Free Speech: It's Complicated

"Suzanne Nossel is the CEO of PEN America, a non-profit dedicated to protecting free speech at home and abroad. She’s also served at the highest levels of American foreign policy, first as the Deputy to the UN Ambassador under Richard Holbrooke, and later as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under Hillary Clinton. Nossel joins Preet to discuss the recent rise of book bans, the Biden administration’s human rights record, and how to balance the value of free speech with other progressive values, like diversity and inclusion."

Click on the link below for an interview with an informed person regarding the nuances of free speech:

Book Bans & Free Speech

Who Should Control Books In Libraries?

Click on the link below for an analysis regarding what organization(s) should be controlling what you can or cannot read in public sources:

Let's talk about the Illinois book ban ban....

Bastardization Of The 1st Amendment

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The 1st Amendment to the US Constitution's "religion clauses" have traditionally been in tension. With the Trump era and the hijacking of the Republican Party by conservative Christians, there has been a dangerous movement toward religious interference with the rights of us all under the mantra of "Religious Freedom" by abusing the "free exercise" clause:

• "- - -well-funded, right-wing religious legal advocacy groups have promoted a very different and quite false concept of religious freedom. To distinguish it from the idea it traduces, I will call it “religious liberty” here. It has little to do with the traditional idea that all people should be free to worship or not worship without interference or coercion from law or government. It is instead the idea that (certain) religious groups and perspectives have a right to trump those civil laws of which they disapprove on religious grounds. The idea is invariably accompanied with either implicit or explicit favoring of certain religious groups and perspectives over others, and it involves granting special privileges, and indeed public funds, to such favored groups."

Click on the link below for an analysis of the issue by the American Bar Association:

"Religious Liberty" Used to Uphold Conservative Religious Privileges

Oh, Cry Me A River, Christians. SMH

It is so ironic to hear Christians, especially the conservative strains, talk about how THEY are discriminated against and need "Religious Liberty" Laws. Really? The only new laws needed regarding religion involve ending the encroachment of Christian dogma into the lives of the rest of us (think abortion, LGBTQ, birth control to start).

Below is a link to a speech presented at the 2019 Freedom from Religion Foundation's Annual Convention. It clarifies the truth of how atheists have been, and still are, the real "religious" category discriminated against:

"Isaac Kramnick and Laurence Moore have combined to write 'Godless Citizens In A Godly Republic: Atheists in American Public Life' and 'The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of the Secular State.' Kramnick is a historian, social scientist and the Richard J. Schwartz Professor of Government at Cornell University. Moore is the Howard A. Newman Professor of American Studies, Emeritus at Cornell University, where he has taught since 1972."

Godless Citizens In A Godly Republic

A "CliffsNotes" Version Of The US Bill Of Rights

There are 10 "first amendments" to the US Constitution and all were radified by Congress together and labeled the "Bill of Rights." The FACT that addressing the role of religion in our country was the first SENTENCE in such should cause a pause in the religious fundies. But, you and I know where that goes. Oh, they conveniently overlook the FACT that the question of "establishment of _ religion" vs "establishment of A religion" was, and still is, hotly debated and, yet, we have what we have.

The Establishment Clause 

Bill of Rights 

 

A Summary Of Religion And The First Amendment

"The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents Congress from making any law respecting an establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, - - - " (link)

"It’s wrong to see one clause favoring religion and the other opposed to it. According to Finding Common Ground, 'Both clauses secure the rights of believers and nonbelievers alike to be free from government involvement in matters of conscience.'”

Religion in Public Schools: What Does the First Amendment Allow?

The religion clauses in the First Amendment were thoroughly debated by the Founding Fathers and those who followed them.  The religious fanatics lost.

Fundamentalist: When founders said 'religion,' they meant Christianity