| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Selena" |
| Date: |
04 Feb 2004 04:31:12 PM |
| Object: |
Request for Assistance |
Have you seen that MasterCard commercial that asks:
1. what is it worth to have this?
2. what is it worth to have that?
3. what is it worth to have something you can't buy? Priceless!
Here's a likely scenario:
It's years from now and you have friends over to watch the Super Bowl. You
meet this one kid, a graduate of the Samuel Kennedy Elementary School in
Sacramento, California. He's the nephew of someone you've known for years.
You two get to talking about how the Supreme Court decided the Pledge of
Allegiance case. You're impressed the kid is so bright.
And then depending on the choice you make now:
A. You go grab a copy of that brief that was filed in the case, the one that
needed your $25 donation to be printed. You show the kid the brief and he
finds your name in it. Big as can be, you took sides in the case.
B. You have to admit that you didn't aid the effort (unless, of course,
you've selected some other means).
To date, of all the amicus briefs that have been filed in the case of Elk
Grove v. Michael Newdow, 40 oppose Newdow and only one (filed by the Atheist
Law Center) supports Newdow. Against Newdow are the United States, the
Senate of the United States, the House of Representatives, 49 State
Attorneys General, and a whole bunch of folks who embrace the idea that
there is a god and it cares about the U.S. and that's what we should teach
kids in public school.
Here's your chance to weigh in, and to make a contribution that you can show
to others. Donate $25 to get this brief printed, and it will bear your name.
What a deal!
Once again, here are the arguments the brief makes:
1. The reference to God in the current Pledge of Allegiance does not merely
recognize as historical fact that "our nation was founded by individuals who
believed in God." It is an affirmation that this IS "one nation under God."
Nor is it simply an "acknowledgment of our religious heritage." It's a
STATEMENT OF BELIEF: that there is a god, and that that god is, in some
sense, over the United States.
2. A law that requires the current Pledge of Allegiance to be recited each
day in public school is a law that requires the daily affirmation of a
religious belief.
3. A law that requires the current Pledge of Allegiance to be recited each
day in public school exposes the State's preference for one particular
religious belief over others.
4. A law that requires the current Pledge of Allegiance to be recited each
day in public school interferes with the rights of parents to "direct the
religious upbringing of their children." Specifically, it interferes with
the rights of parents who wish to teach their children that there are no
gods, or that there are many gods, or that the gods have no particular
interest in the United States.
5. A law that requires the current Pledge of Allegiance (including the
particular religious belief it proclaims) to be recited each day in public
schools is state-sponsored religious indoctrination of public school
students in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
If you have any questions/concerns about making a donation to have the
brief printed, send me a message or give me a call. Thanks.
_____________
Mister Thorne
11 Crestline Drive
San Francisco, CA 94131
(415) 285 5777
thorne@misterthorne.org
.
|
|
| User: "Al Klein" |
|
| Title: Re: Request for Assistance |
04 Feb 2004 11:43:19 PM |
|
|
On Wed, 04 Feb 2004 22:31:12 GMT, Selena <selena.thorne@sbcglobal.net>
posted in alt.atheism:
Here's your chance to weigh in, and to make a contribution that you can show
to others. Donate $25 to get this brief printed, and it will bear your name.
What a deal!
Once again
Once again, how many reams of paper do you need to print one brief?
Let me know and let me know where your nearest Staples is and I'll pay
for the paper.
--
"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists, but
not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and actions of human beings."
-A. Einstein (1929 -- Einstein Archive 33-272)
(random sig, produced by SigChanger)
rukbat at optonline dot net
.
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