American Atheists Statewide Conference Speakers:	Cecil Bothwell
Lavanam	George Erickson
Crystal Dervetski	Bill van Druten

The September-October issue of The Moral Atheist is now being distributed by postal mail and email. To get the entire magazine mailed to you, just email your postal address. You will get 3 issues free so you get a good idea of what we are all about. We want you to join us!

Meanwhile, below is our AFHR Report so you know what is going on, plus the cover story so you can plan to attend our conference if you are in the area. (Some photos omitted for this TMA excerpt.)

Atheists For Human Rights is hosting this event and we're giving it the red carpet treatment with great speakers. We'll even treat you to coffee and cookies!

* Table of contents for this issue.

* PDF of the cover.

AFHR REPORT
By Marie Alena Castle, Communications Director

HOW IT WENT WITH OUR INTERFAITH DIALOGUE
Randy Tigue and I went to Congressman Keith Ellison's interfaith dialogue on July 13 in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District. We were somewhat wary of the topic, which was about getting government money for faith-based projects. Randy spoke about our concerns at the meeting, and everyone involved -- from Rep. Ellison, to Joshua DuBois (the executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based & Neighborhood partnerships), to the former priest who ran the workshop, to reps of area churches -- all but knocked themselves out assuring us that "faith-based" does not really mean that because no money is available specifically for faith-based programs and everyone is eligible to apply. Read more =>

Atheists For Human Rights welcomes you to join us! Membership is open to all who reject supernatural beliefs and support the principles and policies of this organization. We thrive on new ideas and welcome everyone who shares our goals. We have a long history of atheist activism, both as founders and charter members of freethought groups. We are a member society of American Atheists.

We publish a regular newsletter, The Moral Atheist, with informative articles and information about our meetings and activities.

To give you a good idea of what we are all about, get the current printed version or PDF file and three introductory printed issues free.

Call or email today, or fill out the APPLICATION FORM, where, for $50 or more, you may choose up to FOUR gifts from our booklets and videos.

Our dues are minimal to enable as many as possible to become involved; however, they cover only basic operating expenses. Because our outreach projects are sometimes quite expensive, but extremely important, we must rely on additional donations from those who can afford it. We have no paid staff, so all income goes to office expenses and visibility projects. It's a pay-as-you-go system. We can do only what our supporters enable us to do. Please be generous.

REVIEW: My Purpose Driven Death: How I Managed To Become One Lucky Stiff

Jerry Metz, M.D.,
Medical Dirctor, Final Exit Network

Like most people, I have worked hard to understand and control my life; unlike most people my work with Final Exit Network made me try to imagine being in control of my own death. I failed.

I read "On Death and Dying" years ago and a stack of books since then but nothing clicked until I picked up Annie Chase's booklet and couldn't put it down! This slender memoir is a jewel - a treasure! - and I hope it becomes a classic. The smiling photograph on the cover introduces a blithe spirit whose bright light makes clear for us the thoughts and fears of a brave soul circling the sun for the last time, fully aware and willing to share.

Highly recommended reading.

NOTE: Non-members can get Annie Chase's booklet with a donation of $10 or more to support Final Exit Network and our Moral High Ground project. Send an e-mail or letter to the AFHR address below, pay with PayPal or a check, and specify where to mail the booklet.

AFHR
5146 Newton Ave. N.
Minneapolis MN 55430-3459

Email: Communications Director

Phone:
612-529-1200 (Twin Cities area) or
1-866-ATHEIST (toll-free long dist.)

Letters and articles are welcome!

Tom Brock wouldn't have needed to complain about John Townsend outing him if he had been minding his own business. ("Same-sex urges needn't be acted upon" Aug. 4.) But no, he has been on a campaign to make his religious views about homosexual behavior the law of the land, and that is why his outing was justified.

Brock needs to understand that whatever he believes the Bible tells him to do is irrelevant to lawmaking under a secular government. This is not Iran. If he wants to fight his homosexual urges, fine, but if someone else doesn't, fine also. As long as it involves consenting adults, who cares? Brock and his ilk have been doing nothing but causing trouble with their theocratic political agenda. They have forced political parties into a religious war over whether we should be governed by the Constitution or the Bible and the Vatican. Enough already! Believe what you please, Brock, but leave the rest of us alone.

