Happy Monday! I hope you all had a peaceful and delicious Thanksgiving.
Welcome to
Reads of Reason, a weekly compilation of news-clippings that relate to our work advocating for nontheist Americans and secularism here in Washington D.C. Please share this email with those in your network to enhance our secular outreach.
At the
Secular Coalition for America we know that being well-informed is a vital part of being an effective advocate.
News We Care About
(Good to know for protecting the Wall of Separation)
Money, schools and religion: A controversial combo returns to the Supreme Court (RNS, 11/30/21)
Carson v. Makin, a case from Maine about aid to students attending religious schools, goes to the Supreme Court on Dec. 8, 2021. More from Bangor Daily News.
Forced labor claims against private Christian treatment facility for troubled teens advance (Courthouse News Service, 11/30/21)
A federal judge found teenagers made a plausible showing they were duped into forced manual labor on the promise of cutting-edge Christian therapy.
Utah Makes Welfare So Hard to Get, Some Feel They Must Join the LDS Church to Get Aid (ProPublica, 12/2/21)
"Utah’s safety net for the poor is so intertwined with the LDS Church that individual bishops often decide who receives assistance. Some deny help unless a person goes to services or gets baptized."
A Public Flagpole, a Christian Flag and the First Amendment (NYT, 11/29/31)
The Supreme Court will decide whether Boston, which allows many kinds of groups to raise flags outside its City Hall, can reject one bearing the Latin cross.
Fact check: Congress didn't print America's first Bible for use in public schools (USA Today, 12/1/21)
Social media users claim Congress shirked separation of church and state by printing America's first Christian Bible but the claim gets most of the facts wrong.
Commentary
(Everyone has an opinion...)
The religious right wants states’ tax dollars, and the Supreme Court is likely to agree (Vox, 12/2/21)
"An emboldened religious right wants the public to pay for its schools."
Justice Amy Coney Barrett's own words require her to recuse herself in abortion cases (The Hill, 12/1/21)
"When should a Supreme Court justice’s deeply held religious beliefs require recusal — that is, that the justice not participate in a particular case? A difficult question, to be sure, but one that Justice Amy Coney Barrett has already answered for herself. And her answer requires her recusal in abortion cases."
The Growing Anti-Democratic Threat of Christian Nationalism in the U.S. (Time, 5/27/21)
"In order to understand what led to the deadly Capitol insurrection and the spate of proposed voting laws we must account for the influence of Christian nationalism..."
Secular Americans
(Who are we? What are we up to?)
Atheists find community on YouTube — and in person (RNS, 12/3/21)
"Three YouTube creators share how the platform has helped them share their personal stories and open up discussions on science and religious myths."
Are there anti-abortion Atheists? (Religion in Public, 1/23/19)
"The answer is yes, but they are clearly in a very, very small minority"...More from Ryan Burge on the data surrounding secular Americans and abortion.
Polk County Commissioners to vote on changing meeting invocation process. (The Ledger, 11/29/21)
"If the commission approves a change to the process Tuesday, all invocations starting Jan. 1 will be led by one of five chaplains..."
American Humanist Association has a new leader (Friendly Atheist, 12/1/21)
The American Humanist Association, a member organization of the Secular Coalition for America has a new leader, Nadya Dutchin, an experienced non-profit leader.
The views expressed in the articles included in the Reads of Reason do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Secular Coalition for America or its coalition members--varying opinions may be included in an effort to inform our readers as much as possible. Please let us know of any feedback you might have!
