The weekly report on religion and politics
by Johnny Monsarrat

Religious Freedom: What Does it Cover?

The religious freedom argument, having been used in the United States to refuse cake, crafts, and chicken sandwiches to LBGTA people, and then to refuse full healthcare coverage to women, is being used in a variety of creative new ways. In 2012 a religious school was allowed to ignore the Americans with Disabilities Act. Now teachers are using a religious argument to avoid paying union fees.

Should a union be given a monopoly to speak for every teacher at a school? Regardless of your views on this, using religion to opt out of obeying laws is a dangerous trend.

In this MSNBC article,┬áReligious Freedom Arguments Used to Weaponize the First Amendment,┬áGeorgetown Law professor Robin West says that the┬ádemands for extralegal treatment create┬áÔÇ£separate sovereignties.ÔÇØ Is this a form of theocracy?┬áWhat’s next, opting┬áout of traffic tickets?

Majority of White Adults in UK Have No Religion

More than half of white adults in Britain have no religion now, a figure that is forecast to rise, according to a new poll by YouGov, the survey component of magazine The Economist.┬á’No religion is the new norm,’ says Professor Linda Woodhead, ‘and there is every indication that its majority share will continue to grow.’ She also says that the trend can be linked to churches┬ábecoming more religious, so that people who are merely spiritual may find themselves preferring to go it on their own.

What is World Religion Day?

Last Sunday was World Religion Day, founded in the 1950s by the┬áBahaÔÇÖi community, which believes that all religions are basically the same if you squint your eyes hard enough. We wonder whether┬áthey might like to include the religions of the TV show Game of Thrones.

While we don’t embrace ignorance of the differences of religions, we do support interfaith engagement and outreach, especially if it includes nonbelievers. And we might advocate for the logical next step. Perhaps what brings us all together in a shared sense of dreams and values is that we are all human and all have critical thinking skills, not that we are religious.

Read more about World Religion Day.

Proud Faith of US Presidential Candidates

At a public event in Iowa, an early and thus important US state for showing momentum in the forthcoming presidential election, Republican candidate (and Catholic) Marco Rubio was asked by an atheist whether faith would interfere with his decision-making.

Similar questions were asked in the 1960 election, when candidate (and future winner) John Kennedy was the first Catholic to run for US president. Would Kennedy be controlled by the Pope from Rome, or be free to make his own decisions? Implicit in the question was separation of church and state, the idea that no matter how infallible, that government decisions should be made free from religion.

More than 50 years later,┬áthe questioner┬ásaid, ÔÇ£atheists like me are looking for somebody that will uphold their rights as Americans, and not pander to a certain religious group.” This was in response to a religious advertisement where Rubio┬áspoke about his faith earnestly.┬áRead Rubio’s reply.

Meanwhile, US presidential candidate┬áDonald Trump can’t portray┬áa strong faith as well as he would like to, and an article in the Times of Israel declares that Democratic US presidential candidate┬áBernie Sanders’ religion is a non-issue for Iowa voters.

Obama Says No to Religious Discrimination

Although US presidential candidates were not specifically named, those who like Donald Trump support discrimination against Muslims were shamed in President Obama’s annual State of the Union address to Congress. He said, “we need to reject any politics — any politics — that targets people because of race or religion. Let me just say this. This is not a matter of political correctness. This is a matter of understanding just what it is that makes us strong. The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity, and our openness, and the way we respect every faith.”

And those with no faith, right?

Sunni-Shia War of Religion?

To what extend is the tension and wars of the Middle East a religious fight between the two major branches of Islam, Sunni Islam and Shia Islam? An article in the Zimbabwe Independent explores this in,┬áThe Islamic Wars of Religion. (And here’s why it’s not much like the split between Catholic and Protestant Christians).

About the International Coalition Calls

Every first Thursday of the month, the Secular Policy Institute holds an international coordinating call for its 300 members to discuss the future of the secular movement.

Call for January 7, 2016

Here’s the latest recording of the Secular Policy Institute’s international coordinating call.