[I sent the following to the Strib. Of course it won't be printed.]

Reports of the excommunication of Sister Margaret McBride for allowing an abortion to save a woman's life need to be understood in the context of Catholic theology.

Excommunication essentially consigns a person to hell and is the Church's harshest punishment. Abortion earns this for one reason only -- it prevents the fetus from being baptized and therefore closes it off forever from the ultimate heavenly bliss of seeing God face to face.
Read more =>

[I sent this to the Strib. Don't hold your breath waiting to see it in print.]

When I read Katherine Kersten's April 11 defense of the pope in the pedophilia scandal I was struck by how little value was placed on real people. It's all about protecting religious institutions and saving imaginary souls. Pedophilia has been rampant, and ignored, in the Church for centuries. For example, the historical record shows that an 11th century priest, Father Damian, complained bitterly to the pope about the church ignoring the "unbridled wickedness" of priestly pedophilia, to no avail.
Read more =>

The plan to etch "In God We Trust" and the "under God" version of the Pledge of Allegiance on the Capitol Visitors Center in Washington D.C. is not harmless civic piety. Yes, it is an unconstitutional establishment of religion, as the Freedom From Religion Foundation's lawsuit charges, but in some ways it is far worse. It is as much an establishment of bigotry as Jim Crow laws, differing certainly in degree, but not in kind.
Read more =>

Gov. Pawlenty's budget cuts affecting local government are certain to require property tax increases to maintain essential services. If this burden is to be shared equitably, perhaps religious institutions, which are exempt from taxes, should be asked to contribute by paying a fee for the city services they receive at no cost.
Read more =>

On April 28, 1998, at a Minneapolis symposium on religion in public life that I attended, Lutheran theologian Martin Marty said in his keynote speech, "It is the role of unbelievers to force religions to be benign."

That's what we atheists try to do. The liberal Marty would probably be at odds with Katherine Kersten's uninformed opinion of atheists in her June 7 op-ed column. Traditional religious morality, which Kersten, at least for the most part, supports, is notorious for the astounding number of ways it hurts people.
Read more =>

Regarding the murder of Dr. George Tiller, the anti-abortion zealots would like everyone to think late-term abortions are performed in the last couple of months of pregnancy, and never for a good reason.
Read more =>

David Lebedoff's April 5 Opinion Exchange piece was strikingly uninformed in its assumption that those who do not believe in a heaven and hell necessarily have no moral constraints and live only for pleasure and to accumulate material things.
Read more =>

Secularist, humanist, freethinking nontheists, and atheists are coalescing into a movement with a real agenda.
Read more =>

The god idea has no foundation in reality. Reality is the stuff that doesn't go away when you stop believing in it. All gods, without exception, go away when you stop believing in them. Humans have believed in thousands of gods over the centuries. Whenever belief in them went away, so did the gods.
Read more =>

Surveys consistently show nonbelievers to be the least popular demographic group (with the possible exception of neoNazis and the Ku Klux Klan). About 49% of Americans would not vote for an atheist for President even if the candidate was of their own party.
Read more =>

This pamphlet summarizes what religion costs YOU in terms of your money, your personal freedom, your health, and sometimes even your very life. You may escape some of these costs, but no one escapes them all.
Read more =>

Is This the Face of Jesus? Of course not, and the Pope knows it, and so do the media. But every year as Easter approaches, the "Shroud of Turin" is trotted out in news stories speculating about whether the Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus.
Read more =>

Religion is a powerful force. When human consciousness arose into awareness of the grim realities of life, it brought solace. It produced a magical world of created realities full of powerful gods that could protect, avenge, reward and comfort. It was a unifying force against outsiders, a rallying point for collective action ... and vulnerable to only one thing -- doubt.
Read more =>

Moral High Ground Project

The Moral High Ground project has chosen the following funds to provide support and protection for these groups and to counter the efforts of religious zealots to impose their religious doctrines through law (other funding mechanisms may be added as resources increase):

Philanthrofund scholarship

Like the other Moral High Ground funding projects, it is unique in the freethought community. Each year since 2002 AFHR has donated $500 to be awarded to a GLBT openly atheist student at Pfund's major awards ceremony. This has created visibility and respect for AFHR within the GLBT community.

