The first Thursday in May of every year is the National Day of Reason, a celebration that coincides with the National Day of Prayer, which encourages Americans to pray to God for peace and prosperity for the nation. A big problem with the National Day of Prayer, though, is that it excludes almost a quarter of the U.S. population that doesn’t belong to any religion or doesn’t believe in God. That’s a whole lot of people to leave out of a national celebration.
Category: Separation of Church and State
Crazy Republicans, Equal rights, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Religion, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
City Council chooses to keep mostly Christian prayers at public meetings
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“We say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.” — City council members bow their heads during Christian prayers at a public meeting at City Hall, September 2, 2015
At their workshop Monday evening, Grand Junction City Council decided mixing religion with government was a good thing to do, and they would continue to do it.
City Manager Greg Caton told council members the City’s invocation policy dates back to 2008, saying they all inherited the practice. Council had an opportunity Monday at their workshop to discontinue prayers at City Council meetings and avoid further controversy over the City’s persistent endorsement of religion, modify the current policy or substitute a moment of silence instead.
But history shows the City of Grand Junction always has a hard time coming into the 21st Century.
Activism, Consumer advocacy, Crazy Republicans, Diversity, Equal rights, Ethics, Intolerance, politics, Religion, Religious hypocrisy, Separation of Church and State
Grand Junction City Council has an opportunity to end divisive religious invocations at public meetings. Let’s hope they do.
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The Devil is among the many diverse religious players who are likely to get more chances to say invocations at City Council meetings, unless the invocation is eliminated entirely or the invocation policy is changed changed to a moment of silence instead of prayers.
Grand Junction City Council plans to re-assess the issue of hosting religious invocations at public meetings at their Monday, March 5 workshop.
Grand Junction made history in 2017 as the first city in Colorado host a Satanic invocation at a City Council meeting. News of the event spread across the country, and the story even made it onto Russia Today’s news website, RT.
How could something like this happen?
Under pressure from the City’s secular community to abide by the Constitutionally mandated separation of church and state, in 2008 the City of Grand Junction adopted an invocation policy that opened up the invocation to anyone, instead of reserving the opportunity to say it only to representatives of a few selected religious groups. Over the last ten years, the new policy has resulted in the City making history with invocations given by atheists, Satanists and anarchists.
But the most prominent non-Christian invocation — a Satanic invocation last August, and all the hoopla that surrounded it — TV news cameras, prayer circles at City Hall and Bible-toting people in the audience — seems to have made Council interested in revising their invocation policy.
Consumer advocacy, Education, Extremism, Marketing, Media, Religion, Separation of Church and State, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
The dangers of June Fellhauer’s 2018 talk by Caroline Leaf, promoted by District 51
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WakeUp Ministries’ promotion of Caroline Leaf’s talk
Local self-styled Christian missionary June Fellhauer is back in 2018 and this time, her unregistered nonprofit Wake Up Ministries sponsored a talk at Two Rivers Convention Center on January 12 by Dr. Caroline Leaf, another Christian missionary.
Caroline Leaf labels herself a “cognitive neuroscientist.” Her teachings are aimed at helping people “see the link between science and God as a tangible way of controlling their thoughts and emotions.” Dr. Leaf’s talked are based on her own idea that “the mind controls the brain.” She teaches that thoughts are the sole controller of our physical and mental health, that “toxic thinking is the root cause disease” and that thoughts can change our DNA.
The problem is, most of Leaf’s teachings are debunked by science.
Activism, Advertising, Atheism, Ethnic/Minority, Human rights, Media, Secularism, Separation of Church and State
People entering Grand Junction greeted by atheist billboard
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Digital billboard currently on I-70B in front of Hobby Lobby and Chick-Fil-A
In another sign of how Mesa County’s culture becoming more diverse and welcoming, a bright digital billboard is greeting people entering downtown Grand Junction and reassuring them it’s okay if you don’t believe in God.
The billboard, located on a busy section of I70-B by Rimrock Marketplace in front of Hobby Lobby and Chick-Fil-A, was put up by Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers (WCAF) as a big a “thank you” gift to all the people in western Colorado who have had the courage to come out as atheists in the last year. It’s also a celebration of the progress made by western Colorado’s growing secular movement in advancing rational thought and reason in all our endeavors.