US presidential candidate Marco Rubio was taking questions from an audience this week when an atheist asked him about his faith. He responded, “No oneÔÇÖs going to force you to believe in God. But no oneÔÇÖs going to force me to stop talking about God… You shouldnÔÇÖt be worried about my faith influencing me. You should hope that my faith influences me.ÔÇØ

Why do politicians in the United States emphasize religion so much? Conservative candidate Ted Cruz even said in November that atheists aren’t moral enough┬áto be president:┬á”Any president who doesn’t begin every day on his knees isn’t fit to be commander-in-chief of this country.”

A common question in religious discourse asks whether belief in the divine makes one behave better or worse; or, more precisely, whether religious belief is essential to ascertaining objective morality. A Pew Global study in 2014 showed that more than half of Americans (53%) believe that it is ÔÇ£necessary to believe in God to be moralÔÇØ. Such an approach has likely had a significant impact on American policy-making. Indeed, which aspiring Presidential candidate could conceivably build an electoral campaign without professing a belief in the supernatural ÔÇô a position essential to achieving an objective morality for 53% of PewÔÇÖs respondents?

A profession of religious belief, and thus divinely oriented morality, allows a leader ÔÇô whether Presidential, Senatorial, etc. ÔÇô to claim a level of moral authority. It is likely for this reason that the faithful reliably vote for the candidate which they know will stringently adhere to religious doctrine. Take this 2012 study by Pew Research, for example, which demonstrates the trend. 79% of evangelicals voted for Romney; 69% of white Protestants also voted for the former GOP nominee. However, in making a claim to objective morality, religious leaders claim to represent everyone. This leaves the 22.8% of the religiously unaffiliated demographic (as defined in this Religious Landscape study) unrepresented at the governmental level, disempowered by the refusal of irreligious politicians to vocalize their worldview in fear of political or social ostracism.

From a policy perspective, this is troublesome. Just as interreligious differences lead to competing policy directions (the Muslim lobby is likely to attempt to impede the US-Israeli relationship, for example), differences between the secular and religious worldviews can also foment friction. Take Bush Jr., whose ÔÇÿfaith-based initiativesÔÇÖ sought to (among various other things) strengthen the legislative pro-life stance on abortion. This is likely to be in direct conflict with the secular approach, which tends to endorse a scientific evaluation of the pro-life v pro-choice debate. Indeed, in this poll conducted by Gallup in 2012, it was demonstrated that just 19% of non-religious Americans find themselves on the pro-life side of the table. And thus the antagonism is highlighted: while religious leaders claim divinely mandated and universal morality, some, such as Bush Jr., also pursue policies which counter the secular worldview. It can reasonably be said, then, that religious leaders cannot represent an entire nationÔÇÖs demographic.

Pew has identified that just 0.2% of the 115^th Congress is religiously unaffiliated. This, compared to a nationwide average that sits at around 20% is at best a statistical anomaly; at worst, a patent failure to represent the publicÔÇÖs interests. The secular position does not equate religious belief with morality or immorality. Instead, it favours a rational, objective evaluation of a politicianÔÇÖs motives and legislative performance. The non-religious deserve recognition and representation in the political system. Endeavouring to evolve attitudes which relate to the cast-iron incremental relationship between religious belief and morality is therefore a crucial step towards a more representative political landscape.

When the Kenyan government late last year expressed its intention to begin regulating religious practices in order to weed out “fraudulent” preachers and groups, we warned in this column that this constituted a very slippery slope.

It was obvious to any disinterested observer that attempting to regulate religious belief marks the first steps towards government-sanctioned religion, a theocracy in all but name.

What surprised some of us was the unanimity with which many religious leaders welcomed the proposed regulation, and we pointed out that they would probably come to regret this.

A few short weeks later, these same leaders are calling press conferences to dispute the published regulations, arguing that churches and religious organisations should be left to operate according to their own doctrine.

Read more on allafrica.com.

Many of the SPI Coalition members work with kids. Here are just a few!

