USA: Freedom From Religion Foundation takes on "Faith-Based Initiative" Freedom From Religion Foundation, a large group of atheists and agnostics of USA, will soon fight its most high-profile battle. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on its lawsuit against President Bush's faith-based initiative. The "initiative" helps religious organizations get government funding to provide social services. The court will decide whether taxpayers can sue over federal funding that promotes religion. The message of Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Foundation, is clear: Keep God out of government. "What's at stake is the right to challenge the establishment of religion by the government," Gaylor said. The case in front of the high court claims White House conferences to promote the faith-based initiative turn into unconstitutional pep rallies for religion. "There was a feeling that there was almost a near religious-right takeover of our government and that we better speak up now," Gaylor said. Annie Gaylor and husband Dan Barker, a former fundamentalist minister who turned against religion, are co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Her mother, Anne Nicol Gaylor, founded the group in 1978 to counter religious influence in government after clashing with religious leaders over abortion. Among its victories, the group has stopped funding for a Milwaukee charity that Bush visited during the 2000 campaign and an Arizona group that preached to children of prisoners. Freedom From Religion Foundation has 8,500 members in 50 states, with the most coming from California. Members consider themselves freethinkers who form opinions based on reason, not faith. Gaylor is hoping an advertising campaign on progressive talk radio, the Internet and in liberal magazines helps the group reach 10,000 members this year. The American Religious Identification Survey in 2001 estimated that 29 million Americans had no religion, double the number from 1990. The survey, which was conducted by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, estimated that 1.9 million identified themselves as atheist or agnostic. Before its battle against the faith-based initiative, the Freedom From Religion Foundation stopped prayers during the University of Wisconsin's commencement and overturned Good Friday as a state holiday in Wisconsin. |