Grassroots

Religious Non-Profits Ignore the Law

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There is new reason to hope that the influence of religion in government has finally embarked on its long journey to extinction. More and more, the hypocrisy of every argument made that seeks to vacate our constitutional right to church-state separation is being more fully exposed and often struck down by the courts (here, here). There is nothing inherently wrong with religion or faith in a god's eventual salvation of man. There is even room in government to work alongside "faith-based" organizations in satisfying the population's need for social services. Whether a large behemoth like ...

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in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information / Uncategorized  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

White Supremacy Reigns

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"Open carry is open carry," said a member of Oath Keepers defending his right to be armed among Ferguson protesters.

Radical, self-titled, armed Oath Keepers have descended on Ferguson, Missouri, following unrest there upon the one-year anniversary of the killing Michael Brown. This fringe "patriot" group abides by its vow to disobey "unconstitutional" orders from what they view as an increasingly tyrannical government. What makes this so extraordinary and difficult to grasp is the reaction of the police to this invasion by 2nd Amendment fanatics: nada, nothing. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar described their presence as ...

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in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Public Information / Uncategorized  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

Largest U.S. Trans Survey to Launch on August 19

At last count, 40-60% of trans people have attempted suicide compared to 1.6% of the general population. Isn't it time you did something to help? Updating the ground-breaking 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey, Injustice At Every Turn, conducted jointly by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, the new 2015 U.S. Trans Survey is about to launch this month on August 19 (under the aegis of the National Center for Transgender Equality). Using data from 6,400 participants, the meta-findings of the earlier survey, which has been cited by ...

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in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information / Uncategorized  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

A Lightening Strike Heard Around The World

Photo by Steve Rhodes Flickr/creative commons

"Not everything that is faced can be chaged; but nothing can be changed until it is faced." — James Baldwin (1924 – 1987) American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic

Meditation this weekend on Michael Brown and the birth of the BlackLivesMatter movement led me to re-examine my published thoughts from a year ago.

Follow The Money To Ferguson Institutionalized racism, money, greed, and special interests are what makes brown and black young men primary targets and victims, and it is being financed by your hard-earned tax-dollars. (More . . .)

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in Campaigns / End Police Bias / Events / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

Combatting the Infection of the Religious Right

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"[Y]ou’re not able to see somebody else as a human being," 

Some may predict that the influence of the religious right is waning as the number of Americans identifying as evangelicals declines, but that misunderstands and underestimates the festering infection of their ideas, already in full flower. You can be an secularist but your world is still affected by the disease of fundamentalist thinking that has made and continues to make a deep impression on our laws and policies. The rubric of religious freedom has been fully distorted to protect racial bigotry and legalize discrimination. President Obama Read More›
in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information / Uncategorized  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

Our New America Is Here and Now

11 Sep 2001, Manhattan, New York, New York, USA --- American flag hangs from rubble of the disaster site of the World Trade Center after terrorist attack. --- Image by © Paul Colangelo/CORBIS Flickr/creativecommons

"Out of the chaos of this prolonged moment and inside the shell of the old system, a new culture, a new kind of politics, a new kind of governance is being born right before our eyes. Call it what you want. But call it something. Stop pretending it’s not happening." (Tom Engelhardt of The Nation Institute and TomDispatch.com)

Below are some highlights from Engehardt's 5 Hallmarks of the New American Order, republished in The Nation magazine, and I urge you to not only read the entire article but print it out and post ...

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in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information / Uncategorized  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

A Roadmap to #DrawTheLine for Church-State Separation

Many people I speak to and correspond with are looking for an agenda to #DrawTheLine between church and state. As previously stated, Americans United for Separation of Church and State (au.org) is one of the best organizations setting that agenda and tracking our victories. While most of us tend to focus on national politics more than state politics, and even less on local politics, we have to keep in mind that school board members and city council members grow up to be state lawmakers and national candidates, so the front line for most of this work starts ...

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in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information / Uncategorized  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

Is the End Game for the Religious Right Really a Civil War? (Part 2 of 2)

Poster by Steve Rhodes Flickr/creativecommons

"[G]ay rights issue has reached an unprecedented 'level of intensity' and put the country on the brink of conflict . . . Talk about a Civil War, we could have another one over this.

. . . If the Supreme Court strikes down the state bans and states across the country fail to convene “a state constitutional convention to re-examine the Constitution . . . we’re going to see a general collapse in the next decade or two.”

-- Foucs On The Family's James Dobson:

In Part 1, yesterday, I posed the question, ...

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in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information / Uncategorized  by Alison Gardner 1 comments

Is the End Game for the Religious Right Really a Civil War? (Part 1 of 2)

by Lawrence OP Depiction of St. James as Santiago Matamoros on

"For some people the future of their faith and of the nation are in danger, threatened by secular forces controlled by Satan himself."  -- Christian right's rage problem -- How white fundamentalists are roiling America (Salon.com)

When I talk to my friend, Michael Rogers, about how the religious right is guided by a political-religious dominionist philosophy demanding the end of our rule of law in favor of (their version of) god's law, he warns me that they won't stop until they force either (or both) a constitutional convention or civil war, reminding me that ...

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in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information / Uncategorized  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

The First Amendment Doesn’t Need Any Defense

The proposed First Amendment Defense Act is Congress's attempt to legalize LGBT discrimination. Aligning with faith groups to diminish the influence of religion in government was one of the chief strategies we developed while meeting with like-minded activists at the recent Netroots Nation and LGBT Netroots Connect. While this includes tactics such as direct contact with welcoming congregations, the nexus of this alignment right now centers on defeating the passage of the nefarious First Amendment Defense Act, the aim of which is "to prevent discriminatory treatment of any person on the basis of views held with respect to marriage." While the  Read More›

in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information / Uncategorized  by Alison Gardner 0 comments