SPI Coalition member CampQuest UK┬áis the secular answer to bible camps. It’s a secular humanist summer camp for kids to learn about science and critical thinking. And they have outdoor campground adventures in the outdoors with archery, zip wires, climbing, high ropes, canoeing, rafting, mountain biking,┬áand more.

If you have kids in the UK, you can sign them up for junior camp for ages 7-11 in May/June in West Runton, Norfolk, or senior camp for ages 11-17 in July/August in Dearne Valley, near Doncaster. On their Facebook page they say the highlight of the week is usually the water fight!

Another coalition member, Uganda Humanist Schools Trust, helps schools in Uganda working to offer liberal, humanist education to needy children. Founded by Ugandan Humanists and run as charities, the schools are inclusive and do not discriminate on grounds of religion, social or ethnic background.

Over the past two years, both Mustard Seed and Isaac Newton High Schools have seen huge improvements in their examination results. Each school has students who have achieved Grade 1 aggregates at O-level, achieved only by the top 8% of students in Uganda. Their first A-level students have shown outstanding achievement, with 4 or 5 students in each school gaining government scholarships to university.

They are raising money to award scholarships, to refurbish existing buildings, to add wash rooms, medical rooms, and hostels, to add sports fields, and more.

Coalition member Parent Teacher Community Action Network leverages the natural community that is created in schools by students and their parents who work together despite coming from different background, including secularism. A new organization, they are actively building out local groups in the United States, with support to springboard local secular leaders into the center of their community by getting involved with community initiatives, beginning with schools. Find out how in their leadership guide.

Too many of the SPI Fellows to list have founded or take an executive role in an intellectual or political organization. Here are two, with more to be featured in future articles!

Dr. Salih (left) doing field work

SPI Fellow Sarbagh Salih is the founder of Hataw, an NGO in Kurdistan that helps people who were forced to move to cities to return to their villages to work in the fields. She is a board member of Nature Iraq and the Sakran-Halgurd National Park, and a member of the committee of the Kurdistan National Herbarium.

She is also President of the Kurdistan Botanical Foundation, which recently finished a botanical survey of the Azmer-Goizha mountain in Iraqi Kurdistan, a two-year effort that collected specimens of more than 1,000 species. The group also replants rare and endemic plant species in different areas in Kurdistan. She is raising money to fund a Kurdistan National Herbarium at the University of Sulaimani and to create a Botanical Garden in one of the largest parks in the Middle East, Hawari Shar Park.

She recently wrote a contribution to the Kurdistan Tour Guide 2015-2016, the first comprehensive travel book for Kurdistan. She is also the wife of Dr. Batham Ahmed Salih, the former Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Deputy PM for Iraq, and the founder of the American University for Iraq. They live in the Kurdish Region of Iraq.

SPI Fellow Elliot D. Cohen is one of the principal founders of philosophical counseling in the United States. He is co-founder and Executive Director of the National Philosophical Counseling Association (NPCA), and President of the Institute of Critical Thinking. He is also founder and editor of International Journal of Applied Philosophy and International Journal of Philosophical Practice.

How does philosophy become an applied field? He answers in his recent essay, What Else Can You Do With Philosophy Besides Teach? published in the International Journal of Philosophical Practice that one thing is to give philosophical counseling, a form of mental health counseling. In September he wrote on this topic in Using Logic-Based Therapy to Address Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and in November gave a keynote address, with his wife Dr. Gale Cohen, at the International Conference on Philosophical Counseling & Humanities Therapy in Taipei, Taiwan.

In February┬áhe launches his new book,┬áLogic-Based Therapy and Everyday Emotions: A Case-Based Approach, where he discusses how philosophy is applied to counseling, and explains Logic-Based Therapy (LBT), a six-step method to counseling that he invented. It’s a follow-up to his 2013 book,┬áTheory and Practice of Logic-based Therapy: Integrating Critical Thinking and Philosophy into Psychotherapy.

The weekly report on government and secularism
by Edwina Rogers

SPI World Future Guide Advocates for the Environment

This week the Secular Policy Institute sent the SPI World Future Guide 2016 to all staff of the US Congress, with a focus on the environmental recommendations of SPI fellow Silvian Ionescu.

