Weekly SPI Fellows Update

by Deanna Cantrell

SPI Fellow Mark Juergensmeyer is director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, professor of sociology and global studies, and affiliate professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Who was the intended target of the attacks?  He offers poignant perspective on the attacks in Paris in his newly published article, Why ISIS Attacked Paris.

ÔÇ£ÔǪracism isn’t over just because of some key legislation 50 years ago, and that making a better world means making some noise.ÔÇØ Says SPI Fellow John McWhorter on his CNN post entitled, Note to protesters: Rage wonÔÇÖt work.┬á How can students improve their protests to avoid their message falling on deaf ears?┬á Are millennials perpetuating racism?┬á McWhorter answers this and more.

SPI Fellow Ian MorrisÔÇÖ book Why the West RulesÔÇöFor Now is featured in the article, Stop-and-Seize Turns Police Into Self-Funding Gangs.┬á ÔÇ£All of our home towns are sitting on a tax-liberating gold mine,ÔÇØ Deputy Ron Hain of Kane County, Ill., wrote in a self-published book under a pseudonymÔǪHainÔÇÖs book calls for ÔÇ£turning our police forces into present-day Robin Hoods.ÔÇØ┬á Writer Noah Smith makes a compelling argument in this piece.

Weekly Coalition Update

by Deanna Cantrell

10^th Anniversary of Intelligent Design Case

Join SPI Coalition Member, The Freethought Society, in remembering a landmark court case.┬á December 6, 2015 The Freethought Society (FS) is pleased to be co-sponsoring a very special event with Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia (EHSP) and the Delaware Valley Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State to mark the 10th anniversary of the ÔÇ£Intelligent DesignÔÇØ court case of Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. (400 F. Supp. 2d 707, Docket No. 4cv2688). The Sunday, December 6, 2015 event starts with a free and open-to-the-public 11:00 AM, EHSP morning platform featuring Hugh Taft-Morales (EHSP Leader). This event will take place at the EHSP building located at 1906 South Rittenhouse Square Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. The 2015 EHSP/FS Tree of Knowledge will be decorated after the platform speech and everyone is invited to participate. There will be music, singing, and books to purchase from authors. The official 10th Anniversary program starts with a luncheon service at 1:00 PM. The $30 program fee includes lunch, afternoon speakers, a cash bar ($5 wine and champagne) and Happy Hour Closing Ceremony (includes finger foods, music, a celebration cake and photo opportunities).┬á For more details on this event, visit their website.

Science fiction and the future

With the recent attacks in Paris, we send support to our Coalition Member, Technoprog!.  Read their new article examining the genre of science fiction.    View the article or contact them to inquire if there is anything you can do to help.

Drinking bleach cures autism?

SPI Coalition Member, The University of Northern Iowa Freethinkers and Inquiries has an article discussing just this topic:  people claiming that drinking bleach cures autism.  See the article here.  They are also featuring a Darwin week.

Sometimes I think Republicans get a bad rap from mainstream journalists, who tend to be more sympathetic to liberals and Democrats. The problem may be particularly acute when it comes to social conservatives, whose views seem especially unpopular among journalists.

But right now three conservative Republican presidential candidates are mostly getting a free pass from the media on their appalling judgment over the weekend.

Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, and Mike Huckabee spoke at a conference in Des Moines called ÔÇ£Freedom 2015: National Religious Liberties Conference,ÔÇØ a two-day event that began last Friday. Now, that doesnÔÇÖt sound so bad. In fact, my colleagues at the Cato Institute and┬áI┬áhave recently defended the rights of┬áHobby Lobby, the┬áLittle Sisters of the Poor, and the┬ábakers┬áand┬áphotographers┬áwho┬ádonÔÇÖt want to participate in same-sex weddings.

But this conference was about something far different from liberty, although you wouldnÔÇÖt know that from bland media coverage like this┬áCBS News article. So itÔÇÖs a good thing that The Daily Beast and┬áRachel Maddow of MSNBC picked up the story, with video from People for the American WayÔÇÖs RightWingWatch.

The conference was organized by Kevin P. Swanson, a minister in Colorado and host of the Generations Radio Show. Swanson is part of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the far-right fundamentalist Christian Reconstructionism movement, which author Walter Olson wrote about at length in 1998. Swanson gave the conferenceÔÇÖs opening and closing talks and interviewed Cruz, Jindal, and Huckabee. And in his closing keynote address, Swanson ranted at length about topics that would hardly be characterized as religious liberty:

YES! Leviticus 20:13 calls for the death penalty for homosexuals. YES! Romans Chapter 1, Verse 32, the Apostle Paul does say that homosexuals are worthy of death. His words, not mine!  And I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And I am not ashamed of the truth of the word of God. And I am willing to go to jail for standing on the truth of the word of God.

