The actual Statue Under Dispute
....One of the major atheist organizations is the freedom from religion foundation. It should be called the Freedom to destroy religion foundation since it is one of he major tools the atheist movement is using to try and destroy religion. It's a non profit and has huge membership, appeal to the general public to join and contribute.
Their own website: http://ffrf.org/
What Does the Foundation Do?
• Publishes the only freethought newspaper
in the United States, Freethought Today
• Sponsors annual high school, college and grad student essay competitions with cash awards
• Conducts lively, annual national conventions, honoring state/church, student, and freethought activism
• Sponsors an online forum…
• Sponsors annual high school, college and grad student essay competitions with cash awards
• Conducts lively, annual national conventions, honoring state/church, student, and freethought activism
• Sponsors an online forum…
On the side bar blog roll to AW I quote from a site called "Militant Atheism Exposed." they list the following was the FFRF's stated agenda:
fundie site linke on my side bar:
STATED
AGENDA
"The Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., is an educational group working for the separation of state and church. Its purposes, as stated in its bylaws, are to promote the constitutional principle of separation of state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism."
What is the Foundation's purpose?
The purposes of the Freedom From Religion
Foundation, Inc., as stated in its bylaws, are to promote the
constitutional principle of separation of state and church, and to
educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
Examples of Action: Cross on Public Land
What this means in practical terms is an attempt to denude from society any vestige of religious belief wherever they may be found. Case in point, a Statue of Jesus that has stood for sixty years Whitefish, Montana, "as a monument to soldiers who died defending our freedom in World War," according to an article by a similar kind of organization but one that defends religious freedom, The Becket Foundation. The statue was erected by Veterans after the war and it stands on public land. Permission was granted by the Forest service and has been renewed all these years. A Wisconsin based FFRF group sued the forest service denied the renewal. The Becket fund joined the law suit.
....This effort is typical of the many successes the FFRF has scored. It's not usually conservatives or believers or evangelicals who start such battles:
USA Today:
Michael Medved
Updated 5/13/2012 5:28 PM
A simmering controversy surrounding the "Ground Zero Cross" exposes the intolerance and absolutism behind ongoing battles over religious symbols on public property. Contrary to popular belief, it's not Christian conservatives who normally start these bitter disputes. It's more often atheist activists who seek to alter the long-standing status quo by scrubbing the landscape of the most visible signs of the nation's religious heritage.
American Atheists, an organization representing the civil liberties of agnostics, filed suit in 2011 to block display of the Ground Zero Cross anywhere on the grounds of the new memorial museum planned for the World Trade Center site. The artifact in question became the best known piece of debris recovered from the terrorist attacks, when workmen spotted it on Sept. 13, 2001. The huge cross beam, presumably detached from the collapse of the North Tower and hurled down with many tons of rubble onto the stricken eight-story structure to its northeast, somehow survived intact and almost immediately became an informal shrine for the tireless crews who labored to clear Ground Zero.
(from Militant Atheism Exposed)
MAJOR
SUCCESSES
- Winning the first federal lawsuit challenging direct funding by the government of a faith-based agency
- Overturning a state Good Friday holiday
- Winning a lawsuit barring direct taxpayer subsidy of religious schools
- Removing Ten Commandments monuments and crosses from public land
- Halting the Post Office from issuing religious cancellations
- Ending 51 years of legal bible instruction in public schools
- Halted prayer at public institutions, and public financing of nativity pageants and Easter service
- Stopped direct subsidy to religious schools
- Stopped Job Corps trainees from being assigned to work on a Catholic shrine
- Ended a 122-year abuse of commencement prayers at a Top Ten University
- Declared unconstitutional the creation of a state post to "assist clergy"
OTHER SUCCESSES
-
University Graduation Invocations Ended at Top Ten University
- Prayers Stopped at Public Institutions
- Public Sponsorship of Nativity Pageant Halted
- Crosses Downed from Public Land
- Abuse by Preacher Exposed
- City Sponsorship of Knights of Columbus Signs Ended
- Ethics Probe Called for Preaching Governor
- Proselytizing Crossing Guard Fired
- Post Office/Catholic Entanglement Ended
- De Facto Sports Chaplaincy Stopped
- School Boy Scout Subsidy Stopped
- Bible Proclamation Rescinded
- Illegal Public Help Halted for "Our Lady of the Rockies"
- Creationism Removed from City Zoo
- Discount for Catholics Ended
- Red Rocks Easter Service Subsidy Ended
- Nativity Scene Moved Off Government Land
- Ten Commandments Monuments Moved from Public Property