Re: Expert Guide on the Future of International Politics and Environment

From terrorism to climate change, we all have fears about the future.┬á Your service to our nation is at the forefront of shaping public policy, and you know it never hurts to get input on whatÔÇÖs best from the experts in various fields.┬á Our new DC-based international think-tank has just released its first annual World Future Guide, with essays on the current state of politics by ten leading scholars and scientists.┬á From different academic angles, theyÔÇÖre all focused on where policy and our planet are headed, and on what we can do to keep them both on course.

SPI facilitates a round table for some of the worldÔÇÖs most prominent thinkersÔÇöincluding A.C. Grayling, Taslima Nasrin, John McWhorter, and Elizabeth Loftus.┬á The Guide is a collection of their findings on trends in law, education, healthcare, and greenhouse gases, including practical advice on defense and surveillance technology, the Islamic/Western ideology conflict, and of course, the role of science in government.

Whether your personal bent is more faith-based or more empirical, thereÔÇÖs reason to believe that people are interested in fact-based lawmaking.┬á Worldwide, 16% of the population outwardly claims no religious affiliation, making this belief group the third largest after Christianity and Islam.┬á In the United States, the ÔÇ£NonesÔÇØ are growing particularly strong in number as voters.┬á Appealing to this bloc with legislation backed by strong evidence isÔÇösimplyÔÇösmart.

In the Guide, you will find an analysis by Dr. Silvian Ionescu of the most notable actions and prescriptions we have taken and can now take to protect the globe as temperatures shift.  You will also find tips on: how to spot the beginnings of a dictatorship; how to tease out the benign aspects of Islam from those that encourage violence and discrimination; and how to reap the health benefits of certain religions while avoiding the hazards of religious warfare. You can read the World Future Guide immediately at https://secularpolicyinstitute.net/survey/secular-policy-institute-world-future-guide-2016/.

If you have any questions about the Guide, our Fellows, or our other work, please do not hesitate to ask.  I am also available to meet at your convenience on the Hill to discuss any of our recommendations further.

Warmly,
Edwina Rogers
Chief Executive Officer
Secular Policy Institute
www.secularpolicyinstitute.net

Bangladeshi Bloggers Need Help in Nepal

The Progressive Atheists, a group in Melbourne, Australia are raising money to support freethinker bloggers from Bangladesh, where several secular bloggers have been attacked, including SPI Fellow Taslima Nasrin.

Funds raised will “directly assist secular bloggers in Bangladesh“. For example, some of the bloggers have fled the country for Nepal without taking any possessions, and must survive for six months before being hopefully refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Oregon AG Urged Not to Waive Merger Review for Catholic Hospitals in Six States

The ACLU has sent an open letter to Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to prevent the waiving of an open hearing on the merger of two major hospital chains. Normally, the Attorney General conduct a public hearing on the proposed transaction, and in this case there is much the public would like to say.

Religious hospitals must follow the Ethical and Religious Directives written by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which violate accepted medical practice and basic and necessary minimum healthcare. Issues include birth control, sterilization, miscarriage management, abortion, end-of-life care, and more.

It is now widely understood that global religiosity is declining. But which demographic is driving this demonstrable decay, and which factors are contributing to it? A recent Pew Research study demonstrated the momentous impact the millennial generation (those born from 1981 onwards) is having on religiosity levels.┬áLetÔÇÖs look at some of the key factors at play, while providing international context and identifying the methods by which we can continue to drive the secular movement.

PewÔÇÖs results showed us that, while 82% of US citizens born between 1981-1996 believe in God, just 52% do so with ÔÇ£absolute certaintyÔÇØ. 92% of the comparatively older generation ÔÇô defined in the study as those born between 1928-1964 ÔÇô believe in God, with a certainty rate of 70%. These results do not merely suggest declining religiosity; they represent a wider trend. Indeed, a separate Pew study conducted in May of 2015 mapped the correlation between age and faith and produced similar results.

