Today, the Supreme Court upheld the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), a federal law that prohibits government from limiting prisoners’ religious freedom without first showing a compelling reason. Sounds fine, right?Well, our friends at Americans United think it’s fine, as do many of our other traditional allies. With all due respect, they are wrong. That statement places American Atheists in the extreme minority on this issue, but we stand by our conviction, even if we stand alone.The reason is simple: This new law, and the judgement that affirms its legal status, makes two tiers of legal status: one for religious people, and one for not.Simply put, if two prisoners, one religious and one not, request the same thing (special food, extra breaks, etc) but the religious prisoner says he wants it for religious reasons, the state has to grant the extra privilege to the religious prisoner and not to the nonreligious prisoner. That’s it, in a nutshell. Obviously, this is going to put at least a little pressure on the nonreligious prisoners to endorse religion(as stated by the 6th Circuit court of appeals).The suit was brought by Satanists and Wiccans demanding the right to follow their religious beliefs — a position we respect. But simply being religious does not grant the right to extra privileges not granted to nonreligious people. All citizens should be given equal options regardless of their theology. To do otherwise is favoritism.
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If a person ends up in jail, then they probably weren’t following their religion’s moral standards anyway. Part of the punishment of being in prison should include not being able to get special privilages in order to practice one’s religion. Any true believer will get creative and find a way to pray or follow their beliefs, and accept any limitations on this as part of their punishment.
What’s a chapel doing in a prison anyway? Atheists don’t get a room for themselves, full of books on rationality, to have freethought meetings. I understand we’re in the minority, but giving space to religion (even if the space is “non-denominational” to include all beliefs) without giving space or meeting time to non-believers is still favoritism, and a violation of the separation of church and state.
I’m still wondering why there’s no holiday for Atheists. There’s Darwin Day, but most people don’t know about or acknowledge it, and that’s technically a day for promoting science, and the teaching of science in the classroom. When will Atheists get a special holiday of their own? Why should the religions have a monopoly on claiming a special day off?
Dagny,
You make an excellent point…one I overlooked:
“What’s a chapel doing in a prison anyway? Atheists don’t get a room for themselves, full of books on rationality, to have freethought meetings. I understand we’re in the minority, but giving space to religion (even if the space is “non-denominational” to include all beliefs) without giving space or meeting time to non-believers is still favoritism, and a violation of the separation of church and state.
“
I suppose the only FAIR thing to do is to give all religions (christian, buddist, moslim, satanists, wiccans, American Indians etc) their OWN room free of other religion’s iconry AND to give atheists their OWN room full of science books and free thought materials and allow them to hold in-prison meetings with access to outside visitors/mentors such as science teachers, anthropologists, geologists and other free-thinkers…just like the religious do with shuttling into our prisons countless preachers and missionarys to lead prayer, sing songs, bear witness, perform baptisms and save the souls of the damned.
The above might sound FAIR, but highly impractical. The only real SOLUTION is to eliminate special privileges to all. No chapels, no atheist rooms, no american indian sweat lodges, no satanic alters, etc, etc.
And yes, atheists do need a special day, but not one officially acknowledged by the government. And the national day of prayer needs to be repealed.
I’m with you on this one. Simply more pressure to get folks to “believe.” Because everyone knows, even if they believe in something else now, they’ll eventually start believing in Jesus. Right?
Thats not right. Their in jail becouse they screwed up. now I’m sorry, but arn’t they in there for punishment? they can prey in their cells. sorry if I sound like an ass, but why should they get anymore than that?
I agree they should have no extra rights above and beyond anyone else. If something clashes with their beliefs then they should have to get creative. Furthermore if they were not allowed to practice their beliefs in prison surely this would make their time harder and act as a larger deterant to ending up there in the first place.
Crime and Religion
NoGodBlog.com has a good post addressing the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Essentially, this legislation protects prisoners’ religious freedom by granting them special rights. The folks a…
Most people in prison did not find god. I think that god found THEM.
