New York City Atheists
http://nyc-atheists.org
(212) 330-6794 PO Box 1187, New York, NY 10013
This is the October newsletter of NYC Atheists. The print edition is
mailed only to members without e-mail, to save funds. But you can
read it in this message, or download and print a PDF version at
http://nyc-atheists.org/newsletter.pdf.
* Street Tabling this Sunday, October 19 *
Our next tabling will be on Sunday, October 19, on Broadway between
89th and 90th Sts., from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Street tabling has become
the best way to promote NYC Atheists and build our mailing list, and
the most fun way for our members to meet. E-mail
if you'd like to help volunteer in the morning
or afternoon shifts. See several photos of our earlier tablings at
http://nyc-atheists.org/tabling.html. It's fun!
* Atheist Meetups Next Week *
Meet your fellow atheists for casual drinks or dinner at the Atheist
Meetup, on Tuesday, October 21, starting at 7 P.M. The Manhattan
location is V Bar and Cafe, 225 Sullivan St., just south of Washington
Square Park (A/C/E/B/D/F/V/S trains to West 4th St.). The Westchester
location is Jean-Jacques Cafe, 468 Bedford Rd, Pleasantville. The
Long Island location is Country Corners, 270 Main Street, East
Setauket. Locations chosen by voting at http://atheists.meetup.com.
Please RSVP at http://atheists.meetup.com. You don't need to RSVP to
come, but for those not in Manhttan, the smaller Westchester and Long
Island venues may be canceled by Meetup.com without enough support.
* October Meeting *
Sunday, October 26, 1-4 P.M.
Guest speaker: Joe Fox, New Jersey Humanist Network, on the HumanLight
holiday (http://www.humanlight.org)
352 7th Ave., 16th flr.
(Between W. 29th-30th Sts., just south of Penn Station)
Donation requested
* Atheists in Foxholes Celebrated at September Meeting *
Richard Cotter and Jack Pollard of the Military Association of
Atheists and Freethinkers (http://www.maaf.info) spoke on how "There
Are Atheists in Foxholes" to New York City Atheists at its September
meeting, which was attended by 45 people, a new record, and which
included male and female veterans. There was lots of interest in
atheism in the military. Pollard's presentation led to a
question-and-answer discussion with almost everyone participating.
Cotter, an atheist currently in the Reserves, said that he noticed
religious activites on base, and that he'd like to see more support
for the numerous nonreligious in the military. He gave an overview of
MAAF and some of its issues: dogtags, the Veterans of Foreign Wars,
the Boy Scouts of America charter, the Freedom from Religion
Foundation's annual Lake Hypatia retreat and its military atheists
memorial, Bob Schieffer of CBS's public apology regarding atheists in
foxholes, and about the atheist and humanist symbols approved on
military headstones and those in Arlington cemetery.
Ken said he's asked MAAF members to document being in combat
situations in which they hadn't fallen to praying to a god. Cotter,
too, said he was interested in local atheists who had been in active
combat. Cotter can be contacted at president@maaf.info.
Asked how soldiers could handle fear in combat without religion,
Cotter said that there was room for such counseling, though he himself
was only involved with it [in the states].
When the group discussed the efforts of Kathleen Johnson, American
Atheists' director of Military Affairs, to protest chaplain-led
invocations at the Naval Academy (see "Military Atheists Protest
Prayer At Naval Academy" in September's newsletter), were discussed,
Cotter praised the "fantastic" progress of seeing that addressed.
Pollard described the grenades, mines, and other elements of his
active combat experience on the Saigon River delta in Vietnam. He
said he had long been offended by the "there are no atheists in
foxholes" canard. Worse, "You can't have foxhole in the mud," he said.
"It's even worse; you can't lay down flat in the water." He discussed
the fear of death in "foxholes," and said that the closeness of death
makes irrelevant religion, or awareness of your teammates' religion or
lack of religion.
He also discussed the lack of prevalence of chaplains on the front
line, high-ranking atheists in the services, the activism of Kathleen
Johnson, and alternatives to Alcoholics Anonymous (see "Twelve-Step
Alternatives" elsewhere in this newsletter.)
Cotter, in closing, read the "Atheists in Foxholes" poem by Alice
Shriver (see box).
Ken awarded Cotter a certificate of appreciation plaque for speaking,
and noted that on this same day, in 1789, Congress voted to approve
the bill of rights, later ratified by the states. He read the 1st
amendment "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of
grievances."
Ken introduced, to popular acclaim, a campaign to encourage atheist
letters to the editor (see "Dollars for Letters to the Editor"
elsewhere in this issue.)
Ken reported on NYC Atheists member Howard's alert that P.S. 41, on
11th Street and 6th Avenue, at 10:00 A.M. on Sundays, allows the New
York Church of Christ to have services in its auditorium. American
Civil Liberties Union legal counsel informs us that it is legal if the
public school rents to "anybody," and that religious organizations
cannot be denied equal access.
Members donated $192 (see "Treasury Report" elsewhere in this issue.)
Ken also discussed paid advertising, especially his inquries with Our
Time and Westsider. Many members urged advertising in the Village
Voice. The events magazines New York Press and L have been promoting
our meetings regularly, at no charge. The New York Times has
apologized for omitting our second advertisement with it. We are
beginning to advertise in The Onion.