To read the full article, visit The Daily Beast

Weekly Fellows Update

by Deanna Cantrell

A new list of targets has been uploaded on the internet allegedly by Ansar Al Islam, the same militant group that previously claimed responsibility for the murders of several secular individuals. The list was uploaded to the text-sharing site Justpaste.it. The list contained the names of 34 secular activists, bloggers and writers ÔÇô most of whom live in Bangladesh but also some who lived abroad.

SPI Fellow, Taslima Nasreen, is listed as number 6 on this list.  Nasreen continues to be outspoken in the face of terrorist threat, she took to Twitter after the announcement.  Sometimes a picture, in this case emoji, says it all.

SPI Advocate, Kim Sj├Âstr├Âm, a Finnish genealogist and secular activist, recently contacted SPI regarding religious registry of children in Finland.┬á Thanks to his alert to this issue, stay tuned next week or an original SPI International news article on this subject.┬á Thank you, Mr. Sj├Âstr├Âm for your attention to this issue.

SPI Fellow Elizabeth Loftus appears in an interview that explores the topic of the ÔÇ£Religious ExperienceÔÇØ.┬á This discussion expands on LoftusÔÇÖ work on false memory and applies it to the concept of a person being touched by religion.┬á Can an unremarkable event can be manipulated by simple suggestion?┬á View the interview, and for further background be sure to watch her TED Talk on false memories entitled, How Reliable Is Your Memory?

Weekly Coalition News

by Deanna Cantrell

Haiku? First ever Secular Haiku Invocation?

News from SPI Coalition member, Atheists of Butte County, in January 2015 George Gold delivered Chico’s first ever secular invocation at a Chico California City Council meeting.┬á Soon after that invocation, the city council adopted a new rule that all invocations must be sixty seconds or less. To honor the sixty second rule, on November 3, 2015, George Gold will deliver Chico’s first ever secular Haiku invocation:

maybe no god talk

time for reason and logic

let’s go for ice cream

 

Catch up with a conference

Secular Connexion S├®culaire President, Doug Thomas will be addressing the subject, ÔÇØTackling Radicalization in HumanistsÔÇØ at the World Religions Conference in Guelph, Ontario on Sunday, Nov. 1. Ted Spicer of The Society of Ontario Freethinkers will be presenting a reading from Carl Sagan and ÔÇ£Good Without a GodÔÇØ will be performed by Erin Moffat. ┬áView the website to see video of the conference.

Join the Defend Free Speech campaign

The National Secular Society needs you to join their free speech campaign.   The Defend Free Speech campaign, formed in response to Government plans to introduce sweeping new powers to combat extremism.

Extremism Disruption Orders (EDOs) will allow courts to ban someone from speaking in public or on social media, restrict their freedom of association, and ban them from taking up various positions ÔÇô such as a school governor.

The proposals risk capturing a whole range of behavior and speech which fits under a broad, ill-defined conception of ‘extremism’.

George Osborne has said that for a court to serve an Extremism Disruption Order an individual must have participated in “activities that spread, incite, promote or justify hatred against a person or group of persons on the grounds of that person’s or group of persons’ disability, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, and/or transgender identity.”

Weekly Policy Report

by Edwina Rogers

Join SPI On Letter Protesting Saudi Arabia’s Role With The United Nations Human Rights Council

┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬á ┬áPrince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein

In a letter to Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights the SPI and other member┬áorganizations┬ácall on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to reconsider its appointment of Saudi Arabia to the Consultative Group for the 2016 session.

To serve on the UNHRC, the General Assembly is directed to take into account how the candidate-states have contributed to the promotion and protection of human rights-and the voluntary pledges of those states to commit to human rights in general. In this process,┬áit┬áis expected that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would inevitably hold a seat, yet it is thoroughly peculiar that a state with the KingdomÔÇÖs reputation of┬áaversion┬áto basic human rights would be appointed to a leadership position for even a single year on a board selecting Special Rapporteurs for investigating the most flagrant of human rights abuses.

The Consultative Group is tasked with reviewing and assigning applicants to serve as ÔÇ£Special RapporteursÔÇØ and other ÔÇ£Independent InvestigatorsÔÇØ┬áfor┬áhuman rights abuses around the planet.

Saudi Arabia will be chairing the panel alongside Lithuania, Greece, Chile and Algeria. Though no country is perfectly-vacant of human rights abuses of one kind or another, extending any level of immediate, discretionary authority to Saudi Arabia over those who would otherwise monitor or analyze human rights abuses would do a grave disservice to those most vulnerable to persecution and harm around the globe-those whom the UNHRC was designed to protect.