Corruption, Crazy Republicans, Deplorables, Equal rights, Ethics, Extremism, Hate, Human rights, Intolerance, LGBT issues, Religion, Separation of Church and State, Stupid Republicans
Trump’s shocking U.S. District Court nominees
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Three of President Donald Trump’s nominees for U.S. District Court judgeships have gone down in flames in the last few days for reasons that make Americans scratch their heads about how they could ever have been nominated to in the first place.
Trump’s nominee for U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, Matthew Spencer Petersen, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, December 14, 2017 and was forced to admit he had never tried a single case in any court of law, and had never filed a single motion or conducted even one deposition on his own over the course of his entire legal career. He was also stunningly unable to answer even the most basic questions about legal procedures common to federal courts.
Corruption, Crazy Republicans, Intolerance, politics, Religion, Religious hypocrisy, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
What Roy Moore and Grand Junction City Council have in common
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Roy Moore
Roy Moore, the Alabama Republican senatorial candidate accused of sexual predation, brings thoughts right back here to Grand Junction, because Moore and Grand Junction have two big things in common.
They are 1) the Ten Commandments, and 2) an eagerness to defy U.S. law.
Moore was twice thrown out of his job as Chief Justice for the state of Alabama for defying U.S. law. After the Supreme Court’s 2015 landmark ruling legalizing gay marriage, Moore ordered the state’s probate court judges not to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples. A commission charged him with violating federal judicial orders and kicked him off the court in 2016. That was the second time Moore was ejected for violating the law.
Corruption, Crazy Republicans, Democracy, Equal rights, Ethics, Extremism, politics, Propaganda, Religion, Separation of Church and State, Trump Insanity, Women
Read the fine print: Republican “tax reform” bill injects religious dogma into the tax code
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You don’t typically think of a tax reform bill as a vehicle to push a religious agenda onto the rest of the country, but Trump’s “tax reform” bill does exactly that.
Buried deep inside the Republicans’ proposed “tax reform” bill is a provision conferring rights on “unborn children,” which the bill defines as “a child in utero…a member of the species Homo Sapiens, at any stage of development.” The provision appears on page 93 of the 429-page bill, in a section amending the rules on “529 plans,” which are tax-free investment accounts that allow families to save for a child’s college education. People have long been able to set up 529 plans for children that don’t yet exist, but changing the wording of the law intentionally enshrines recognition of the unborn into federal law, something anti-abortion activists and supporters of fetal “personhood” have long sought to do.
Trump’s tax reform bill is full of tricks
Children, Crazy Republicans, Economics, Education, Grand Junction Chamber, politics, Religion, Separation of Church and State
The Grand Junction Area Chamber, a master of contradiction
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Tom Keenan, District E School Board Candidate: “[W]e don’t need to send kids to four-year colleges anymore.”
Activism, Atheism, Education, Equal rights, Ethics, Extremism, Human rights, Religion, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Women
Cidney Fisk Sues the Delta County School District
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Cidney Fisk, speaking at California Freethought Day last fall
Cidney Fisk filed a lawsuit (pdf) Monday, September 25, 2017, against the Delta County Joint School District 50J for sabotaging her grades and college scholarship opportunities because of opinions she expressed publicly while in their school system, and due to her atheistic beliefs. She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for economic and emotional distress.
Cidney appeared on the front page of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel on April 1, 2016, criticizing the Delta County School District (DCSD) for persistent Christian proselytizing on school grounds during school hours. After she was quoted in the paper, her counselors threatened to tank her college scholarships and her teachers gave her failing grades. Cidney was an A+ student throughout her time in high school, was on the debate team, served in student government as treasurer, wrote for the school paper and had amassed over 400 hours of community service by the time she was a senior.
Atheism, Diversity, Equal rights, Ethnic/Minority, Fake patriotism, Human rights, politics, Religious hypocrisy, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
Grand Junction’s Satanic Invocation a Success, More Diversity Likely Coming Soon
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Grand Junction, Colorado’s first Satanic invocation went off without a hitch yesterday evening, with an audience of about 50 interested onlookers and five out of seven city council members present.
The audience and was quiet and respectful as the speaker made the following statement to Council:
Activism, Democracy, Diversity, Equal rights, Ethnic/Minority, politics, Religion, Separation of Church and State, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
Grand Junction City Council to Host Satanic Invocation August 2
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Look out! The Devil is coming to Grand Junction.
Hold onto your hats.