Grants to poor women to help pay for abortions

At least $200 each is given annually to funds such as the Women's Medical Fund, administered by Anne Nicol Gaylor from Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wisconsin, and through the North Dakota WIN (Women In Need) Abortion Access Fund, administered by the Red River Women's Clinic in Fargo. These funds serve poor women in areas where religion-generated abortion laws are irrationally restrictive and punitive.

Support for physician aid in dying

As opportunities arise, we support efforts by physician-aid-in-dying organizations so the terminally ill who want to die with dignity on their own terms have the legal right to do so.

Protection for children harmed by faith healing

As opportunities arise, we support the efforts of CHILD (Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty) to protect children from harm where state laws define faith healing as healthcare and exempt parents from prosecution when they allow children to die by substituting prayer for medical care.

Outreach Activities

Atheists for Human Rights is focused primarily on reaching out to the public in morally active ways to advance the atheistic worldview. Our projects include:

Charitable Outreach

Every December, as part of our winter solstice celebration, we collect gifts and money for the at-risk teenagers being cared for by secular non-profit Katahdin Program for Youths and Families. Cash donations have increased from $130 in 2003 to $610 in 2007. This has been due to enclosing colorful gift tags in the newsletter and inviting distant members to send them back signed and with a check for warm clothing. The project was started in 1998 by Marie Castle for the freethought community, with Paul Craven providing the slogan, "You Don't Need a God to Have a Heart."

Highway Cleanup

In 2005 we took on an Adopt-A-Highway cleanup project. The work is done three times a year in spring, summer and fall. Large highway signs identify AFHR as the cleanup crew for a 4-mile stretch of highway in Lakeville that passes many churches.

May Day Festival

AFHR member Joe Watercott represents us every year at this popular Minneapolis festival. Dressed in a colorful jester costume, he goes along the parade route with his equally colorful cart, collecting litter and telling little jokes to the kids, giving a cheerful image of atheism.

Outreach Activities (cont'd)

Public Forums

This major outreach project was begun in June 2006 and continues. The purpose is to show the public how atheists support our constitutional freedoms, seek rational solutions to issues of civic concern, and promote the common good. These events are heavily advertised in local newspapers and on Air America radio. Speakers through June 2008 have included:

	Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State
	Dr. PZ Myers, biologist from the University of Minnesota-Morris
	Susan Sackett, personal assistant to the late Gene Roddenberry, creator of the humanist-oriented "Star Trek"
	Michael Newdow, who took his challenge to "under God" in the pledge of allegiance to the Supreme Court
	Andy Dawkins, former state representative who works to strengthen families and create livable communities
	Dr. Robert Price, the noted biblical scholar who lectures on the non-biblical roots of democracy
	Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, and strong advocate of state-church separation
	Dan Barker, co-president of Freedom From Religion Foundation, which litigates against government funding of religious organizations
	Arvonne Fraser, noted civic leader and international advocate for women's rights and human rights
	Dr. Goparaju Vijayam, executive director of India's Atheist Centre, whose social reform work has been honored by the Indian government with a commemorative stamp

Minnesota Alliance Of Peacemakers

We joined MAP and have participated in several of their events urging peaceful solutions to world conflicts. MAP is a coalition of churches and secular organizations working together in the cause of peace.

Interfaith Dialogue

AFHR is represented by invitation at regular interfaith gatherings hosted by Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, to find common ground in our common humanity to address the causes of social conflict and stress.

Speakers Bureau

Since 2004, about three times a year, we have been invited to give presentations on atheism to educational and social service agencies for their diversity training programs.

Fireside Chats

These monthly discussions about atheist issues are occasions for socializing as well as developing ideas for further activism.

Location of the Hub of Atheism:
5146 Newton Ave. N.
Minneapolis MN 55430-3459

Take I-94 to the 53rd Ave exit on the north edge of Minneapolis and go west through the alphabet streets to Newton Ave, then go left (south) 1 & 1/2 blocks to the dome home on the dead-end street. (The 53rd exit is more direct than 49th.) Call 612-588-1597 if you need directions.

New/occasional visitors:
Please verify schedule has not changed.

Contact:
612-529-1200 or 1-866-ATHEIST
Or e-mail: Communications Director.