New York City Atheists may offer a promotional 2004 pocket wallet
calendar.
The meeting voted to have a solstice meeting at a restaurant or other
special place on the evening of Sunday, December 21. The location
will be announced.
Immediately after the meeting, our first book discussion group,
comprising up to eight people, met to explore An Atheist Epic, Madalyn
O'Hair's personal account of how the Bible and prayers were removed
from public schools of the United States. The group voted to meet
every other month.
* Atheists in Foxholes *
by Alice Shiver
Written for the Freedom from Religion Foundation's Freethought
Homecoming at Lake Hypatia, July 4, 1999
Atheists in foxholes, some say they are myths,
Creations of the mind who just don't exist.
Yet, they answered the call to defend, with great pride.
With reason their watchword, they bled and they died.
They took Saratoga from the British crown,
Secured America's freedom at the Battle of Yorktown.
From Sumter to Appomattox, fields flowed with their blood.
When the cannons grew silent, the flag proudly stood.
From the Marne to the Argonne, in trenches and tanks,
They defeated the Germans -- the whole world gave thanks.
They were bombed at Pearl Harbor, fought on to Berlin.
Many freethinking women served along with the men.
Still war keeps erupting -- Iraq, Bosnia, and Kosovo.
Where is the peace that eludes people so?
It is broken by tyrants who bear crosses and creeds,
That overshadow reason with hate and cruel deeds.
So atheists prevail until your work is complete.
Mothers mourn, children cry, and bigots plan your defeat.
By air, land, and sea, you answer freedom's call.
Without god or faith, you seek liberty for all.
* D.C. Demo Photos *
See http://nyc-atheists.org/moore.html for photos from the Washington,
D.C., counterdemonstration against the "Commandments Caravan." The
counterdemonstration was led by the national group American Atheists,
of which NYC Atheists is an affiliate. Some members of NYC Atheists
went as a group after making arrangements in the member-only Yahoo
discussion group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nyc-atheists, bringing
with them the NYC Atheists banner.
HumanLight Holiday, and Abortion: Topics for Next Meetings
October's meeting -- to be held on the last Sunday of the month,
October 26, from 1 to 4 P.M. -- features as guest speaker the New
Jersey Humanist Network's Joe Fox, who will discuss HumanLight, "a new
holiday celebrating humanist values. . . . Humanists are not
comfortable with holidays based on supernatural concepts, but
nonetheless wish to express their good wishes to others in a spirit of
hope, love, and understanding." See the Web site
http://www.humanlight.org to learn more about HumanLight before the
meeting.
In November the guest speaker will be Bill Baird, the nationally
known reproductive rights activist. Baird has long been a friend to
atheist and other freethought groups. Come hear him on Thursday,
November 20, 6:30 P.M.
* Treasury Report *
Having already won federal certification as a 501(c), tax-exempt
educational organization, last month New York City Atheists became
exempt from New York State sales tax, thanks to the hard work of
members Ken and Mel.
Please consider donating to New York City Atheists. Membership and
our monthly newsletter are currently free, but we depend on donations
to maintain events and mailings. Donations, which are tax-deductible,
are reported in this monthly treasury report, anonymously unless
requested otherwise. Make your check payable to "NYC Atheists" and
send it to NYC Atheists, PO Box 1187, New York, NY 10013.
Mid-September's treasury balance was $1,387.25. We spent $195.53 to
print and $40.70 to mail the September newsletter, $220 for the
October 26 meeting room rental and $180 for the November 20 meeting
room rental, and $44.28 on stationary. Members donated $192 at the
September meeting and $1110 via mail. As of mid-October, the treasury
balance is $2,008.74, excluding the cost of this newsletter.
Please consider donating to New York City Atheists. Membership and
our monthly newsletter are currently free, but we depend on donations
to maintain events and mailings. Donations, which are tax-deductible,
are reported in this monthly treasury report, anonymously unless
requested otherwise. Make your check payable to "NYC Atheists" and
send it to NYC Atheists, PO Box 1187, New York, NY 10013.
NYC Atheists Invited to Buy Church
New York City Atheists has been invited to bid on a hundred-year-old
landmark Christian Scientist church on the Upper West Side.
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, at 1 West 96th Street, was put
on the market after its dwindling congregation merged with a
neighboring Christian Science church.
A colorful brochure sent to New York City Atheists by Regency Capital
and Insignia/ESG, which is brokering the sale, says that the opulent
church's Beaux Arts design, featuring neoclassical elements, detailed
decorative features, and heavy masonry, is comparable to that of the
New York Public Library and Grand Central Terminal. 47.000 square
feet of floor space includes a mahogany-paneled boardroom; 32 offices,
including 6 with fireplaces; a duplex two-bedroom apartment; and a
library. What the brokers call the "main auditorium," seats up to
1,900 people and offers soaring skylit ceilings. The interior
features intricately detailed marble floors, soaring ornate vaulted
ceilings, and gilded wood.
There are no religious symbols in the interior aside from the
stained-glass windows, which include a prominent one entitled "Touch
Me Not." Since the church is listed in the National Historic
Register, no external changes can be made without the approval of the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
"We are praying and trusting that it will be the perfect right space
for somebody," said Catherine Byers, a church trustee.