- Religion Removed at Playground
- Prayers Stopped at Public Institutions
- Public Sponsorship of Nativity Pageant Halted
- Crosses Downed from Public Land
- Abuse by Preacher Exposed
- City Sponsorship of Knights of Columbus Signs Ended
- Ethics Probe Called for Preaching Governor
- Proselytizing Crossing Guard Fired
- Post Office/Catholic Entanglement Ended
- De Facto Sports Chaplaincy Stopped
- School Boy Scout Subsidy Stopped
- Bible Proclamation Rescinded
- Illegal Public Help Halted for "Our Lady of the Rockies"
- Creationism Removed from City Zoo
- Discount for Catholics Ended
- Red Rocks Easter Service Subsidy Ended
- Nativity Scene Moved Off Government Land
- Ten Commandments Monuments Moved from Public Property
- Religion Removed at Playground
<http://www.ffrf.org/legal/legal4.php>
(18 February, 2009)
RECENT COURT CASES
- FFRF Challenges School Child Evangelism Subsidy- FFRF Files Suit Against Green Bay Creche
- FFRF Challenges "Under God" in Pledge in New Hampshire Schools
with New Hampshire family & Mike Newdow
- FFRF Challenges Public School's Promotion of Religious Activity
- FFRF Wins Challenge of "Chaplaincy" for Indiana Family & Social Services
- FFRF v. Gonzales : FFRF Sues Federal Bureau of Prisons over Faith-based Prison Programs
- FFRF Sues Veteran Affairs Department Over Religion
- FFRF Sues Over Bush's Offices of Faith-based Initiatives
Hein v. FFRF
Challenges Emory Grant
Challenges Funding of MentorKids
- FFRF Halts University of Minnesota "Faith/Health" Entanglement
- FFRF Challenges New Mexico Faith-based Prison Program
- FFRF Stops Dept. of Education Grant to Bible College
- FFRF Wins "Scopes II"
- FFRF Wins Ten Commandments Case
- FFRF Wins Montana Faith-based Challenge
- FFRF Wins First Faith-based Challenge
- FFRF Wins Against Direct Funds to Parochial Schools
- FFRF Wins Lawsuit: Post to "Assist Clergy" Unconstitutional
- FFRF Lawsuit: Jesus Statue in Public Park Sold, Fenced
- FFRF Lawsuit: Pope Monument in Park Modified
- FFRF Wins Good Friday State Holiday Challenge
<http://www.ffrf.org/legal/legal2.php> (18 February, 2009)
"FFRF": OTHER COURT CHALLENGES
<http://www.ffrf.org/legal/legal5.php>
(18 February, 2009)
O but atheism is not an organized movement, o course not. It's just a loose collection of people on message boards who happen to have the same idea that they don't believe in God, but nothing else in common. Don't believe that! It's so obviously an organized effort with big money behind it. How could mount such a campaign? I could understand the need to just defend one's rights. Why should that statue be on public land? If I don't believe in Jesus why should my public land that I am part of be affixed with a symbol that I don't feel represents me? How many Christians would like a Buddha statue put there? Would that be fair? isn't it fair to represent all the public on public land? Sure it is but is that all there is to this group? How about the books they publish?
partial list includes: Losing Faith in Faith, Dan Barker, Just Pretend, Dan Barker, Lead us not into Penn Station: provocative pieces, Anne Nicol,
why so many Dan Barker books? Barker is a Zealot of the Atheist Movement. He's an attack dog. He is professional twenty four/seven atheist apologist who is tirelessly working to destroy religion. He is a former minister, Church of Christ, and piss poor apologist at that. Many are Baker books. Why? They are not all by Barker but they are all atheist book that seek to destroy the faith of the reader to argue one out of belief in God. This is clearly not just a matter of defending rights but a concerted attack upon religious itself. Other books include Robert Ingersoll (historical atheist) and Born Again Skeptic by Ruth Hurmence. There's a huge list of events and a huge list of conventions and ways to get involved. It's clearly an organized to the teeth big money operation. Only a major movement could produce such an organization.It's based in Wisconsin but has braces in every state. It's the largest national organization advocating for non theistic causes. according to the Militant Atheism Expossed site:
"Formed in 1976 by Annie Gaylor Jr. and Sr., the foundation was incorporated nationally in 1978. It has grown ever since and is now supported by over 11,000 members. It is run out of an 1855 building at the corner of West Washington Avenue and North Henry Street in Madison, Wisconsin that once was a church rectory. With a minimum annual membership fee of $40, the foundation has saved over $3.3 million (US) and receives over $1 million in dues per year. The foundation primarily uses this money to pay legal fees in cases contesting the separation of church and state of various United States governmental organizations, but it also pays salaries to its staff of four, distributes advertisements and sends out news publications to its members."<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_From_Religion_Foundation#_note-aboutCalling> (09 Dec. 2007).
This is not about rights or being misrepresented it's an organizing tool. The foundation is a well oiled propaganda machine and what they do is classical political move; create organizing platforms by using whatever issue is available on the logical level. That's the way the Moral Majority fed into the Regan movement.
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