Saudi Arabia┬ádid not sign┬áthe Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Convent on Civil and Political Rights.┬áBeyond the high profile cases of condemning a teenager (Ali Mohammed al-Nimr) to death for participating in protesting for democracy, and sentencing a blogger (Raif Badawi) to degrading physical abuse and a lengthy prison sentence for expressing critique; the Kingdom sentenced Saudi rights lawyer Walid abu al-Khair to 15 years for ÔÇ£breaking allegianceÔÇØ to the monarchy by founding and directing the organization ÔÇ£Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia.ÔÇØ If the Kingdom cannot demonstrate the integrity to allow human rights monitoring from within, they certainly cannot be trusted to have a legitimate voice in protecting them from without.

Though by being a UN-member state, Saudi Arabia has eligibility for a seat on the UNHRC, with the critical nature of protecting those most vulnerable to persecution and other human rights abuses in line with the mission and commitments of the UNHRC; because of their long history of a flagrant disregard for basic human rights we are requesting reconsideration or probationary status applied to Saudi ArabiaÔÇÖs inclusion in the Consultative Group.

All organizations wishing to join us on this letter please let me know by November 16, 2015 via email at edwina@secularpolicyinstitute.net.

See the full letter here.

 

House And Senate Attempting To Block The EPA From Implementing Its New Greenhouse Gas Rules

Representative Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce CommitteeÔÇÖs energy subcommittee, introduced resolutions of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to block the Environmental Protection Agency from implementing its greenhouse gas rules for new and existing power plants on 26th October.┬á The subcommittee announced┬áon Friday┬áthat it would┬ámark up┬áHouse JointResolution 71┬áand┬áResolution 72┬áon Tuesday, 3rd November. Action by the full committee should quickly follow.┬á Votes on the House floor could then be held soon after the House returns┬áon┬á16th November┬áfrom its Veterans Day week-long recess.

On the Senate side, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) along with 47 co-sponsors introduced Senate Joint Resolution 23 to block the new power plant rule on 27th October.  On the same day, Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and  48 co-sponsors introduced S. J. Res. 24 to block the rule for existing power plants.  CRA resolutions can go to the Senate floor without going through committee, so it is likely that the Senate will vote on the resolutions before the House does.  Under the CRA, resolutions of disapproval are not subject to cloture votes and thus only require a majority of those voting to pass.

 

Presidential Hopeful Ben Carson Does Not Support Basic Science

Although Ben Carson describes himself as “not a real religious person,”┬áthe presidential hopeful reaffirmed his belief in creationism┬áat a recent event in Nashville. Most (53 percent) Americans agree that evolution is the best explanation for the origins of human life on earth, but only┬á36 percent┬áof Republicans agree.

 

Secular Publisher Hacked To Death In Bangladesh – SPI’s Three US Asylum Letters

On Saturday, October 31 a publisher of secular books was hacked to death in the Bangladeshi capital. In a separate attack in Dhaka, police said two other writers and a publisher were stabbed and shot at a publishing house.

Fears of Islamist violence have been growing in Bangladesh after at least four atheist bloggers were murdered in the country this year. The attacks have been linked by police to domestic Islamist extremists, while Islamic State has claimed responsibility for three other attacks.

The body of Faisal Abedin Deepan, of the Jagriti Prokashoni publishing house, was found inside his office. The publisher had filed a complaint with police after death threats on Facebook.

Earlier in the day, publisher Ahmed Rahim Tutul was attacked in the office of the Shudhdhoswar publishing house and seriously wounded. Two writers were also wounded in that attack. All three of the victims were hospitalized, and Tutul was in critical condition.

Both Deepan and Tutal had published books by Bangladeshi-American writer and blogger Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death in February. He was one of the four secular bloggers killed in Bangladesh this year.

A local Islamist group, Ansarullah Bangla Team, had claimed responsibility for the killings and recently threatened to kill more bloggers. At least 15 members of Ansar Bangla, including a British citizen, have been arrested since August, when blogger Niloy Chatterjee was killed by a group of attackers armed with machetes.

There are over 50 bloggers on a kill list who need immediate asylum.  SPI and its member organizations sent three letters to US officials requesting that the US offer asylum to the secular Bangladeshi bloggers.  Earlier we sent a letter to the UN with a similar request.  You can find links to the US letters below.

• Homeland Security – Jeh Johnson letter
• State Department – John Kerry letter
• US Immigration Service┬áLetter -┬áLeon┬áRodri╠üguez

 

Weekly Demographics and Research Polls Report

by Deanna Cantrell

While attending The Freedom From Religion FoundationÔÇÖs annual convention last month I was privy to a conversation among a group of attendees.┬á They were discussing that the convention was ÔÇ£a sea of white headsÔÇØ and the general consensus was fear that faith may be making a comeback among Millennials.┬á According to a Pew Forum study, their fears are unfounded.┬á Now that is some real, good news.