The church building is expected to sell for approximately $24
million. Donations to NYC Atheists, a nonprofit educational
association, are tax-exempt. There are no plans to bid on the church.
See the Treasury Report elsewhere in this issue.
Politicians Pray for School Success
Schools Chancellor Joel Klein asked for prayers as he prepared for the
start of an academic year marked by major organizational restructuing.
"I need you to pray for me, to pray that I have the wisdom and I have
the ability to lead the system in the way that you want," Klein said
from the pulpit of the Bridge Street AME Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant,
Brooklyn, according to the September 8, 2003 New York Daily News.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's comments in the same article were strictly
secular. But according to the July 3 edition of the New York Sun,
Bloomberg invoked divine intervention in favor of the school system.
"God is with us today. God sent us a message. The schools are going
to get better."
Bloomberg has maintained such a nonreligious profile that when he
began stressing his Jewish roots during his mayoral campaign, he
earned snickers from the local Jewish religious newspapers the Forward
and Jewish Week. However, at a July 2001 press conference, Bloomberg
had called prayer in public schools -- even the Lord's Prayer, which
is Christian -- "an excellent idea." "It's the way I grew up and I
didn't turn out so bad," he said. "Nobody wants to keep church and
state more separate more than I do. But I don't have a problem if
kids can say the Lord's Prayer, as long as you make sure that you're
not, through social pressure or anything else, forcing people to pray
or to say a prayer that they don't believe in." Later, Bloomberg said
he favored a "moment of silence" or other organized prayer in public
schools. But he added that he would have "no intention" of advancing
his views in the city's public schools or through the state
government.
To respond to Klein and Bloomberg's prayerful positions, you can
write them, respectively: Chancellor Joel Klein, New York City
Department of Education, 52 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007,
chancellor@nycboe.net; Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, City Hall, New
York, NY 10007, http://nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html.
* Atheists Still Fighting Against WTC Cross *
WorldNetDaily.com, 9/9/03
Just shy of the two-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, an
atheist organization is once again warning against using a steel-beam
cross at the site of the World Trade Center disaster from being used
in a permanent memorial to the victims who died there.
"Many people who died on Sept. 11 weren't Christian. There were Jews,
Muslims and atheists who died," Ellen Johnson, president of American
Atheists, told the Trentonian newspaper. "This is a Christian
religious advertisement, and allowing it to stay there is an insult to
everyone who doesn't believe in that particular religion."
As WorldNetDaily reported, last year, the organization first spoke
out about the issue after Ed Malloy, a board member of the Lower
Manhattan Development Corporation, asked that the cross be made a
permanent part of any future memorial.
The atheists said use of the cross in a government-funded monument
"would violate the separation of church and state, be insensitive to
those victims who had no religious beliefs and would incredibly pay
homage to religion - the prime motivating factor in the faith-based
attack of Sept. 11."
The Associated Press reports Johnson and her group, founded by the
late Madalyn Murray O'Hair, is considering a lawsuit to prevent the
cross from becoming part of any permanent memorial.
Construction worker Frank Silecchia happened upon the perfectly
symmetrical cross in the midst of the WTC wreckage just a few days
after the attacks. It was standing straight, 20-feet high, surrounded
by many smaller crosses.
After the cross was discovered, construction workers, firefighters,
police officers and family members began holding weekly Sunday
services at the site.
The names of fallen police officers and firefighters were also
scribbled on the cross, along with the message "May God forgive their
evil," reported the Associated Press.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the agency overseeing
the rebuilding of the area, has made no decisions on what a Ground
Zero memorial would include.
* Report from the NYC Atheists Working Group *
by Bob
Several members of NYC Atheists met as a working group on September 28
to explore possible ways to integrate the insights and contributions
of all our members to enable us to be more effective with outreach.
Recognizing that different folks have different slants on the same
issues, we began by looking at vocabulary we might need.
The minutes of our first meeting follow. If you would like more
information, please post a request to the members-only Yahoo
discussion group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nyc-atheists, or call
NYC Atheists at (212) 330-6794.
1. Purpose and focus. We discussed the need for a common vocabulary
and other certain tasks. We also discussed how doing these tasks in
tandem might be mutually helpful. For example, the design of a Q&A for
use during tabling would need some common vocabulary -- and writing a
school syllabus or studies of "atheist ethical systems" might reveal
the need to clarify key terms.
We also discussed reviewing traditional "differences of opinion."
We'll try to find areas of agreement, allowing us to move on to other
discussions and projects.
2. Procedures. We'll try to maximize the commonality of our findings;
then, delineate as precisely as possible any remaining differences. We
will then report our findings to the next membership meeting for
review. Together (hopefully) we'll find a formulation of the word,
issue, or position that can be "adopted" -- subject to any future
revisions!
3. The first forays! After some discussion, we decided to start our
discussion around "the need to establish common basic vocabulary."
