Does the installation of foot baths for Muslims at a Michigan university show preferential treatment of religion, or protect the rights of students’ to practice religion?

The Islamic practice of washing one’s feet before praying has caused problems for the bathrooms at the University of Michigan in Dearborn, with water spillage creating unsafe floors and sinks being pulled out of the wall. The school is paying $25,000 to install foot baths on the basis of increasing safety and improving plumbing.

But Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State is right in highlighting the preferential treatment of Muslims in this issue. What’s to stop Catholics from demanding the installation of holy water fonts by every classroom door? If I was a member of the Church of Cognizance, which advocates the use of marijuana as a sacrament, would the school pay to build a special smoking room for my religious ritual?

The university should certainly allow for the building of foot baths, so that Muslim students’ right to practice their religion is not violated. But the Muslim community, or other private donors, should pay for it.

Bill O’Reilly’s producers were setting up the car pickup and hair and makeup for me (yes, I get the star treatment when I appear on Fox), when they stopped to ask me why I disagreed with O’Reilly about a chastity ring with biblical verse being religious in nature.

You see, a girl in London was not allowed a religious exemption from their uniform policy of “no jewelry” in school. The English court held that the chastity ring was not a religious symbol. The ring was part of the Silver Ring Thing program, which your tax dollars have previously supported to the tune of over a million dollars. Yes, our Congress paid for this religious proselytizing in U.S. public schools, until they agreed to stop such funding after a challenge from the ACLU. Like many other abstinence-until-marriage sex ed programs, this one was theologically based.

When I explained that I agreed with the ACLU and not the London court, I was told they would need to bump me in favor of a guest who would argue that the ring was not religious. But I wonder if it gives Bill O’Reilly pause to note that on this specific part of the issue, he is on the side of the ACLU and the Secular Coalition for America.

The Hinchey Medical Marijuana Amendment failed in the House Wednesday night by a vote of 165 – 262. The amendment would have prohibited the federal government from prosecuting people caught with a small amount of pot so long as they had a doctor’s permission and medicinal marijuana was legal in their state.

Though this vote is certainly a huge disappointment for those of us who are against locking up sick and dying people for the crime of, you know, trying to ease the pain of being sick or dying, at least a few more votes were gained this round — last year it was defeated 163 – 259 — marking the best record yet since the amendment was originally offered in 2001. But I’m still dismayed that the 110th Congress failed to muster up more than 2 additional votes than the last time around when the Republicans were in the majority. Even worse, out of the nine members who voted “yes” last year but this year switched their vote to “no”, eight are Dems. This from the party that is supposed to be so sympathetic to the medical woes of the American people.

I expected so much more from this Congress, but I guess the political fear of appearing “soft on drugs” never abates. Let’s hope the reality of being hard on patients starts to weigh on some consciences.

In an article on the website Townhall.com Mike S. Adams writes about finding out a friend believes he’s living a moral life even though he has quit attending church. Adams writes, “I asked myself the crucial question: ‘How does one know he lives a moral life if he does not ever attend church?’” I’m afraid I don’t understand how one lives a moral life by simply attending church. While charging that writers like Dawkins or Harris don’t know enough about the Christian religion to evaluate it, many Christian writers assume they know what Humanist morals are without really reading anything about Humanism.

How should Humanists educate others about the reality of Humanist moral and ethical systems? Would books on morals sell? Or is there some other way to reach out? Adams suggests that Christians invite 5 friends to go to their church with them, so why don’t Humanists invite friends to Humanist meetings or share Humanist or atheist magazines or other writings with friends?

If a nontheist falls in a war, and no Congress member is there to hear it, does his death make a sound? The silence surrounding the killing of Pat Tillman, professional football star turned volunteer soldier, is deafening. First his family is kept in the dark about the true circumstances surrounding his death. Next, the military is slow to respond to a Congressional request for information regarding what–if any–punishment was meted out to the military commander who insulted the family for even seeking the truth (he claimed they would just let it go if they believed in anything beyond their child becoming “worm dirt”). See: An Un-American Tragedy

Now the military claims it needn’t testify under oath in Congress regarding the original cover up. It is amazing to me that, according to the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, nontheists are overrepresented (compared to their estimated numbers in the population) in the military. See: http://www.maaf.info/ (citing a report by the Population Reference Bureau.) Given the way they are treated, one would think it might make a nontheist think twice about joining the volunteer military. But, like lesbian and gay soldiers who must contend with the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, there are many men and women in our nation whose desire to serve their country goes beyond the discomfort and discrimination they must endure as part of this system.

Watergate changed the face of the presidency, but it seems Bush the younger is trying hard to return to that face.

The latest Washington Post-ABC News survey shows him within a percentage point or two of taking the title of most unpopular president, a title currently held by Richard Nixon.

