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Since it was founded in 1981
Americans for Religious Liberty
has steadfastly supported the
constitutional principle of
separation of church and state
that is the indispensable
guarantor of religious and
intellectual freedom,
religiously neutral democratic
public education, and individual
freedom of conscience.
ARL has promoted and defended
this principle through
publishing, research,
litigation, coalition building,
public speaking, expert
testimony before national and
state legislative committees.
ARL regularly cooperates with a
wide range of civil liberties,
educational, religious, labor,
and reproductive rights groups.
ARL is open to all who share
its dedication to defending and
advancing church-state
separation.
In a world where many voices
of extremism seek to subvert
freedom, we need to be voices of
reason and to rally to its
support.
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Americans United for Separation of Church and State - AU speaks out through the media, public forums, debates, lectures, and other avenues in
defense of religious diversity and church-state separation. Americans United staffers are
not afraid to debate top Religious Right leaders in any public forum - though they are
sometimes afraid to debate us! AU defends separation of church and state in the
federal and state courts, filing lawsuits and legal briefs in key cases. AU works to
defuse church-state problems through dialogue before cases go to court. |
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Mission Statement
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The mission of the
Christian Alliance for Progress
to reclaim Christianity and transform American
politics. We advance a renewed, progressive vision of
Gospel values and help Americans express this moral
vision in how we think, work, and vote.
Purpose
The members of the Christian Alliance for Progress
believe we have an obligation to reclaim the vocabulary
of Christianity from extremists and to restore the
morals and values of Christianity. We bring together
progressive Christians and other Americans who share our
passion and convictions. We will use the collective
power of our individual members to help shape the
political realities in our country and to strive to
build a more just and compassionate nation.
Separation of Church and
State
We believe
we have an obligation to speak out about politics from
our deep beliefs; but we do so in the tradition of
Martin Luther King, Jr, we speak to the government as
conscience. We do not seek to be the
master of
the government. We affirm a well-established American
commitment to a clear separation of church and state. |
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The
Faith and Social Justice page was launched in 1995. At that time
there were very few sites which were both religious and on the left.
The goal of the page was to link as many of those sites as possible
there by making the religious left visible on the net. In the years
since there has been an explosion of excellent sites doing just that
and doing it much better. So the logic behind this site has lost
some force.
This
website is going to undergo some changes. It will move it's focus
from politics to one of providing unique liberal religious resources
on the net. This will include revising and expanding some of my
existing pages as well as ditching others. It will include making
some pages for some religious thinkers who have some important ideas
but are rarely read today. The articles, links, personalities, etc.
focused on in this site will be ones which seek to contribute to a
liberal religious faith.
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Religious Liberty: Our Heritage
from the Founding Fathers |
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A Simple History Lesson
Religion and faith are unique and powerful
forces within almost every society.
Historically, religion has helped bring an
end to slavery. It has helped promote racial integration, equal
rights for women, and equal rights for gays and lesbians. It has
motivated individuals to generate support services for those in
society who need uplifting — the poor, the sick, the hurting, and
the downtrodden.
A simple history lesson shows that
unfortunately, certain religious teachings also have been used to
justify human slavery, racial segregation, oppression of women and
discrimination against homosexual men and women.
We as Americans can see clearly how
religious teachings have been used in the United States to justify
prejudice and discrimination against minorities.
We can look back at the words recorded in
those dark chapters in our history and the evidence is undeniable: |
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GALA envisions communities which witness that persons of all
sexual orientations and gender identities have sacred worth;
and are fully included, celebrated, and affirmed with their
chosen faith traditions. The purpose of GALA
is to affirm the dignity and worth of all persons without
regard to gender, race, sexual orientation, or religious
affiliation. We support and encourage self actualization in
an atmosphere of love, understanding, and confidentiality.
We are dedicated to the celebration of diversity. We are
committed to exploring the issues of spirituality and
justice through dialogue, education, and action. |
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The Interfaith Alliance (TIA) is a 501(c)(4)
nonpartisan advocacy organization. Founded in 1994 to challenge the
radical religious right, TIA remains committed to promoting the
positive and healing role of religion in public life by encouraging
civic participation, facilitating community activism, and
challenging religious political extremism.