During the meeting, we sometimes strayed into more "pithy"
discussions. The question was raised: Are we a work group or a
seminar? As the meeting progressed, the switching between the two
modes seemed to bear fruit. We discovered that at times, we needed to
know exactly what a speaker meant by certain terms employed -- and we
would add the word to the list!!! The discussion of the meaning of key
terms helped to clarify discussions. We compiled a list of terms and
associate terms:
- Atheist, agnostic, freethinker, humanist, secularist, skeptic,
heretic/unbeliever, ethicist
- Religion, faith, belief, spiritual, god(s), free will, supernatural
- Science, method, empirical, materialism, E=mc2, TOE (theory of
everything), naturalism
- Social Science, mind/brain, psychology, ethics/morality,
reason/rationality, consciousness/cognition, experience/truth
4. Follow-up. Everyone is encouraged to find definitions for as many
words as possible, relying on the dictionary and Web site suggested by
Ken: www.wikipedia.org Now is the time to suggest the definition that
is dear to your heart!!!!! If you can, send me your list: I'll try to
consolidate.
5. Name. We need a name: only suggestion so far is the C3 (cubed)
committee [Cohesive (or Coordinated) Creative Consciousness].
Meetings: meet before members mtg.: Oct. 26 11:30, Mustang Harry's
(same address as mtg).
Main task: Prepare a short report for the members to get reactions.
* God and the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party *
By Lenni Brenner
Counterpunch, 8/29/03
We know that you are snickering about Alabama's Chief Justice Roy
Moore's 10 Commandments rock. Now his eight associate judges have
repudiated "Roy's Rock," and the state's Attorney General removed it.
So all is well. Or is it?
On July 22, the House voted 307 to 119 for an amendment to an
appropriations bill. It prohibits the use of federal money to enforce
the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals previous ruling that "under God" has
no business in the Pledge of Allegiance. The next day it voted 260 to
161 to prohibit funding of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision
demanding the removal of Moore's monument.
Ninety-one of 199 Democrats voted to prohibit funding the "under God"
decision, 50 out of 197 voted to ban US money for enforcement of the
order against Moore. Cynics felt that this was just populist
demagoguery, that they knew that the bill wouldn't get past the
Senate. Except that the Senate had previously voted, 99 to 0 and 94 to
0, to denounce the 9th's ruling in nonbinding statements.
With Alabama's court and AG promising to get rid of the 10
Commandments stone, the Senate won't have to vote on that, but "under
God" is still before the courts. As of now, no one has introduced the
11th Circuit Court amendment into the Senate, and it is possible that
our Senators will cook up a parliamentary maneuver to evade binding a
vote on the House's handiwork. But if they do, that only postpones the
political day of reckoning for our secular liberals until the 2004
elections.
Columnists in the New York Times, the Nation and other liberal
journals now agonize over whether they are for Howard Dean or Dennis
Kucinich. None of their ruminations mean a thing. Everyone familiar
with those publications' previous endorsements knows that they will
tell us to vote for anyone the Democrats nominate, even if they dig up
Attila and run him as a peace candidate. But for the Hun's presidency
to mean much, domestically, he's got to have a Democratic Congress to
back him up. Which means that our secular Democrats will be on their
knees the night before the election, alongside Moore, praying that all
the House Democrats who voted for him, and all the Senators who stood
up for "God" against you heathens, get reelected.
Win or lose, liberalism faces its terminal crisis. Secularist
organizations are deeply troubled. Secularism was invented by Thomas
Jefferson and James Madison, the Democratic Party's founders. Library
shelves sag under the weight of their warnings about mixing religion
and politics. But every hypocritical Democrat's vote on behalf of
Moore or "under God" was a weapon of mass deception aimed at
Jefferson's great "wall of separation between Church and State."
God and the 10 Commandments may be what Judaism is all about, but
even the American Jewish Congress, which wants continued support of
both parties for Israel, called the House votes "assaults on the rule
of law." Mock pious politicians may be 'good for Israel,' but their
members live here and they fear that politically 'shrewd' pandering to
the Christian right today can end us up with a Christian government on
some tomorrow.
Secularist Democrats have fallen into a pit of their own digging.
Ninety-eight, maybe 99 out of 100, share the cynicism of their party
on other issues. For example, many secularists are privately for
legalizing recreational pot. Yet they have no problem with Dean and
Kucinich running like thieves from the issue, which isn't central to
the secular world view. But they know that any Presidential candidate
of "the democratic wing of the Democratic Party," will never denounce
the congressional Democratic Jesus freaks and panderers to the freaks,
and that the reason for their silence is exactly the same depraved
vote counting reason they are quieter than Jerusalem Slim's empty tomb
re marijuana.
For all their populist rhetoric, "democratic wing" politicians
operate on the basis of a great unspoken truth: Poor people got poor
ways. Foolish voters outnumber the wise, not just in Alabama, but in
every state in the union. Their strategy is to pander to those fools,
black, white and otherwise, by commission or omission, by lying to
them, or keeping quiet when their party colleagues do, all in the
fools' interests, you understand.
Wannabe leftist candidates also must face that sobering reality.
Pander or educate. But if you pander, you never convert anyone into a
thinking political being.
Democrats are "crackpot realists." They know that 47% of Americans,
57% of Blacks, believe that God created the world about 10,000 years
ago. They court that religious Black vote and desperately pander to
white Protestant born-agains, pro-Zionist Orthodox Jewish believers in
the Great Ham-hater in the sky, and similar powerful minds. They hem
and they haw about gay marriage. But, in the 'real world' which they
babble about without really examining, one in seven Americans now
reject all religions, millions of sincere believers also believe in
keeping religion out of politics, there are now over 19 million
potheads, and tens of millions of straights accept gay marriage.