Furthermore, these results form part of an international consensus. Take Britain, for example, where according to a YouGov poll just 25% of 18-24 year olds profess a belief in God compared to a national average of 59%. Further afield, an Australian Bureau of Statistics study establishes the trend once more, with the young being most likely to have no religion. We see, then, the internationalization of non-belief among young people.

There are many factors propelling this pattern, so letÔÇÖs just look at two. Firstly, the growth in Internet accessibility has meant the millennial generation has grown up online. This not only enables instant access to popular scientific journals as well as critiques of theological arguments, but also fosters a healthy, critical approach towards political and economic establishments. As we become comfortable with undermining earthly authority (including, for example, the scandals of the Catholic Church), so too do we shed the taboo that shelters celestial authority from criticism. Secondly, as we begin to scientifically define the neurological underpinnings of transcendence, we begin to free spirituality from the shackles of religion. This welcome severance will most likely reduce the percentage of those who affiliate themselves with religious orthodoxy simply because of its spiritual dimensions, and often do so unaware of the potential spiritual scope of an atheistic, secular person.

However, some important barriers to secularism remain for the younger populations. One particularly unfortunate example is the social and familial stigma attached to being an atheist in the USA. Indeed, this stigma diffused rapidly during the McCarthy era ÔÇô a time when atheism was associated with communism and thus irreligion with treason. That in 2016 a nonbeliever must ÔÇÿcome outÔÇÖ while fearing social persecution is a truly lamentable reality, and a reality which stands in stark contrast to the basic precepts of secularism.

While PewÔÇÖs results give us much encouragement, we must be sure to strengthen from a position of strength. But how are we to fully know the secular millennial demographic? Until we eliminate the stigma associated with atheism ÔÇô and an objective, critical approach is paramount here ÔÇô we cannot begin to guess. The total amount of closet atheists and secularists, living in too much fear to profess their worldview, is incalculable. What we do know, however, is that the millennials are leading the way, giving the secular movement a generation of optimism.

When I started writing this article, one idea dominated my thoughts: ÔÇ£I donÔÇÖt want to be sent to prison.ÔÇØ Then I thought, religious tolerance doesnÔÇÖt punish reporting about the taboo of atheism in the Egyptian society. Acknowledging the rights of atheists doesnÔÇÖt mean adopting their ideas.

While atheists just donÔÇÖt believe in one further religion in comparison to believers, everyone should be entitled to express their ideas and thoughts without intimidation. Challenging religious oppression and rusty social traditions, many Egyptians risk their lives to uphold and protect freedoms and values of tolerance.

Read more in eurasiareview.com.

The┬áSPI coalition is the world’s largest association of secular groups, and comes with the variety that you might expect! This week’s groups are centered around a country, a minority group, and a famous thinker. Explore and see what inspires you to get involved with.

SPI coalition member Canadian Secular Alliance represents all Canadians, religious and non-religious alike, who believe that the Canadian government should adopt public policies consistent with a secular state. For example, they advocate for removing the word “God” from┬áCanadaÔÇÖs national anthem and┬áending the practice of conducting official prayers during government meetings.

Keep up to date on their frequent Facebook posts on world news. You can join the discussion on their Google Group, and check out the Think Again! YouTube Channel, where the CSA is an occasional contributor.

Coalition member┬áBlack Atheists of America┬áis a national non-profit organization dedicated to bridging the gap between atheism and the black community. African-Americans are underrepresented in America’s secular community, perhaps because of a “one size fits all” approach to outreach to new members. BAA has an active Facebook page, sells t-shirts,┬áand promotes secularism by:

• Improving education through the promotion of critical thinking and science
• Participating in community service efforts in lower income areas
• Creating a community of black atheists

Coalition member The Bertrand Russell Society follows the lead of Bertrand Russell, a supporter of secularism and arguably the greatest philosopher of the 20th century and the greatest logician since Aristotle, at least according to his fans.

They sponsor sessions of talks, give grants to students, and host a regular annual meeting featuring scholarly and popular presentations which in 2016 will be held in June in Rochester, New York, and publish a biannual magazine, The Bulletin.