Woman of faith leads Blog Against Theocracy 2010

Writers from across the United States blogged Easter weekend against what they see as attempts to undermine constitutional separation of church and state. Blog Against Theocracy 2010  was the fourth such event, which participants say is not an attack on anyone’s religion.

“Bloggers who believe in religion and those who don't are equally welcome here,” say notes on the coordinating blog. “What we share is a common commitment to the First Amendment to the Constitution and its guarantee of church-state separation.”

Frances Langum, the lead organizer, is herself a woman of faith. Although a Quaker at heart, she attends a Methodist Church because there is no Quaker meeting house in her new community.

Langum has been blogging since 2004, but she first started blogging about separation of church and state in 2006. At the time, she lived in Birmingham, Alabama, a state whose government regularly tries to undermine church-state separation.

“There was really no question that there is and was an organized and well-funded attempt to infuse Christian fundamentalism, and particularly right-wing Republican Christian fundamentalism, into the courts, the law, and the political process,” says Langum.

In the late 1990’s, for instance, a federal court overturned Alabama’s school prayer law, which had allowed and encouraged “student-led” sectarian prayers at official school events. Christian groups and the governor expressed public outrage at the decision. The state Attorney General issued “guidelines” for schools, but those guidelines all but ignored the court’s decision, and further encouraged the teaching of religion in classrooms.

In 2004, one of the state’s two US Senators and an Alabama U.S. Congressman sponsored a bill that would have declared that governmental executive authority comes from God. If passed, Christians would have used the bill to suggest that only theists were fully qualified to serve in executive office.

Perhaps the best known attempt to incorporate religion into government was undertaken by former state supreme court justice Roy Moore. In June of 2001, under cover of darkness, Moore had a 2.5-ton monument to a protestant version of the ten commandments installed in the court building. While he avoided scrutiny by the general public, he had an evangelical television ministry video the delivery, and he sold the videos as a fundraiser for the lawsuit he knew he would receive.

The Alabama ACLU did sue, arguing that Moore clearly intended the display as an expression of theism, if not protestant Christianity. In response to the lawsuit, Alabama voters elected Moore the state’s Chief Justice. He later had to be removed from office when he refused a federal court order to remove the monument, by then referred to as “Roy’s Rock.” The governor of Alabama threatened to call out the national guard to prevent enforcement of the higher court’s decision.

It was these kinds of actions that moved Frances Langum to start blogging about separation of church and state. She blogs under the heading  “Blue Gal," and she also writes for the popular politics site “Crooks and Liars.”

When asked why her faith permitted her to support separation of church and state, but others seem to see separation as an attack on their religious freedom, Langum offers a different perspective. “They don't see separation of church and state as an assault on their religious freedom,” she says. “They see it as an assault on God.”

Langum hints that opposition to church/state separation is actually an indication of weak faith rather than strong convictions. “It really boils down to whether your God as you understand Him/Her is strong enough to be God without human help,” Langum says, "or whether you feel you will be judged harshly by your weak God if you don't give Him a leg up in the political world.”

Not surprisingly, she has met opposition to her blog posts. Conservative religious groups try to frame her blogs and those of the others as being anti-Christian, similar to the way the ACLU is viewed. She points out, however, that the ACLU frequently defends religious groups against government intervention. In those cases, however, the church or group is not trying to involve taxpayer resources to promote its religion.

Perhaps more surprisingly, her posts sometimes meet opposition from atheists, who she says think all Christians hate them. “Once I declare to them that my God actually loves atheists best, that resistance goes away. And I do believe that, because I think if there is a Creator, for that Creator to make some of his creation smart and clever without needing a human religious crutch means those members of the Father's family are special indeed.”

To view all of the 2010 Blogs Against Theocracy, visit the coordinating blog page at http://blogagainsttheocracy.blogspot.com.