To be sure, as of now, no for-keeps revolutionary can get elected
President. But a serious radical candidate in 2004 most assuredly can
recruit a massive movement out of those already gigantic minorities.
And always remember that the Democrats lost to Nixon in 1968 and 1972,
yet Nixon lost the Vietnam war. That's because it wasn't Democrats
Hubert Humphrey and George McGovern who organized hundreds of
thousands into the antiwar movement. It was a few thousand Trotskyists
and Stalinists who called the demonstrations.
And today no sane person expects Dean or Kucinich to call for an
anti-war movement. Not here, and certainly not within the military in
Afghanistan and Iraq and Saudi Arabia. That plain and simple truth
automatically disqualifies them as genuine 'peace candidates'.
James Madison to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822:
"Notwithstanding the general progress made within the two last
centuries in favour of this branch of liberty, & the full
establishment of it, in some parts of our Country, there remains in
others a strong bias towards the old error, that without some sort of
alliance or coalition between Govt. & Religion neither can be duly
supported. Such indeed is the tendency to such a coalition, and such
its corrupting influence on both the parties, that the danger cannot
be too carefully guarded agst. And in a Govt. of opinion, like ours,
the only effectual guard must be found in the soundness and stability
of the general opinion on the subject. Every new & successful example
therefore of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil
matters, is of importance. And I have no doubt that every new example,
will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion &
Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed
together. It was the belief of all sects at one time that the
establishment of Religion by law, was right & necessary; that the true
religion ought to be established in exclusion of every other; And that
the only question to be decided was which was the true religion. The
example of Holland proved that a toleration of sects, dissenting from
the established sect, was safe & even useful. The example of the
Colonies, now States, which rejected religious establishments
altogether, proved that all Sects might be safely & advantageously put
on a footing of equal & entire freedom; and a continuance of their
example since the declaration of Independence, has shewn that its
success in Colonies was not to be ascribed to their connection with
the parent Country. If a further confirmation of the truth could be
wanted, it is to be found in the examples furnished by the States,
which have abolished their religious establishments. I cannot speak
particularly of any of the cases excepting that of Virga, where it is
impossible to deny that Religion prevails with more zeal, and a more
exemplary priesthood than it ever did when established and patronised
by Public authority. We are teaching the world the great truth that
Govts. do better without Kings & Nobles than with them. The merit will
be doubled by the other lesson that Religion flourishes in greater
purity, without than with the aid of Govt."
Lenni Brenner is the editor of 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration
with the Nazis, and a contributor to the forthcoming CounterPunch book
The Politics of Anti-Semitism. He can be reached at
BrennerL21@aol.com.
* LISH Merges with CFI *
To accelerate the grown and widen the reach of organized scientific
rationalism in the New York City area, Long Island Secular Humanists
(LISH), led by president Gerry Dantone, has merged with the Center for
Inquiry (CFI). LISH has been the largest and most active community
group for humanists and skeptics on Long Island. To increase its
impact and ensure its long-term future, the group decided to become
the Long Island operation of CFI, and Dantone will serve as CFI's Long
Island coordinator. The merger officially took effect on August 1, and
was marked by an August 10 celebratory beach barbecue in Huntington,
New York.
* Federal Court Rules on Inmates' Halal Meat *
Meatingplace.com, 9/12/03
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling
that the state of New Jersey is not obligated to serve two Muslim
inmates meals containing meat that is halal.
The case is similar to dozens of others filed around the country.
Pennsylvania inmate Henry Williams filed suit after he was disciplined
for refusing to help prepare a pork meal while working in the kitchen
at the Rockview state prison in 2001.
Last year, a prison review panel upheld his punishment, ruling that
kitchen workers "are required to wear gloves and therefore do not
'touch pork,' technically."
* Twelve-Step Alternatives *
Agnostic AA is a secular alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous. In
Manhattan it meets on Sunday and Thursday afternoons, and on Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday evenings. In Brooklyn it's on Saturdays at
11:30 A.M., and in the Bronx on Wednesdays at 7:00 P.M., all at
various locations. For more information call New York Inter-Group at
(212) 647-1680 and ask about Agnostic AA, or see their Web site
http://www.agnosticaanyc.org.
Moderation Management is another alternative. In Manhattan it meets
on Tuesdays from 6 to 7 P.M. at: New York Spaces, 131 West 72nd
Street, New York, and on Thursdays from 7 to 8 P.M. at the Harm
Reduction Coalition, 22 West 27th Street. on the 5th floor. For more
information about Moderation Management meetings, call 212-462-9469 or
see their Web site http://www.moderation.org.
LifeRing Recovery is yet another secular alternative. It meets on the
2nd and 4th Saturday of the month, 1-2 P.M., at Cabrini Medical
Center, 227 East 19th St. (between 2nd and 3rd Aves.) in Manhattan.
For more information e-mail or see their Web site
http://www.unhooked.com.
* The Solstice Season *
by Madalyn O'Hair
When the first installment of a regularly scheduled, fifteen-minute,
weekly American Atheist radio series on KTBC radio (a station in
Austin, Texas, owned by then-president Lyndon Baines Johnson) hit the
airwaves on June 3, 1968, the nation was shocked. The programs had to
be submitted weeks in advance and were heavily censored. The regular
production of the series ended in September 1977, when no further
funding was available. The following is the text of American Atheist
Radio Series program No. 30, first broadcast on December 23, 1968,
which became known as "The Solstice Season Program" and was
subsequently printed annually in the December issue of American
Atheist during the years when it was a monthly periodical.
