This is the first of a new weekly series, highlighting some of the under-reported events from the previous week related to the separation (and collision) of church and state.
--- Oregon school districts pander to fundamentalists to attract home-schooled children (and more state money) to the classroom. "In Myrtle Point, the district is trying to phase in some courses that could prove particularly appealing to home-school parents, such as forestry, ecology and computer science. Superintendent Robert Smith said the school system is also willing to adjust the curriculum -- for example, by allowing discussion of creationism in biology class, or biblical literature in English courses."
... more on the flip...
--- The ACLU
filed another concept-of-court request against a Louisiana school district that violated a court order to stop prayers in school functions. "The A-C-L-U's earlier contempt contention, filed March 23rd, said the board let an elementary school student recite the Lord's Prayer in a program before the March 15th meeting, as part of a program led by a teacher's aide."
--- The Arizona state legislature has approved a bill that allows pharmacists, health care institutions and medical professionals to refuse to provide abortion services or dispense contraceptive drugs that induce abortions. The governor is likely to veto the bill.
--- The leader of a fundamentalist Mormon sect in Texas predicts the end of the world happening on April 6. [Whew! I'm glad he was wrong. I was really worried there for a minute.] The same guy is taped preaching racist filth and is starting to scare the locals. The Texas legislature is taking notice and is trying to pass tougher laws to prevent polygamy by the group.
--- Bill Frist promotes a tour of the Senate by a right wing extremist with ties to white supremacist groups. Best line from the story: "we had absolutely no idea that [Peters] was 'part of the Nazi movement.'" - great.
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And finally, 74725 days after the adoption of the Bill of Rights, atheists, agnostics, Hindus, and Buddhists are still prohibited from seeking statewide office by the constitutions of 7 U.S. States.