Today, TIA is 185,000 members strong. Our
supporters are people of faith, good will, and conscience drawn from
more than 75
different religions and belief systems, including
individuals who ascribe to no faith tradition. TIA’s grassroots base
now includes 75 local activist groups in communities across the
country and an extensive online action network.
TIA strives to protect both the sanctity of
religion and the integrity of government. As religion and the
United States government become increasingly entangled, faith is
being manipulated to influence policy and advance political
strategy. As a result, religion’s power to unite and heal is being
severely compromised in order to accomplish partisan objectives.
TIA and our members work to ensure that America is a nation where
religious belief and practice are free and voluntary, and that the
government does not favor or discriminate against citizens based on
their religious belief or non-belief.
TIA provides counsel to elected officials and
the media regarding the most urgent religious liberty concerns
facing our nation. TIA mobilizes its national grassroots movement
–– from city halls to Capitol Hill –– to advocate for religious
liberty in America.
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Religious Diversity
and Social Issues
- Equal rights for gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender people
- Reproductive freedom
- Separation of church and state
Thank you for your support
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| Mel White and Gary
Nixon, Partners in Soulforce |
For thirty-five years,
The Rev. Dr. Mel White
struggled to "overcome" his homosexual orientation
through prayer, fasting, various aversive therapies,
exorcism, and even electric shock. A victim of
misinformation and biblical misuse, Mel thought his
same-sex orientation was a sickness and a sin. During
those "closet years" Mel served the Christian church as
a prize-winning television producer and filmmaker, a
best-selling author, a pastor, seminary professor, and
ghost writer to religious leaders including Billy
Graham, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell.
After a time of terrible depression, Mel finally
reconciled his Christian faith and his sexual
orientation. In his autobiography,
Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay
And Christian In America, Mel announced, "I'm
gay. I'm proud. And God loves me without reservation."
For the past six years, Mel and his partner, Gary Nixon,
have traveled across the country as the
UFMCC Minister of Justice seeking equality
and understanding for God's lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgendered children. In 1997, Mel and Gary received
the
ACLU's National Civil Liberties Award in
Atlanta, Georgia, for their efforts at applying the
"soul force" principles of Gandhi and King to the
struggle for justice for sexual minorities. Consider
joining their interfaith, ecumenical Network of
Soulforce Friends by visiting Mel and Gary's new
Soulforce web page.
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People for the American Way People for the American Way - Tracks the activities of the Religious Right
political movement. Has amassed the nation's largest resource of
Religious Right materials. Their National Resource Center contains a
variety of Religious Right documents, audio and video tapes. |
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Defending Thomas Jefferson's Wall of Separation!
*"The clergy, by getting
themselves established by law and engrafted into the machine of
government, have been a formidable engine against the civil and
religious rights of man." Thomas Jefferson on
Democracy.
Jefferson's words are true for
clergy of all faiths! |
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About Us
Founded in 2001,
the Religious Institute on Sexual
Morality, Justice and Healing is a
multi-faith organization dedicated to advocating for sexual
health, education, and justice in faith communities and
society. The Religious Institute has emerged as the
national leadership organization working at the intersection
of religion and sexuality issues. Our staff provide
clergy, congregations, and denominational bodies with
technical assistance on addressing sexuality and
reproductive issues, and assist sexual and reproductive
health (SRH) organizations on addressing religious issues
and developing outreach to faith communities. Our partners
include the major SRH organizations as well as the leading
mainstream and progressive religious institutions in the
United States. The Religious Institute's mission is to
change the way America understands the relationship of
sexuality and religion.
The primary objectives of the Religious Institute
include:
- Developing and supporting a network of clergy,
religious educators, theologians, ethicists, and other
religious leaders committed to sexual justice
- Building the capacity of religious institutions and
clergy to offer sexuality education within the context
of their own faith traditions
- Helping congregations become sexually healthy faith
communities
- Educating the public and policymakers about a
progressive religious vision of sexual morality,
justice, and healing.
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Matthew
25:31-46: WWJD?
