* How Secularism Became a Dirty Word ~ Susan Jacoby

Fact: The government of United States of America was the first secular government ever founded in the world.

"What America lacks today is a public figure who talks about the danger of religious interference with government in the uncompromising terms used by Robert Green Ingersoll, the foremost exponent of freethought and the most famous orator in late 19th century America. Known in his own time as "the Great Agnostic," Ingersoll declared that the founders 'knew that to put God into the Constitution was to put man [and woman] out. They knew that the recognition of a Deity would be seized upon by fanatics and zealots as a pretext for destroying the liberty of thought. They knew the terrible history of the church too well to place in her keeping, or in the keeping of her God, the sacred rights of man [and woman].'"

Susan Jacoby's Freethinkers:
A History of American Secularism
2004

"At a time when the separation of church and state is under attack as never before from the religious and political right, Freethinkers celebrates the noble and essential secular heritage that gave Americans the first government in the world founded not on the authority of God but on the bedrock of human reason ..."


"In impassioned, elegant prose, Susan Jacoby offers a powerful defense of more than two hundred years of secularist activism, beginning with the fierce debate over the omission of God from the Constitution ..."

"Rich with iconic figures such as Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Clarence Darrow—as well as once-famous personalities like Robert Green Ingersoll, known in the nineteenth century as 'the Great Agnostic'—Freethinkers restores to history generations of dedicated champions of secular government, reason, and the Enlightenment values that shaped America's revolution."

Excerpt
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How Secularism Became a Dirty Word
by Susan Jacoby

This speech was delivered at the 27th annual national convention of the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wisconsin, on October 30, 2004. Author Susan Jacoby was named "Freethought Heroine of the Year" by the Foundation.

Excerpts,a preview to her book:

"Ten score and 15 years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and founded not on the authority of God but on the rights of humankind and the bedrock of human reason. Now we are engaged in a crucial test to determine whether a nation so conceived as the first secular government in the world can further endure.

"I began the research for Freethinkers six years ago, because I was convinced that most Americans are woefully undereducated about the secular side of the nation's heritage, beginning with the rationalist Enlightenment values that shaped the revolutionary generation. Today, nearly four years into a presidency that has mounted the most radical assault on the separation of church and state in American history, secularism is in even greater trouble in the United States.

"This attack on secular government is especially ironic, because it comes at a time when people around the world are witnessing extraordinary and terrifying new demonstrations of the power of religion to do harm when it is united with political and state power."

"Why are Americans and their elected leaders not proclaiming from the rooftops that secular government, coupled with complete religious liberty, is the cornerstone of a decent society?"

"Why have we reached a point in our history where candidates don't have the guts to say that the government has no business spending tax money on health care plans designed to satisfy the doctrines of any religion?"

"Better than most, secularists understand the power of religion, and the possibility that any intensely felt drive for righteousness may overwhelm dissenters in its path. That is why they must insist on the fundamental importance of absolute separation between church and state--not namby-pamby partial separation in which religion can insinuate itself into government by the back door--which is what tax breaks for school vouchers allow churches to do.

"But it is not enough for secularists to speak up in defense of the godless constitution; they must also defend the rationalist values that produced the legal structure crafted by the framers."

"Campaign 2004 could have been an important 'teachable moment,' as educators say, for politicians with the courage to challenge the religiously correct rhetoric we all became accustomed to under the ministry of George W. Bush."

"Candidates should not try to hide their support for separation of church and state, but should proclaim it on every possible occasion. They should also challenge Bush ... "

"Finally, secularists--if they are to regain a powerful voice in the public square--must reclaim the language of passion and emotion from the religiously correct ..."

Susan Jacoby is program director of the Center for Inquiry-Metro New York, a rationalist think tank housed at Rockefeller Center.

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One Nation, Under Secularism
by SUSAN JACOBY

January 8, 2004

"In Campaign 2004, secularism has become a dirty word. Democrats, particularly Howard Dean, are being warned that they do not have a chance of winning the presidential election unless they adopt a posture of religious "me-tooism" in an effort to convince voters that their politics are grounded in values just as sacred as those proclaimed by President Bush."

" ... the framers of the Constitution deliberately omitted any mention of God in order to assign supreme governmental power to 'We the People.'"

Full Article

As we see in George W. Bush's reign, the melding of his religious faith and the people's government is disastrous for 'We the People' and the world. ~ BlogHer

See The United States Charters of Freedom