I just wonder about the rights of Atheists in prison…probably are none.
Can you imagine and atheist being cellmates with some religious wacko who hangs up crucifixes and religious iconry on his half of the cell and prays, chants and recites verses out loud…?
I think I’d be busy making myself a shank out of a comb or something…LOL
But really…what about this hypothetical situation? Where are the Atheist’s rights to freedom from this “cruel and unusual punishment”.
I suppose its his bible thumping cellmates “right” to impose his religion on him, even if indirectly.
There is a lot of things they should not be able to do or have in their cells (especially if shared)…and a bible and religious iconry is just a few of them.
They can go to the chapel for that if they like.
Activism in atheism in America today is too scattershot. Don’t criticize “Americans United for SOCAS” for small failures along the way,at least they keep hammering.EVERY atheist group should contribute with letters, at least, to every insurgence that the Religious Right makes into tax supported issues.I don’t see “American Atheists” in the news— why not? All of us must push together for Separation Of Church And State.
I disagree with Dagny – prisoners are human beings,some wrongly convicted.Under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, they may practice their beliefs.But the government should not have to provide paraphernalia for them at tax payer expense – - why not arrange visitation rights from their CERTIFIED religious advisers, priests or pastors?It would soon cut off spurious requests,and it would TEST the true dedication of visiting clergy.
Mayfly,
They may have a right to practice their beliefs, but the issue is providing them a special room (chapels)and special rights and accomodations apart from atheists.
I strongly question as to whether they should have this right at all while in prison…after all the bill of rights also affords them the right to keep and bear arms, and protection against illegal, unwarranted searches and seizures…
A few parts of the constitution and bill of rights simply does not apply to prisoners and our military.
I don’t think they should have any special privileges. If these guys want to practice their religion we the taxpayers should not have to pay for it. Besides you are going to tell me that some inmate that has killed people is worried about their soul being rejected from heaven because they can’t go to a church to pray and ask the priest for forgiveness. Please I think he should have worried about his soul before he ended up in prison. Screw them and their rights to practice religion; they obviously were not concerned with that before hand. Besides nobody is stopping them from praying in their cell. Perhaps the best solution for this ?special meals? problem is to have vegetarian and meat meals this should solve most religious food issues. Today you can?t have the meat meal because you are Muslim or Jewish and it contains pork, so eat the vegetarian meal. The vegetarian meal should be purely vegetarian (no dairy products either) so that the Hindu practitioners always have that option. And just to clear things up I?m not talking about two separate menus here I am talking about having a vegetarian side dish every day that can be served as a full meal if they don?t wish to have the meat part. But this would not satisfy the religious freaks whose goal is not equality but advertisement for their religions power and influence. After all prisoners usually understand that language better then that of peace and love. It?s all about promotion people.
Mayfly, I take issue with your post. I did not slam AU, I “respectfully disagreed” with “our tradditional ally”. I think that’s quite fair. I only highlighted AU because we want the members we share to take our point to the AU board.
As to why we’re not in the news, you need to watch more news. I’ve been on FOX NEWS and MSNBC many times this year, as well as radio and print. We have a free daily news service, launch about a 200 global press releases every year (when appropriate), and run one heck of a blog.
We are all pulling together as much as possible, but we disagree with the AU on this issue.
Considering that the prison population is 99%+ religious, and the general population is only 84% religious (at least in America), I think the state should give special incentives for those prisoners who are NOT religious, if anything.
There is no evidence that supports the idea that religious fervor helps rehabilitation for prisoners. If anything, we have correlative data that shows the opposite (the percentages I listed above).
Stupid, stupid legislators.
The prison population are about as religious as my dog. They aren’t stupid, profess that you have been saved and it looks really good to the parole board. They couldn’t care less about religion, they just want to get the hell out of jail.
American Atheists is far from alone on this issue…
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