GWB, in his first election campaign used a smear campaign tactic against John McCain when McCain was leading by 19 points going into South Carolina. Karl Rove arranged for a poll of South Carolina McCain supporters asking if they would be more or less likely to vote for McCain if they knew he had fathered an illegitimate child who was black. McCain has an adopted daughter from an orphanage in Bangladesh.

Nixon used similar tactics against Edmund Muskie forging a letter called the “Canuck Letter” and most damagingly made up rumors that Musie’s wife drank and used “off color” language. In defending his wife Muskie broke down. This was also reported and his campaign never recovered.

Several other Bush scandals including illegal wiretaps have leaked to the press through various “deep throats” and others very willing to be named such as Nasa’s James Hansen on Global Warming, Stephen E. Abraham on Guantanamo, former Surgeon General Richard Carmona on health issues, or even J. David Kuo on Faith-Based Initiatives. What we seem to lack is the reporter or editor to tie the stories all together so we see the Bush White House in the same light that we saw the Nixon White House.

So I ask not only what has changed in the White House and the presidency, but what has changed with the how news is written? Or maybe the question is how we want to receive our news. Has the internet and television changed our ability to bring facts together over a long period of time?

The Humanist movement lost a visionary this weekend. Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine, the creator of Humanistic Judaism and the 2003 Humanist of the Year, was killed Saturday, July 21, in a car crash while vacationing in Morocco. He was 79.

Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association said:

“[Rabbi Wine] taught that values such as reason and compassion were humanity’s saving grace, not adherence to religious dogma. He knew that we must live our one and only lives to the fullest, and do as much good as possible in the limited time we have on this earth.”

Rabbi Wine founded several humanist organizations, such as the Center for New Thinking, the Society for Humanistic Judaism, the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, and the Humanist Institute. In addition, he lectured and debated frequently, taking on such fundies as Jerry Falwell and Meir Kahane. He will be deeply missed, but his legacy will live on.

Today, homosexual couples in Oregon can register for domestic partnership, giving them the same legal rights as heterosexual couples in the state. While I believe that homosexuals are entitled to the same rights in every facet of life as everyone else (they are people, aren’t they?), this whole business of domestic partnership reeks of ‘separate but equal’ treatment.

When we allow those ‘different’ from us similar access to services though under different circumstances, it is not equal treatment at all. Think back to when African-Americans had to drink from different water fountains throughout America. It was the same water, right? Yes, but access was restricted for “colored” folks to “white” water fountains. So then why can homosexuals not have access to the same marriage as heterosexuals?

The Jim Crow laws were officially overturned in 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education decision. I would like to see a legal challenge mounted against these ‘separate but equal’ domestic partnership laws on the legal precedent of the cases that desegregated America. As Humanists, we can’t sit idly by and be content with this segregationist legal logic being currently applied by the most liberal states in America.

The town of Ave Maria, Florida, isn’t just any old town. It’s a vision-turned-reality for Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, whose lifelong dream was to create a community of residents who share his Catholic values. The town comes with its own Catholic church and university, while adult book stores, strip clubs, and even pharmacies that dispense birth control are strongly discouraged, of course.

Ave Maria is open to everyone, but does anyone else see how difficult it would be for an atheist, Muslim, Jew–anyone who’s NOT a Catholic, for that matter–to actually live there? Why can’t they just be honest and say that this is a Catholics-only community? To be honest, I’m not entirely opposed to it, as many Humanists have been in favor of creating Humanist living communities for years, but I fail to see the value in shunning diversity by restricting oneself to Catholic-only neighbors.

And what would a classified ad for housing in Ave Maria look like?

Spacious 3 bedroom/2 bath in quaint Florida town. Walking distance to church. Five minutes to public transportation, shops, and restaurants. Serious inquiries from Catholics only; others need not apply.

Susan Sackett, current board member of the AHA and former colleague and friend of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, talks about Humanism and tolerance for religious diversity in an interview with Trekdom, a history of Star Trek Fanzine:

“Diversity and religious belief are entirely different areas when it comes to tolerance… [Roddenberry's] non-belief in religious illogic was true to his own philosophy. That does not mean that he did not grant others to the right to their beliefs. He merely commented upon them from his own standpoint… I think because of his high hopes for humanity, he was impatient with the superstitious beliefs that religions do sell. He wanted to see humanity progress, and, as many people today such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens will point out, being bogged down in these petty beliefs (my god can beat up your god and we have only one true way) holds humanity back from greatness. It is too bad he didn’t live to see the beginning of this new enlightenment, this new humanistic movement that is beginning to awaken in this country.”

After utterly anti-religious polemics of the likes of Christopher Hitchens’ and Sam Harris’, this is a refreshing reminder that religious tolerance necessarily works both ways — as Humanists we can’t possibly expect theists to respect the right to our beliefs if we don’t respect theirs. It’s important that we give voice to this truism more often.