====================================================================== MITAAH News -- Volume #2 / Issue #2 -- September 5, 1997 (sent sporadically to mitaah@mit.edu mailing list) Pseudo-random samplings of information that may relate to atheism, agnosticism, humanism, freethought, or church-state separation issues. Please send any promising material to reagan@mit.edu. http://www.mit.edu/~mitaah/ ====================================================================== * General meeting (9/10) * Mailing lists * Merchandise * Retreat! * News clips * Freethought on the 'net ---------------------------------------------------------------------- *** General Meeting *** Wednesday, September 10 7:30 p.m. 6-321 (Moore Room) Come meet the officers and fellow AAH members, learn about upcoming activities, and assist in planning talks, discussions, activities, and events. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mailing lists You can add or delete yourself to our discussion lists using blanche or moira. From the athena% prompt: 'blanche mitaah-discussion -a $USER' to subscribe 'blanche mitaah-discussion -d $USER' to unsubscribe The discussion list tends to have a burst of heavy traffic every now and then, followed by longer periods of silence. We recommend becoming familar with a flexible mail program that lets you sort mail efficiently and file interesting messages to different folders. The lists are for official announcements to the group, discussion of relevant issues, and feedback. Please refrain from posting ads or material not related to MITAAH. There is also the mitaah-gcf-forum@ list, which can be subscribed to in a similar fashion. This list is an extension of the AAH-GCF lunch forum and is for joint discussion of issues between our group and the Graduate Christian Fellowship and is a way for GCF members to respond to the mitaah lists. This list is usually very low traffic, with occasional eruptions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Merchandise! We have t-shirts! These shirts, at a mere $12 apiece, will raise cash for the MITAAH treasury. The money will fund publicity, group activities, and guest speakers. * See the shirts: http://www.mit.edu/~reagan/shirts.html * 100% cotton * L or XL The first batch is selling fast! We'll have some available for sale at MITAAH September events. Be visible! "Come out" as an atheist, agnostic, or humanist! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Retreat! The response for the planned retreat has been excellent! Later this month, we will be taking final reservations and money. Remember, inquire in advance to get first-dibs on a spot! Right now, it looks like we will have a full cabin. At the moment, two people have volunteered to drive, and we will probably need at least two more cars to get everyone up there. Car owners or people old enough (for the special MIT account) to rent a car for the weekend get special preference! The large number of people also means that we should be able to tailor Sunday's activities to different interests. Three activities have been suggested: a mountain climb (above-treeline hike), a nature walk/sightseeing trip (for the less 'rugged'), and shopping in North Conway (for the non-outdoorsy). An infomation packet will be distributed around sign-up time giving details about these options, and also what you need to bring on the retreat itself. Email reagan@mit.edu with questions, ideas, or to pre-register. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- News Excerpts Excerpts from AANews #326: ATHEIST MOM OPPOSING SCOUT RECRUITING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS "Our Kind Is Not Welcome," Nancy Powell Tells Kids Of Anti-Atheist Bias Nancy Powell is like a lot of mothers in Portland, Oregon. She's got a couple of kids enrolled at the local public elementary school; son Remington, at 7 sports a Nike tee-shirt and was curious about the local Boy Scouting program. Nancy's other child, Kat, is age-6 and enrolled, along with her brother, at the Scott Elementary School in Northeast Portland. A few more years, and Nancy joins the ranks of American mothers focus group watchers like to call "Soccer moms," but with an important exception. -- Nancy and her family are atheists. And she is standing firm in opposing the Portland public school's policy of permitting organizations like the Boy Scouts and the Little League which require an oath of religious belief, to recruit. Last week, Ms. Powell filed the first complaint ever received by the State of Oregon about the Boy Scouts having access to public schools; she argues that the practice constitutes a clear violation of state-church separation, and violates state and federal laws, as well as the local school district's own regulations. "I had to tell my sobbing son, 'I'm sorry, but our kind is not welcome'," Powell recounted last week to the Portland, Oregonian newspaper. . . . The Scouts are clear about where they stand on the matter of religious belief -- a fact which Nancy Powell documents with stacks of Scouting materials, including pamphlets and membership applications where were distributed at the local public school and brought home by her children. Last spring, Remy was given a pamphlet at school inviting him to become a Cub Scout. To join, however, he would be required to swear an oath of his "duty to God." Powell told local media, "My son has had to experience a vicious kind of discrimination in the very place I send him every day with the assumption that school staff is there supporting him and not joining in the religious hatred." She adds that "We believe in science, not in supernatural beings. I find it offensive to be told we're not good Americans because we don't believe in God." Powell is careful to distinguish between positive aspects of the Scouting program, and the fact that they discriminate against non-believers, and are supported by government institutions like the public schools. In Portland as in many communities throughout the country, the Boy Scouts receive free access to school facilities with the provision that any activities "shall not include religious instruction, religious services or political efforts." Even so, Powell points out that a requirement for membership in the Boy Scouts and several other groups is a belief in a god. "My beef isn't with the Boy Scouts," she notes, "but with discrimination. The Boy Scouts has a right to be as narrow-minded and discriminatory as it chooses, but not on school property." . . . Aggressive Proselytizing ? The Boy Scouts aren't the only offenders in discriminating against atheists, and receiving the support of local public school authorities. Powell found out that the Little League has a prayer -- something she discovered when she she volunteered as a parent-coach. "I was just shocked," she said. The prayer dates back to the beginning of the League more than a half-century ago, and says, "I trust in God. I love my country, and will respect its laws. I will play fair and strive to win. But win or lose, I will always do my best." Another group Powell points to is the YMCA, which declares in its mission statement