americanatheists

ALL OUT FOR THE 2007TEXAS STATE/CHURCH SEPARATION RALLY ~ SATURDAY, SEPT. 8 !For state-church separation. for the civil rights of non-religious people, for the Croft family in Carrollton, and for our right to be free from theocratic state laws,CALLING ALL FREETHINKERS!http://www.atheists.org/txJoin us on the steps of the Texas State Capitol on Saturday, September 8, 2007 for the Texas State-Church Separation Rally from 12:00 noon to 3:00 PM. All Freethinkers are urged to attend — Atheists, Agnostics, Rationalists, Realists, Secularists, Secular Humanists, Brights, and every other title in the Freethought lexicon will be represented! Bring your group’s banner and some friends!Confirmed speakers include:* JOE ZAMECKI, Texas State Director, American Atheists* DICK HOGAN, Assistant Texas State Director, American Atheists* NICHOLAS PASCHALL, President, UTSA Secular Student Alliance* MARSHA CORREIRA, Texas Civil Rights Activist* PATRICK GREENE, San Antonio Atheist Activist* DEREK JONES, Co-founder, PathofReason.com* BECKY ROBINSON, Founder, President, Freethinkers of UT Arlington* NICK LEE, President, Freethinkers Association of Central Texas* TERRY MCDONALD, Chairman, Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex Atheists* MEGHAN REGIS, Atheist Agenda, University of Texas San AntonioPLUS live music from Austin guitarist Joe Broome — and a voter registration tableNEWS AND UPDATES AT HTTP://WWW.ATHEISTS.ORG/TXWHAT: The 2007 Texas State-Church Separation RallyWHEN: Saturday, September 8, 2007 12:00 noon – 3:00 PMWHERE: The South steps of the Texas State Capitol, Austin TexasMORE INFO: http://www.atheists.org/tx or jzamecki@atheists.org (AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for Atheists, Freethinkers and other nonbelievers; works for the total separation of church and state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.)

George Bush’s nominee for Surgeon General has drawn a lot of heat for among other things, his crack-pot anti-gay views as a leader in the United Methodist affiliate of the Institute on Religion and Democracy. But a new report may finally sink his already controversial nomination in a sea of conflicts of interest that have marked his career.Dr. James Holsinger has also been a longtime leader of the Confessing Movement in the United Methodist Church. The Confessing Movement is a rightwing “renewal group” affiliated with the Washington, DC-based Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), whose purpose for a generation has been to divide and disrupt the historic churchs of mainline protestantism in the interests of advancing neoconservatism and the religious right. Holsinger was elected to the highest court in the Methodist Church a time when the IRD-affiliated church “renewal” groups had launched efforts to use church judicial systems to enforce their notions of orthodoxy, particularly on matters related to homosexuality.Now, an investigation Rev. Andrew J. Weaver, Ph.D. and Lawrence H. McGaughey, Esq., and published at Media Transparency, shows that Holsinger used the sale of a United Methodist Church-owned hospital in Kentucky, as a cash cow for his personal ambitions. It took years of litigation by the church to find out what had happened to its money, only to learn that Holsinger had diverted millions to endow professorships at the Chandler Medical Center at the University of Kentucky where he served as Chancellor and fundraiser-in-chief.