Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists, sat out of New Jersey’s primary voting on Super Tuesday.

Why?

“I didn’t vote because I’m tired of being ignored by the politicians… because I’m an atheist. All of the candidates court the religious voters and ignore me.”

She then urges the 11% of non-religious voters to “stay home” during the 2008 general elections.

This is the same person who urged us to “vote our atheism” only a month ago (she acknowledges this), but “there aren’t any candidates for us,” she says now:

Of course, non-religious people are a sizable percentage of the population (though we do not vote as a bloc). And, yes, it would be wonderful if candidates made more mention of non-religious Americans. But what is more important: Having a candidate share our values or having a candidate make a special outreach to atheist voters? I really don’t care about the latter if the former is taking place.

Johnson says she wants a candidate who will defend the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Just for the record, here’s Barack Obama:

For one, [conservative leaders] need to understand the critical role that the separation of church and state has played in preserving not only our democracy, but the robustness of our religious practice. Folks tend to forget that during our founding, it wasn’t the atheists or the civil libertarians who were the most effective champions of the First Amendment. It was the persecuted minorities, it was Baptists like John Leland who didn’t want the established churches to impose their views on folks who were getting happy out in the fields and teaching the scripture to slaves. It was the forbearers of the evangelicals who were the most adamant about not mingling government with religious, because they did not want state-sponsored religion hindering their ability to practice their faith as they understood it.

Johnson says she wants a candidate who will appoint judges and justices who will also defend the First Amendment.

Here’s Obama’s smackdown of Justice Janice Rogers Brown. Read that and then tell me he doesn’t want to appoint judges who respect the First Amendment.

Johnson says she wants a candidate who will support the teaching of Evolution in public schools.

Obama said in an interview that “Evolution is more grounded in my experience than angels.”

Johnson goes on to talk about a president who won’t participate in prayers breakfasts or take the Oath on a Bible… good luck with those. The candidates are religious and they will still be religious when elected. As long as they represent everybody, and are not involved in the government favoring one faith over another or faith over no faith, I’ll live.

No need to sit out the election, though. Obama’s a fine candidate for atheists and theists alike. I haven’t heard him making special accommodations for the Religious Right. I don’t expect to see him changing tradition just to appease us. So long as he makes decisions with everyone in mind and continues to act in a progressive manner like he’s done in the Senate, we’ll be ok.

Your atheism is an issue to consider when voting, but it’s not the only issue, and it’s certainly not the most important issue. Not if the candidate is a religious moderate like Obama.

On a side note, Johnson also makes a reference to atheists sitting in the “back of the bus.” I don’t think you can compare what atheists have had to go through (on the whole) to what African-Americans have dealt with in the past several decades. That part just rubbed me the wrong way.

(via NoGodBlog)


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

The New York Times reports that “child-custody disputes in which religion is the flash point are increasing” over the past 30 years.

In Oregon, a dispute between James Boldt and his former wife, Lia, was recently decided by the State Supreme Court. Mr. Boldt, the custodial parent, converted to Judaism after the divorce and sought to have their son, now 12, convert, and be circumcised.

…

Tensions can emerge when one parent takes a turn toward fundamentalism. In 2006, the United States Supreme Court let stand a decision by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania that permitted Stanley Shepp to tell his 14-year-old daughter about polygamy.

And there’s a heartbreaking story about a parent having to fight Amish upbringing:

Aaron Petty of Minneapolis and Gineen Gove of Black River Falls, Wis., had their daughter, Basyl, 17 years ago. The couple split up when Basyl was 4. Soon afterward, Ms. Gove married, and she and her husband converted to Old Order Amish.

As Mr. Petty saw his daughter over the years, he became concerned, he said, when Basyl was about 11 and he learned that the Goves would not let her go to school past eighth grade, a common decision among the Amish.

Mr. Petty petitioned for primary custody so that Basyl might continue her education. “This case wasn’t about religion for me,” he said. “It was about her education.”

He won the case when Basyl was 14, but she disappeared. Mr. Petty said he suspected Basyl was living within the Amish community. The Goves declined to talk about the case.

“I wanted to offer my daughter options for her future, in case she grew up and didn’t remain Amish,” Mr. Petty said in a phone interview. “At 12, 13, 14, making lasting drastic decisions based on faith isn’t an appropriate time.”

Mr. Petty’s voice caught as he continued. “Was that case worth fighting? In hindsight, no. I haven’t seen my daughter in two-and-a-half years.”

It’s hard to find a solution to these problems. The kids are usually (and unfortunately) too young to make a responsible decision about their own upbringing.

Jason at The Wild Hunt says this:

Eventually, one of two roads will have to be taken. Completely leave out matters of faith from custody battles, or directly involve faith communities and experts on religion in the custody process. Neither path will please everyone, but our current system seems far too whimsical and uninformed to make wise decisions involving children and religions outside the mainstream.

The NYT article didn’t mention anything about atheist parent/religious parent custody cases, but I would assume that battle will also be playing out more in the future.

(Thanks to Susan and Brett for the link!)


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

I especially like how “Believe in God” is trademarked…

(via My Confined Space)


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

I recently wrote about the 90 Day Jane blog. The blog is the (supposed) brainchild of “Jane,” a girl who is going to kill herself in about three months and is counting down the days.

A reader created a wonderful response: the 25000 Day Arthur blog.

He’s going to kill himself in 25000 days:

Day 25000

Err, ate a meatball sub for lunch. Went to the gym and ran 6k in 30 minutes – pretty pleased about that. I can’t get that bloody Mika song out of my head (Relax! Take it eeeeaaaaaaaaaasy, for there is nothing that we can do!) I plan to go to the cinema later on and watch ‘Jumper’. Will tell you tomorrow if it’s any good. Only 24999 days to go…

I have a feeling this is going to get *really* good on Day 21658.

And I’ll save you the math. It’s about 68.5 years.


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]