that it wants "to put Christian principles into action through programs that build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all." Culture Wars In Portland And Elsewhere To some, Nancy Powell's concerns about the Boy Scouts may seem misplaced. But she notes that promoting the scouts, at least in the local schools, involved more than just giving kids flyers to bring home to their parents. On October 16, 1996, a non removable wrist bracelet was placed on son Remington's arm by a "Child Development Specialist" at Scott Elementary School, urging that all first grade boys join the local cub scout pack. Nancy still keeps the bracelet as evidence of the more aggressive proselytizing going on inside the schools. The Powell family's concerns over discriminatory, religious groups recruiting in schools, and with the assistance and encouragement of local authorities, underscores the growing cultural debate over the separation of church and state. Religious groups are curtailed by law from proselytizing on campuses during official hours; religious groups have organized September 17 as "Meet Me At The Flagpole Day," where they will urge students, teachers and others to congregate and pray. And legislation in Washington, D.C. would, if enacted, mean a greater role for religious exercise in public life and the nation's schools. The Religious Equality Amendment, for instance, would permit a wide range of "student initiated" prayer; critics fear that it would essentially eviscerate meaningful state-church separation in America and further erode the rights of atheists, other non-believers and even religious minorities. In the meantime, Nancy Powell is maintaining the pressure for an answer from school authorities to her charges of discrimination. "No mother should ever again be put in the position of telling her sobbing 6-year-old son on the steps of his own school that 'our kind,' non-believers in the supernatural, are not welcome," she says. And with school about to begin in Portland, the Powells are still awaiting their answer. (Thanks to Cliff Walker, Jerry Billings, and, of course, Nancy Powell for the material used in this article. AANEWS will keep readers posted as this story unfolds.) ---------- Excerpts from presslst@PMAIL.PFAW.ORG: September 4, 1997 People For the American Way Press Release A RIGHT WING AND A PRAYER: REPORT REVEALS RELIGIOUS RIGHT'S ATTACK ON SCHOOLS People For the American Way Thursday released a comprehensive report, A Right Wing and a Prayer: The Religious Right and Your Public Schools, documenting the Religious Right political movement's persistent and widespread attacks on public education in the United States. . . . A Right Wing and a Prayer provides a more comprehensive analysis of some of the issues People For the American Way has reported on for the last 14 years in Attacks on the Freedom to Learn. That report focused primarily on school censorship, and to a lesser extent covered the Religious Right's ideological attack on public education. People For continues to publish reports on school censorship in its bi-monthly electronic newsletter, "Attacks on the Freedom to Learn-Online." This new report, A Right Wing and a Prayer provides a closer and more specific look at the Religious Right's broader battle against public education by focusing on nine categories: sexuality education, censorship, student freedom of expression and activities, school-sponsored religious activity, Creationism, school boards, "parental rights" initiatives, vouchers and school reform. . . . An unfortunate byproduct of the Religious Right's political campaign is that discussion of meaningful school reform is often put on the back burner while school boards deal with such contentious issues as Creationism controversies and sexuality education battles. Examples detailed in the report include: In Sarasota County, Florida, local Christian Coalition representatives campaigned for the inclusion of a Bible history course in public schools -- in other words, teaching the Bible as literal history. The director of the local Christian Coalition chapter went so far as to say, "Constitutionally, there's no problem with this...This is taught as history. And the Bible's an excellent source of history." Even though abundant case law clearly has established that the Bible may not be presented in a public school classroom as a history text, the district curriculum director determined that the curriculum is in compliance with Florida state guidelines. Supporters hoped to have the courses incorporated into the curriculum by this fall. In Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, the school board voted 7-1 to pass an anti-gay and anti-National Education Association resolution based on a model circulated by Concerned Women for America. The resolution stated in part: "Be it resolved that Elizabethtown Area School District hereby endorses this Pro-Family Resolution and affirms that pro-homosexual concepts on sex and family will never be tolerated or accepted in this school." This led to 250 middle and high school students marching out of class in protest and more than 1,000 Elizabethtown area residents attending the next school board meeting to voice their opposition to the resolution. In Colorado, a Religious Right-supported group called the Colorado Coalition for Parental Responsibility gathered enough signatures to force a statewide vote on Amendment 17, the so-called "Parental Rights" initiative. The initiative, which was backed by Citizens for Responsible Government, the Colorado Christian Coalition, James Dobson of Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council and Colorado Concerned Women for America, would have hampered the government's ability to investigate suspected child abuse cases and made it easier for one parent to challenge the curriculum of an entire class of students. Ultimately, Colorado voters understood the dangers of Amendment 17 and defeated it, 58 percent to 42 percent. . . . *Resources: Right Wing and a Prayer (excerpts and order form): http://pfaw.org/wing Attacks on the Freedom to Learn - Online: http://pfaw.org/aflo People For the American Way 2000 M Street NW Suite 400 Washington DC 20036 202 467 4999 | Fax:202 293 2672 http://pfaw.org | pfaw@pfaw.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Links, links, links New students: test out your new athena accounts and check out the wide world of web resources for freethinkers. ----- The Internet Infidels: http://www.infidels.org/ The Council for Secular Humanism: http://www.secularhumanism.org/ The American Humanist Association: http://www.infidels.org/org/aha/ American Atheists: http://www.atheists.org/ Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP): http://www.csicop.org/ The TalkOrigins Archive http://www.talkorigins.org/ Freedom from Religion Foundation: http://www.infidels.org/org/ffrf/ Harvard Secular Society: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~daraujo/hss.html Campus Freethought Alliance: http://www.secularhumanism.org/cfa/ People for the American Way: http://www.pfaw.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------