On August 2, 2017, Grand Junction City Council will become the first city in Colorado, and one of the first in the nation, to host a Satanic invocation at a council meeting.
Activism, Atheism, Education, Intolerance, politics, Religion, Separation of Church and State
Cidney Fisk’s First Year at University: An Update
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Cidney Fisk, speaking at California Freethought Day last fall
Cidney Fisk, the former 4.0 GPA Delta High School student who risked everything in 2016 to publicly expose the pervasive Christian proselytizing and other injustices going on in Delta County’s public schools, has completed her first year at University of Denver and will soon start her second year.
Cidney paid dearly for speaking out about her public school district. She lost grants for college tuition from local funders after the Daily Sentinel published a front page article about the proselytizing which bore her photo and contained extensive quotes about what she had experienced at school. Cidney’s teachers and counselors suddenly turned their backs on her and refused to write letters of support for her applications for scholarships, effectively tanking her chances of getting those scholarships. After speaking out, Cidney struggled to cobble together enough money to attend university. Cidney is from a low income family and completely dependent on grants, loans and scholarships to fund her tuition.
Activism, Children, Ethics, Human rights, Propaganda, Religion, Safety, Separation of Church and State, Women
Delta County “Sex Ed” Teacher Shelly Donahue Banned from Oklahoma School District
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Donahue with her bag of spaghetti, which she uses to illustrate what girls’ brains are like
A school district in Tulsa County, Oklahoma has banned sexual abstinence speaker Shelly Donahue from returning after students complained that her comments during a “sex ed” presentation were demeaning to girls and insulting to children of broken families.
The news of her being banned pertains to Colorado’s western slope because Delta County School District regularly hires Shelly Donahue to give the very same talk to Delta high school seniors.
Children, Education, Equal rights, Ethics, Extremism, Human rights, Lies, Separation of Church and State, Weird Grand Junction Stuff, Women
She’s Back! Self-Styled Grand Junction Missionary June Fellhauer Returns to Pitch her $99 Religious Video Series to D-51 Girls
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Self-styled G.J. missionary June Fellhauer, giving a talk on “Women’s Purpose” July 12, 2015 (Photo credit: YouTube)
June Fellhauer is back, once again taking advantage of School District 51’s “PeachJar” literature distribution system to plug her $99 video evangelism series to girls 11 years and up.
Fellhauer is kind of like Grand Junction’s own Shelly Donahue, but without the plastic bags of full of spaghetti and waffles, and titillating talk about masturbation. And unlike Donahue, Fellhauer apparently preaches only to girls, not boys, at least when she preaching for money.
Several days ago Fellhauer sent out a flier to D-51 families promoting another free sales-pitch event, this one called “Becoming Love,” aimed at girls 11 and up. The purpose of the event is to recruit kids’ families to pony up $99 for their daughters to view Fellhauer’s online, four-week video series in which she teaches biblical myths to girls with the primary message that women are subservient to men rather than qualified, able individuals in their own right. Fellhauer warns girls not strike out on their own, and tells girls if they remain helpers underneath the “cover” of their men, the men will “lift them up,” and they will get their power that way.
Corporations, Equal rights, Ethics, Extremism, Health care, Human rights, Public health, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Women
Why We Should be Glad To Have an Alternative to a Catholic Hospital in Mesa County
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While the above video is a humorous review of the dangers Americans face when using Catholic hospitals, the main points it makes are dead true. Catholic hospitals can endanger patients’ lives because of the many restrictions placed on their medical care by Catholic dogma.
Atheism, Education, Grassroots advocacy, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Women
Cidney Fisk Meets Madeleine Albright, and is a Featured Speaker at Freethought Day in Sacramento
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Former Delta High School student Cidney Fisk (second from right) was one of a small group of DU students who were privileged to meet and converse at length with former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on October 12
So far in her freshman year at Denver University, Cidney Fisk, the “A” student who was slapped with a slew of Fs by her Delta High School student government teacher after she publicly criticized the school district for its illegal Christian proselytizing and disproportionate funding of athletics over academics, has met former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and is a featured speaker at California Freethought Day in Sacramento, today, October 16, 2016. Albright was the first woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State. Freethought Day organizers are footing the bill to bring Cidney to Sacramento for the event, and are paying her an honorarium for speaking. The theme of this year’s Freethought Day is #SecularPride.