Someone stole something from me. I don't like it. What was stolen from
me - and from you - was one of the most beautiful holidays in the
world. Robert G. Ingersoll (an American Atheist hero of earlier days)
was also angry about this theft. Let me read to you what he had to say
about it.
He wrote a very famous "Christmas sermon." It was printed in the
Evening Telegram newspaper, New York City, New York, on December 19,
1891. The ministers of the day attacked the newspaper and demanded a
boycott of it. The Telegram accepted the challenge and set off an
issue across the country. The paper printed the Rev. Dr. J. M.
Buckley's attack, and Robert Ingersoll's answer. It developed into a
real donnybrook.
Let's hear what Ingersoll had to say:
"The good part of Christmas is not always Christian, it is generally
Pagan; that is to say, human and natural.
"Christianity did not come with tidings of great joy, but with a
message of eternal grief. It came with the threat of everlasting
torture on its lips. It meant war on earth and perdition thereafter.
"It taught some good things, the beauty of love and kindness in man.
But as a torch-bearer, as a bringer of joy, it has been a failure. It
has given infinite consequences to the acts of finite beings, crushing
the soul with a responsibility too great for mortals to bear. It has
filled the future with fear and flame, and made God the keeper of an
eternal penitentiary, destined to be the home of nearly all the sons
of men. Not satisfied with that, it has deprived God of the pardoning
power. "And yet it may have done some good by borrowing from the
Pagan world the old festival we know as Christmas.
"Long before Christ was born, the sun god triumphed over the Powers
of Darkness. About the time that we call Christmas the days began
perceptibly to lengthen. Our barbarian ancestors were worshipers of
the sun, and they celebrated his victory over the hosts of night. Such
a festival was natural and beautiful. The most natural of all
religions is the worship of the sun. Christianity adopted this
festival. It borrowed from the Pagans the best it has.
"I believe in Christmas and in every day that has been set apart for
joy. We in American have too much work and not enough play. We are too
much like the English.
"I think it was Heinrich Heine who said that he thought a blaspheming
Frenchman was a more pleasing object to god than a praying Englishman.
We take our joys too sadly. I am in favor of all the good free days,
the more the better.
"Christmas is a good day to forgive and forget, a good day to throw
away prejudices and hatreds, a good day to fill your heart and your
house, and the hearts and houses of others with sunshine. "
Would you believe that such a warm Christmas sermon could cause
religious people to launch a vicious attack on a newspaper for
publishing it? Ingersoll used the word "borrow." He said that
Christians borrowed the Pagan holiday. I use a stronger word. They
stole it. They stole the most beautiful holiday of man - and for what?
They claim that this is the birthday of Jesus Christ. Let's look at
their scholars and their history and see if this is a fact. You most
probably all know of A. T. Robertson, the late professor of New
Testament Greek at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in
Louisville, Kentucky. He had written a standard textbook on the
so-called Broadus Harmony of the Gospels, and it is used in every
school of religion across the land. In this book is summarized all the
findings of religious scholarship pin relationship to Jesus Christ
and, among other things, the date of his birth.
After a lengthy explanation of when Jesus Christ may have been born,
Dr. Robertson set the date at - hold on now - the summer or early fall
of the year 6 B.C. or 5 B.C. Did you hear that? He set the date in the
summer or the fall. Recently the idea of the first week in January has
gained some following. But no one who is a religious scholar any more
accepts or believes December 25.
One must calculate from the possible death of Herod, or the
appearance of the so-called star in the East, which could have been a
comet recorded by the Chinese or a conjunction of the planets Jupiter
and Saturn. But the Greenwich Observatory says that the conjunction
appearing as a single star was very unlikely. Or one can judge the
"time of the universal peace," that is the "time of no war" about
which the heavenly host sang. But there was never any stoppage of war
in that time.
One can guess from the so-called ministry of John the Baptist, or the
age of Jesus upon his entry into the ministry, or the building of the
Temple of Herod, or the closing of the temple of Janus, or the
so-called census of Augustus Caesar. All of these lead the poor
theologians in ever-increasing directions away from the idea of
Christmas and the year "zero" or "one" of our present calendar.
Actually, the idea of December 25 is untenable. All the ancients in
Christian history had various days for Christ's birth. Clement of
Alexandria, who was closer to that alleged event in time, said it was
May 20. April 20 and January 6 have always appeared as possible dates.
Why did the Christians want the twenty-fifth of December? Why that
particular date? Why did they deliberately steal this very important
date from the Pagans?
There are four points in our calendar which we use and which we call
"Solstice" or "Equinox" points, two of each. The latter is easy: we
say that the equinox is when the sun crosses the equator of the earth,
and day and night are everywhere of equal length. The sun does not
actually cross the equator; we all know that. But with the earth's
natural tip on its natural axis as it whirls around the sun, this
seems to be so. Then, either one or the other part of our old ball of
earth gets the most sun. But on these two occasions, the days are
equal in length everywhere, and this occurs about March 21 and
September 23 by our current calendar.
