CFA ACTION ALERT: Protect Church-State Separation in Education!

The Campus Freethought Alliance and the Council for Secular Humanism is urging all secularists and humanists to act now using our new Congressional action alert on some new attempts to sneak religious indoctrination back into public schools:

The first, the "Moment of Quiet Reflection in Schools Act" [H.R. 1202, sponsored by David Scott (D-GA), and S.591, sponsored by Zell Miller (D-GA)] calls for teachers to conduct a "brief period of quiet reflection" with the participation of all the students assembled in the classroom. The proposed Act goes on to state that this should not be construed as prayer or religious activities but rather an opportunity for a moment of silent reflection. Even if one were to accept the explanation of "a moment of silent reflection," one should realize that taxpayers would be paying money for teachers and students alike to do nothing but remain silent for up to a minute a day.

The second, the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act," H.R. 1547, introduced by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) seeks to remove "religious freedom-related cases" from the jurisdictions of all U.S. District Courts. This would mean that most church-state separation cases would be removed from the jurisdiction of the Courts, and that local, state and federal legislative bodies would be left to decide such matters.

In addition, House Joint Resolution 39 seeks to add a Constitutional amendment saying that, "A law that prescribes the Pledge of Allegiance or provides for United States coins or currency is not a law respecting an establishment of religion because it refers to God in the Pledge or includes a reference to God on coins or currency." Such an Amendment is unlikely to pass, but we should fight it nevertheless, both for its blatantly self-contradictory nature and its brazen attempt to weaken the First Amendment.

Act on all these threats to church-state separation by writing Congress using CFA's Activism Resources today.