2006 First Freedom Award Recipients Announced
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/051206/dctu020.html?.v=29
Yahoo! News (press release) - USA
Tuesday December 6, 10:28 am ET
Council for America's First Freedom Hosts 12th Annual Event Honoring Three
Advocates for Religious Liberty
RICHMOND, Va., Dec. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- To commemorate the 220th anniversary
of the nation's first law guaranteeing religious liberty, the Council for
America's First Freedom is presenting the 2006 First Freedom Awards to
three distinguished advocates of religious freedom, individuals who have
made profound contributions to advancing religious liberty around the
world, across the United States and within Virginia.
The 12th annual awards, presented in three categories, will be awarded in
Richmond, Va., on January 18, two days following National Religious Freedom
Day, to:
* Vaclav Havel, former president of both the Czech Republic and
Czechoslovakia, award-winning playwright and passionate global
champion
of interfaith dialogue and freedom of conscience, will receive the
International First Freedom Award.
* The Honorable Chet Edwards, seven-term U.S. Representative from Waco,
Texas and ardent proponent of the nation's founding principle of
church-
state separation, will receive the National First Freedom Award.
* Dr. Robert S. Alley, professor emeritus of Humanities at the
University
of Richmond, noted author and scholarly authority on religion,
government and education, will receive the Virginia First Freedom
Award.
"These three honorees have dedicated much of their professional lives to
the defense of religious liberty," said Tommy Baer, president of the
Council for America's First Freedom. "They are people of conscience and
principles whose insights and courage have helped deepen our collective
understanding of religious freedom and fortify the foundation of this
inherent human right."
This year marks the 12th year in which the Council for America's First
Freedom has sponsored the First Freedom Awards, in conjunction with
National Religious Freedom Day, observed annually on January 16. Past
recipients include Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain; Lawrence
Eagleburger, former Secretary of State; Richard C. Holbrooke, chief
negotiator of the Dayton Peace Accords and U.S. Ambassador to the United
Nations; and Dr. Garry Wills, Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
National Religious Freedom Day is observed each year on January 16, the
anniversary of the date on which the Virginia General Assembly enacted the
Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the landmark law that first
guaranteed religious liberty and became the precursor for the First
Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion.
Additional biographical information on each recipient is attached. For more
information about the awards dinner ceremony, which is open to the news
media, please contact Maureen Rosenbaum at (804) 643-1786 or
mrosenbaum@firstfreedom.org.
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Posting and reading from alt.politics.usa.constitution OR alt.education
You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the U.S. and a couple from overseas as well]
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.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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