The Solstice is something different. We don't go around the sun in a
circle; we tour around it - on our earth - in an ellipse, which is a
flattened circle, or oval. When we are in the points furthest away
from the sun, we have another phenomenon. That, along with the 23°
inclination of the earth, causes the solstices. Twice a year, when the
sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator, about June
21 when the sun reaches its northernmost point on the celestial
sphere, or about December 22 when it reaches its southernmost point,
we call these moments the solstice. The solstice in December is the
time when the days of the year, in our hemisphere, are the shortest.
Primitive man and Pagan man were not idiots, you know. They saw this.
Apparently at the first, they feared the days would get shorter and
shorter and shorter and finally - what if there were only night! What
a frightening thing, when the sun was so necessary for life, from
common observation. So when the day came for the sun to overcome the
darkness, and for the sun to cause the days to be longer - even if
just a minute longer - it meant that there was not going to be eternal
night. The sun had won a fight again. Darkness had had to recede and
slowly the days would get longer and longer until spring and summer,
with food growing again and the life cycle being renewed again, would
be everywhere on the earth.
And so every primitive culture had a festival or a feast on this day.
It was celebrated in China, in India, in South America, in Mexico, in
Africa, in every single place where man could watch days and nights
and seasons. There were presents given on this great day, exchanged as
a symbol, for the sun had brought the most precious gift of all to
man: the warmth needed for life and a recycle of the seasons again.
The ancient men noticed other things too. Certain trees stayed green
all year round, a promise of the abundance of spring and summer to
come again after winter, a reassurance that all the greens would
return in their seasons. The light of the sun and the twinkling light
of stars became important in symbolism as well as in fact. The
mysterious parasite, mistletoe, ever green, intrigued primitive man.
It all needed to be celebrated, to be noted with awe. If one could not
give life as the sun did - one could give else, such as a sharing of
food or the precious few personal items one had. But, above all it was
a time of revelry. Life had been renewed. It was the most joyous of
all human occasions. There was universal singing and dancing and
laughing and well-being. It was wild and wonderful, and human and
warm. It was the best of all festivals. It was the gayest of all
feasts. It was the warmest and best of all collective human
activities.
The Christians were no fools. If they permitted the Pagan holiday to
continue to exist, it could challenge the basis of the mournful
Christian religion, with its great emphasis on death. First came
edicts outlawing the Pagan holiday. But nothing so wildly wonderful
and natural as this could ever be outlawed. And then the solution
came: incorporate it into the Christian religion. Oh, it took some
time. It took many years to effect the change. It took much
propaganda. It took many reprisals and sanctions against those who
continued with the old festival. But, eventually the Christian
religion won the day. There were changes in calendars too. When the
Julian calendar was changed to the present-day calendar, Solstice - or
Christmas - shifted a few days also, so that December 25, by our
calendar, came officially to be designated as a Christian day.*
It took a thousand years, and more, to rob the people of the earth of
this grand holiday and to replace it with a personalized myth story of
a "new god born," a god of a horrible, punitive, new religion called
Christianity.
But, it is even easier now, with mass media. There are many of you in
the listening audience old enough to remember Armistice Day. That was
the day that World War I ended and it was celebrated for thirty years
or more until a second world war broke out. After we veterans came
home from that second war we found that there was no more Armistice
Day. Instead, there was a Veterans' Day. All the people in the
listening audience tonight who are twenty-five years old or younger,
never even heard of Armistice Day. They only know Veterans' Day, for
that is all that they were ever taught.
That's how it is with Christmas. That is how it was with the
Solstice. Finally, no one ever heard of the Solstice and its
festivities - and everyone came to believe that the Christians were
celebrating the birthday of Christ and that was all that this holiday
had ever been.
But Bible scholars know better and Atheists know better and we
celebrate that old and wonderful and joyous season. We even sell
Solstice cards for this season of Solstice and the New Year (which,
really, are both one day). Let me read to you what we print
traditionally on our Solstice cards.
Joyful and cheerful, with mistletoe and signs of the season, the
greetings are to wish one and all the glad tidings of a wonderful
Winter Solstice season. The legend inside the card says:
"December 25, by the Julian calendar, was the Winter Solstice. This
day, originally regarded by the Pagans as the day of the nativity of
the sun, the shortest day of the year - when the light began its
conquering battle against darkness - was celebrated universally in all
ages of man. Taken over by the Christians as the birthday of their
mythological Christ, this ancient holiday, set by motions of the
celestial bodies, survives as a day of rejoicing that good will and
love will have a perpetual rebirth in the minds of men - even as the
sun has a symbolic rebirth yearly."
* In the Julian calendar, the winter solstice usually fell on 25
December. By the time that the change to the Gregorian calendar caused
the solstice generally to move back to 21 December, Christmas had
become an "immovable feast" (unlike Easter) and so it continued to be
celebrated on the 25th. -- Frank R. Zindler
* Equal Time for Freethought *
Equal Time for Freethought. Sunday evenings at 6:30 P.M. EST on
WBAI-FM (99.5). A radio show produced by members of NYC area
freethought groups. For audio and text notes, see the Web site
http://foody.org/freethoughtradio.html.