 As the Millennial generation enters adulthood, its members display much lower levels of religious affiliation, including less connection with Christian churches, than older generations. Fully 36% of young Millennials (those between the ages of 18 and 24) are religiously unaffiliated, as are 34% of older Millennials (ages 25-33). And fewer than six-in-ten Millennials identify with any branch of Christianity, compared with seven-in-ten or more among older generations, including Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers. Just 16% of Millennials are Catholic, and only 11% identify with mainline Protestantism. Roughly one-in-five are evangelical Protestants.

Millennials are not the only demographic giving up the ghost.  About a third of older Millennials (adults currently in their late 20s and early 30s) now say they have no religion, up nine percentage points among this cohort since 2007, when the same group was between ages 18 and 26. Nearly a quarter of Generation Xers now say they have no particular religion or describe themselves as atheists or agnostics, up four points in seven years. Baby Boomers also have become slightly but noticeably more likely to identify as nonreligious recent years.

Here is a promising fact: nearly one-in-five U.S. adults (18%) were raised in a religious faith and now identify with no religion.  As access to higher education and information increases are more Americans beginning to question what they were spoon fed during their upbringing?  According to Pew, more than 85% of Americans were raised Christian but nearly a quarter of those have left the ideology.

This begs the question, with more and more Americans turning their back on religion, why is the presidential race so steeped in religious debate?  Unaffiliated individuals are nearly 10 percent less likely to be politically engaged, and in exit polls during the 2012 election only 12 percent of people claimed no religious affiliation. At no point in the foreseeable future will religion become politically obsolescent: Saying you are an atheist on CNN would be political suicide for a candidate from either party. This year, Hillary Clinton even stated that the Bible is her favorite book, and she comes from the less religious party.

Candidates, especially the anti-establishment types in the Republican primary, have bemoaned the prevalence of special interests in politics. By definition, an interest group is a vocal minority or majority that wields an undue┬áamount of influence on the political process through sheer interest and engagement. If current trends continue, it’s conceivable that the label “special interest” could┬áapply┬áto those who vote based on religion.

Is this pandering?┬á Perhaps the solution to this problem is to reach out to these unaffiliated who are not voting.┬á ItÔÇÖs time to chase the religious right out of politics. ┬áWith this shift in the country’s religious landscape, when will politics catch on?

by Deanna Cantrell

The price a child pays when sexually abused by a priest is unmeasurable.  The trauma goes beyond the physical, but leaves lasting scars long into adulthood.  The price the U.S. Catholic Church has incurred for employing predators?  $4 billion and counting.  That number accounts for 65 years according to an extensive NCR investigation of media reports, databases and church documents.

In addition, separate research recently published calculates that other scandal-related consequences such as lost membership and diverted giving has cost the church more than $2.3 billion annually for the past 30 years.

It is interesting to note that after a sex scandal, membership and thus donations are reported to decrease.┬á An academic paper titled “Losing My Religion: The Effects of Religious Scandals on Religious Participation and Charitable Giving,” written by two Chilean-born economists, Nicolas L. Bottan and Ricardo Perez-Truglia, the paper identifies more than 3,000 scandal events throughout the United States from 1980 to 2010 and tracks how the scandals have affected religious affiliation and charitable giving.

It confirms a widely held belief among many social scientists that a causal relationship exists between religious affiliation and charitable giving. Indeed, the paper states that the “decline in charitable giving is an order of magnitude larger than the direct costs of the scandals to the Catholic churches (e.g., lawsuits).”

According to its authors, while the sum of lawsuits and other abuse-related costs over the last 40 years is estimated to total about $3 billion for the church, the decline in charitable giving costs the church an average of $2.36 billion per year.┬á “The estimates suggest that each scandal caused a decline of 1.3% in the total itemized charitable giving in the affected zip code per year,” Harvard-trained economist Perez-Truglia explained in an email. “Multiplying that 1.3% by the total itemized giving in the zip codes affected by the 3,000+ scandals results in a decline in itemized contributions of about $1.77 billion per year.

Perhaps parishioners would rather not have their donations go toward such a cause.┬á With reports reaching as far back as the 1950ÔÇÖs clearly what the church is doing does not focus on prevention.┬á While in Philadelphia, PA Pope Francis said:

“God weeps for the sexual abuse of children. These cannot be maintained in secret, and I commit to a careful oversight to ensure that youth are protected and all responsible will be held accountable. Those who have survived this abuse have become true heralds of mercy – humbly, we owe each of them our gratitude for their great value as they have had to suffer this terrible abuse sexual abuse of minors,”

So far Pope Francis has met with survivors, what the future has in store is yet to be seen.

View the full report mentioned here at NCR Online.