“Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.”  – Christopher Hitchens

Julea Ward, in case you are wondering, was a student at Eastern Michigan University who was kicked out of a school counseling graduate program after she refused, on religious grounds, to affirm homosexual behavior when serving clients. Judge George Caram Steeh of the U.S. District Court in Detroit dismissed the suit, saying that the university “had a right and duty to enforce compliance” with professional ethics rules that bars counselors from discrimination, and ruled in favor of the university.

We’ll Have None Of THAT…!

ThinkProgress reports that the Michigan House passed HB 5040 (Julea Ward Freedom Of Conscience Act). This bill transcends Christian colleges and will, if passed, also effect non-Christian (read: real) colleges that will allow students to refuse to provide any counseling that compromises their religious beliefs. Including those pesky gays…

According to HB 5040, this bill is,

“A public degree or certificate granting college, university, junior college, or community college of this state shall not discipline or discriminate against a student in a counseling, social work, or psychology program because the student refuses to counsel or serve a client as to goals, outcomes, or behaviors that conflict with a sincerely held religious belief of the student, if the student refers the client to a counselor who will provide the counseling or services.”

Legislation should dictate ethical standards in a university setting, but this bill seeks to dodge it.

Wayne, Manners…

ThinkProgress closes their article by reporting that activist Wayne Besen said,

“Counseling should be about the client, not the self-serving needs of the therapist.”

Michigan’s distaste for their LGBT community was solidified when they banned all domestic partnerships, and again when they attempted to create a “license to bully” in schools. Their illustrious Governor, Rick Snyder (R), as expected wouldn’t even meet with anyone from the LGBT press.

The Michigan State Motto should be changed from “Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice” (If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you) to “Si vos peto bigotry , vos mos reperio is hic” (If you seek bigotry, you will find it here)

Point, Texas (pop. 792) is not the easiest place for a single lesbian to raise her child. But neither her sexuality nor her unwed parenthood are enough to make Renee Johnson an American conservative’s worst nightmare. As she explained to me when I met her at Rains County Library, “I’d rather have a big ‘L’ or ‘lesbian’ written across my shirt than a big ‘A’ or ‘atheist’, because people are going to handle it better.”

We had met in a private room because Johnson worried that anywhere else in the town, people might overhear us and be offended by her godlessness. No wonder she often feels alone in her non-belief. But Johnson is far from unique. As I found out when I travelled across the US last year, atheists live in isolation and secrecy all over the country. In a nation that celebrates freedom of religion like no other, freedom not to be religious at all can be as hard to exercise as the right to swim the Atlantic.

America is the well-known exception to the rule that the wealthier and better-educated a country is, the less religious its population. As a Pew Research Center report put it, when it comes to religiosity, “the US is closer to considerably less developed nations, such as India, Brazil and Lebanon than to other western nations.” But what is less discussed is what this means for the minority who are not just apathetic about their faith, but have actively rejected it.

The issue is somewhat neglected because it’s not usually perceptible on the coasts and in the larger cities, but the almost complete absence of overt atheism is striking at all levels of US public life, even in cosmopolitan areas.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation discovered the shocking extent of petty and vindictive community reactions against 16 year old litigant Jessica Ahlquist when it attempted earlier this week to order a dozen roses to be delivered to the victorious state/church plaintiff in Cranson, R.I. FFRF is in the process of filing a complaint about one of the floral shops with Rhode Island’s human rights division over the civil rights violation. Working through a Wisconsin flower shop Tuesday, Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president, placed what she believed to be a routine order: A dozen red roses to be delivered on Wednesday with the message to Jessica: “Congratulations, and hang in there, with admiration from FFRF.”  Late yesterday, the local florist called FFRF’s office to report she had struck out at three Cranston florist’s shops, including at Twins Florist, which responded to the order in writing with this statement: “I will not deliver to this person.” The other two shops mysteriously produced unusual excuses for refusing the order. Gaylor said when she heard this news, “My jaw literally dropped. Everyone is stunned by the bigotry.” FFRF was told a Warwick floral shop as of Wednesday had agreed to make the delivery today with no additional long distance charge. This morning, FFRF discovered it too was refusing the order, citing the excuse of unwanted media attention. Thanks to an FFRF member’s referral, FFRF has placed an order out of state with a friendly shop, Glimpse of Gaia, in Putnam, Ct., which has agreed to deliver a dozen roses. In addition to sending flowers, FFRF announced, after Jessica’s state legislator had called her “an evil little thing,” that it is re-awarding Jessica its Thomas Jefferson Student Activist award, this time doubling the scholarship to $2,000. “The thicker critics lay on the hate, the more we freethinkers will support Jessica,” Gaylor said.  FFRF, a 501(c)(3) a charity which has run a student activist scholarship fund in an accountable fashion for decades, has also announced a new scholarship, “The Atheists in a Foxhole Support Fund,”  and is making Jessica the first recipient. (Donate to the fund here.) The petite Jessica, who was already a lightning rod at her Cranson high school for challenging an illegal prayer banner in her auditorium, has come under a firestorm of local revilement since winning a federal judgment in her favor on Jan. 11. She has received nonstop abuse, even death wishes, via Twitter and social network sites, including by schoolmates. “The vicious reaction in Rhode Island, where it seems nearly the entire state has banded together to bully and revile one very tiny and courageous teenager, is out of bounds and out of control. The Cranston school board, by not yet accepting the judge’s ruling, is, by its inaction, egging on Jessica’s abusers and fanning the controversy. It should be over with this strong ruling,” noted Gaylor.   Jessica was named FFRF’s Thomas Jefferson Student Activist awardee last year, wowing and charming the 34th annual national FFRF when she accepted her $1,000 scholarship in person.  “Rhode Island legislators, instead of calling her names, ought to be giving Jessica a commendation for her patriotism in standing up for the precious principle of separation between state and church,” said Dan Barker, FFRF co-president. “The hostility against Jessica is giving Rhode Island a black eye. It is time for reason to prevail and the law to be abided by.”