* Also On the Air *
Atheist Viewpoint. Sundays at 1:30 P.M. on channel 56 on Manhattan
Neighborhood Network, Saturdays at 4 P.M. and Sundays at 6 P.M. on
channel 35 on Staten Island, and Mondays and Tuesdays at 7 P.M. on
channel 20 on Long Island's Hauppauge and Brookhaven Cablevision. See
the Web site http://atheistviewpoint.tv. If you are a member of NYC
Atheists and want to be on the show to talk about current events and
your own personal experiences relating to your atheism, e-mail Ellen
Johnson (ej@atheists.org).
Humanist Perspective. Hosted by Joe Beck and aired on Cablevision
Public Access, it can be seen on Wednesdays at 6:30 P.M. on channel 71
of the Woodbury system, and on Wednesdays at 7:00 P.M. on channel 70
of the Hauppauge and Brookhaven systems.
What Is Secular Humanism? Produced by Long Island Secular Humanists
and aired on Cablevision Public Access, it can be seen on Tuesdays at
6:30 P.M. on channel 71 of the Woodbury system, and on Sundays at 2:00
P.M. on the Hauppauge and Brookhaven systems.
* Dollars for Letters to the Editor *
Sanity pays. Be eligible to win up to $100 for your published letter
to a New York City area newspaper or magazine!
Eligible publications: Daily, weekly, or monthly print newspapers and
magazines published and distributed in the New York City metropolitan
area.
Awards: $100 for a published letter in the New York Times, the New
Yorker, New York, or Time Out. $75 for a published letter in the
Daily News, New York Post, or Newsday. $50 for a published letter in
the New York Press, Village Voice, New York Observer, The Sun, or The
Resident, or Westchester, New Jersey, or Long Island daily newspapers.
$25 for a published letter in other journals. $100 for the best
published letter of the year.
Rules:
1) You must be a member of NYC Atheists Inc.
2) The letter must be related to NYC Atheists Inc.'s purposes and
goals:
§ To promote total and absolute separation of church and state
§ To educate and inform the public about atheism
§ To provide a forum for the inquiry and discussion of atheism
§ To develop and engage in educational, cultural and social activities
that are beneficial to the members of NYC Atheists Inc. and atheism
3) An original, dated copy of your published letter must be submitted
to NYC Atheists Inc., PO Box 1187, New York, NY 10013.
4) The decision of the NYC Atheists Inc. board of directors is final.
Use this list of most major local print media (plus USA Today) to
send letters. Letters should respond to a journal's specific article
or general coverage, and opinion/"op-ed" commentaries should reflect a
journal's general style. When writing, include your name, address, and
daytime and evening phone numbers. The shorter the letter or
commentary, the better the chance it will be used. All journals
reserve the right to edit letters for length and clarity. This list
includes contact information, when available, "op-ed" commentaries.
Always check journals for the most current submission information and
expected style. If the journal you want is not listed below, try the
Web site http://go-newyorkcity.com/media.
Daily News
Letters to the Editor
The New York Daily News
450 W. 33rd St.
New York, N.Y. 10001
E-mail:
The Jersey Journal (Jersey City)
In Your Opinion
The Jersey Journal
30 Journal Square
Jersey City, NJ 07306
The Journal News (Westchester)
1 Gannett Drive
White Plains, NY 10604
E-mail:
Web: www.nyjnews.com/contact/letters.php3?address=letters
New York Magazine
Letters to the Editor
New York Magazine
444 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10022
E-mail:
Web: http://forums.metronewyork.com/n/main.asp?webtag=ab-newyorkmetro&nav=messages&lgnF=y&msg=start&nav=start
New York Post
Letters to the Editor
New York Post
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036-8790
E-mail:
Web letters submission:
www.nypost.com/postopinion/letters/letters_editor.htm
New York Press
Letters to the Editor
New York Press
333 7th Ave., 14th Fl.
NY, NY 10001
E-mail:
The New York Times
Letters to the Editor
The New York Times (or) The New York Times Magazine
229 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
Fax: (212) 556-3622. E-mail (newspaper):
E-mail (magazine):
Web forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/
Length: approx. 150 words
Op-Ed submissions:
The New Yorker
The Mail
The New Yorker
4 Times Square
New York, N.Y. 10036-6592
Fax: 212-286-5047
E-mail:
Newsday
Letters to the Editor
Newsday
235 Pinelawn Rd.
Melville, NY 11747-4250
Web: http://cf.newsday.com/newsdayemail/email.cfm
Viewpoints commentary submission:
The Star-Ledger (Trenton)
Letters to the Editor
The Star-Ledger
1 Star-Ledger Plaza
Newark, N.J., 07102-1200
E-mail:
Opinion: Richard Aregood, Editorial Department,
raregood@starledger.com
The Sun
Letters to the Editor
105 Chambers St.
New York, NY 10007
The Times (Trenton)
Letters to the Editor
The Times
P.O. Box 847
Trenton, N.J. 08605
E-mail:
USA Today
Letters to the Editor
USA Today
1000 Wilson Blvd., 22nd
Arlington, VA 22229
E-mail:
Length: 250 or fewer words
The Village Voice
Letters to the Editor
The Village Voice
36 Cooper Square
New York, NY 10003
E-mail:
Web: http://www.villagevoice.com/aboutus/contact.shtml
The Wall Street Journal
Letters to the Editor
4300 Route 1 North
South Brunswick, NJ 08852
E-mail:
.
|