What Would Jesus Do? Jesus
Would Send All These Right-Wing Pseudo-Christians
Straight to Hell (And
Liberals May Not Be Far Behind)
by Jack Clark
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Introduction
In
Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus proclaims that
how you treat the hungry, the thirsty,
the sick and other "least of these," is
how you treat Jesus himself. And if you
fail to help the "least of these," Jesus
promises, he will send you to Hell.
The
premise of this essay is that you can't
be a true Christian if the focus of your
life is thwarting others and the society
itself from fully implementing such a
fundamental teaching of Christianity as
Matthew 25:31-46.
It's
fine to oppose government programs to
help the Matthew 25 "least of these,"
but then you must propose
Equivalent Alternative Solutions.
Equivalent Alternative Solutions
are ones which:
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help at least the
same number of those people who
legitimately need help
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provide at least the
same amount of effective assistance
to those people
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get the help to them
at least as quickly
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are at least as
certain to accomplish these goals
Equivalent Alternative Solutions can
certainly be completely non-governmental,
as long as they meet the four criteria
directly above.
Right-wing Christians are defined by
both their opposition to the
plans of others to help the "least of
these," and their failure to
offer any Equivalent Alternative
Solutions.
Their behavior puts right-wing
pseudo-Christians into the category of
the cursed goats whom Jesus describes in
Matthew 25 and condemns to Hell.
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WHO ARE WE, AND WHY DID WE CREATE THIS WEB PAGE?
We
are Tom Peters, Jim Allison, and Susan Batte, web denizens and
frequent contributors to the various
religion-oriented newsgroups on the internet.
Tom is a Professor of Communication at the University of Louisville.
Jim is an independent researcher living in Virginia Beach. Susan is
a lawyer and a member of the US Supreme Court bar who practices in
Virginia. Our concern in these pages is to explain and defend the
constitutional principle of separation of church and state. We are
concerned that this principle is under attack by the religious
right. We believe that this attack is ill-founded, and that it bodes
ill for our nation and our religious freedoms. We've created this
page to explain why we think the religious right is wrong, and to
help ensure that they don't win.
A
couple of explanatory points before proceeding:
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While the three of us are members of national
organizations dedicated to preserving church/state separation,
we speak for no one but ourselves. We've done our own
research, and come to our own conclusions. While we think we've
done a pretty good job of covering the issues, any mistakes in
these pages are our own.
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We intend to add to this page as we have the time
and energy. We actively seek the participation of others. If you
have something to contribute to this page--a suggestion, an
article of your own, a searching analysis of a relevant
issue--then e-mail us at any of the following addresses, and
we'll talk.
Tom Peters
Jim Allison
Susan Batte
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Soulforce Mission Statement
"The purpose of Soulforce is freedom
for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people
from religious and political oppression through the
practice of relentless nonviolent resistance."
Wherever you are on your journey
of faith,
Whatever your sexual orientation or gender
identity,
Whatever your religion, race, age, ability,
color, or creed,
You are welcome to join us in learning,
teaching, and applying
the 'soul force' principles of relentless
nonviolent resistance
as taught by Gandhi and King
as we work together to stop spiritual violence
against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
people
that flows out of the teachings and actions
of religious leaders and their communities of
faith.
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California |
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Welcome to the website
for the
Bay Area Coalition of Welcoming Congregations,
a project of
The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in
Religion and Ministry.
Our goal is to create a strong network of religious leaders,
religious congregations/communities, and individuals of faith in the
nine-county Bay Area, who are highly motivated to act as agents of
positive social change. We hope that this website will be a resource
for gaining both tools and support as we work together to achieve
full equality and justice for LGBT people and their families in
faith communities and society as a whole |
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Michigan |
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a retreat and
study center
nurturing the relationship between spirituality and social
justice
- Lyons, Michigan -
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Texas |
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Our Mission
The Texas Freedom Network advances a mainstream
agenda of religious freedom and individual liberties to
counter the religious right.
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Virginia |
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The Center for the Study of Religious
Freedom at Virginia Wesleyan College is an
academic initiative committed to fostering and
deepening our understanding of religious freedom in
our increasingly diverse world.
By combining the resources of the College and the
wider community, the Center provides a vehicle for
education and scholarship and a forum where people
of different faith traditions (or none) can come
together for respectful dialogue and mutual
understanding.
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