended upon predicting the changing of the seasons.

Religious Exemptions: An Excess of Privilege

By Ken Burrows

More than a century ago, in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) upheld a state’s mandatory smallpox vaccination law over the objection of a pastor who claimed the law violated his religious freedom. The Court stated: “Upon the principle of self-defense, of paramount necessity, a community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members.”

Religious Doubt as Instinct

By Ken Burrows

Even at a time when atheists were widely considered to be depraved, sometimes referred to as monsters afflicted with a spiritual madness, doubts about God and religion in general frequently still surfaced. Why?

The Limits to Religious Freedom

By Ken Burrows

The novel coronavirus pandemic has told us a lot about the origins of disease agents, infection risks, society’s response to an outbreak, and more. Less prominent in the headlines has been a separate but pivotal COVID-19 risk issue: the danger of allowing “religious freedom” claims to pose virus-related harm to others.

TAKING ACTION

by Jim "Hawk" Hawkins

We are aware of the urgencies facing our nation and the world. The American Humanist Association publishes resolutions on key issuesⁱ which address the critical issues of climate change, affirming human rights, fighting for voting rights and the equal rights amendment for women’s equality, and protecting ourselves (especially our children) from gun violence. Such urgencies cause a variety of responses from each of us, from indifference to protest to outright civic disobedience, and the activity of the people will range from apathy to activism.