We've started the petition "President Obama: Stop the Integration of U.S.State Department  Diplomacy and Religion" and need your help to get it off the ground.
President Obama, please honor your campaign promise and the U.S. Constitution
End religious privilege as we know it in the U.S. government today. Protect our secular
democracy. The onslaught of religious acts, amendments and resolutions that Congressional
members, federal offices and the White House have initiated continues with the recent opening
of the Office of Faith-Based Community Initiative in the U.S. Department of State. As noted on
the official website, “the office reaches out to faith-based communities to ensure that voices are
heard in the policy process, and it works with those communities to advance U.S. diplomacy and
development objectives.”
What does this mean exactly? It means that the U.S. government must encourage and support
religious dogma – even if doing so goes against the interests of U.S. citizens. Never before has
America actively integrated U.S. diplomacy and religious concerns to this extent. Is it possible
for the U.S. to promote secular democracy internationally, and at the same time, promote
government deference to faith institutions?
Again from the State Department website:
“In accordance with the U.S. Strategy on Religious Leader and Faith Community Engagement,
the office guarantees that engagement with faith-based communities is a priority for Department
bureaus and posts abroad, and helps equip our foreign and civil service officers with the skills
necessary to engage faith-communities effectively and respectfully.”
We at ISHV are worried that the U.S. strategy to guarantee engagement with religious
organizations could undermine the rule of law by government officials, and lead to a false sense
of entitlement among certain religious institutions that use their dogma against women, the
LGBTi community, and anyone else they do not like. The U.S. government must not give these
religious groups credence and support.
Help stop the subversion of the Constitution and the rule of law.
Will you take 30 seconds to sign it right now?
You can sign our petition
by clicking here
.
Thanks!
In Honor of the Constitution, End Religious  Preference
When President Obama declared that he firmly supports the principle of separation of
church and state in his new Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, ISHV
founder Paul Kurtz reminded him of his campaign promise not to permit employment
discrimination in faith-based programs-a holdover provision from the Bush Administration
that remains untouched in the new funding directive. "We urge President Obama to
eliminate any programs of religious organizations misusing social services federal tax
dollars," Kurtz said.
Paul Kurtz, Founder    Jonathan Kurtz, Chairman
Inspired by Empathy and Creativity, guided by Reason
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In Observance of World Humanist Day                                                    June 21, 2015 Stop the Harm of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) The Institute for Science and Human Values (ISHV) is proud to make a statement in commemoration of World Humanist Day and to join in the celebration across the world. Today as we  observe World Humanist Day let us pledge to educate others, to speak out to end the use of religion to  discriminate, hoping to led to world peace. Discrimination under the guise of 'religious freedom' must be ended for the sake of humanity. We in the West, must rise up against oppressive conservative religions world-wide including conservative Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Mormonism. I could tell you of the work ISHV does  around the world, talk about and connect the dots of the direct line from the U.S. radical Christian right  to the radicalization of religion world-wide. Instead I am taking this opportunity to sound the bell of  danger, the terrible danger to our freedoms, our Constitution and our secular way of life. With increasing frequency, we are seeing individuals, businesses, organizations and institutions  claiming a right to discriminate  by refusing to provide services to women and LGBT people and  (those who will be next)  based on religious objections. These are the same arguments that were used  in the 1960s to oppose laws requiring integration in restaurants because of sincerely held beliefs that  God wanted the races to be separate. We saw religiously affiliated universities refuse to admit students  who engaged in interracial dating. Now the radical right is working to expand allowance of this  discrimination for ‘moral’ reasons. Imposing beliefs on others who do not share them goes against the  very fiber and core of not just Secular
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