American Atheists: Pray Don’t, Mr. President-Elect

American Atheists, Inc. For more information, please contact:
http://www.atheists.org Ed Buckner, President (770) 803-5353 or (908) 499-9200
http://www.americanatheist.org Dave Silverman, Communications Director (732) 648-9333

American Atheists: Pray Don’t, Mr. President-Elect
For Immediate Release

(Cranford, NJ). As Americans look forward to the inauguration next month of a new President, we at American Atheists wish we could be treated as the first class citizens we assuredly are. As our own president, Dr. Ed Buckner, notes, “If President-Elect Obama would like to have someone representing those of us who lack religious beliefs at his ceremony, we can give him the names of dozens of different men and women who could express our robust devotion to and confidence in the American government and in the U.S. Constitution even while articulating our own strong preference for a life without religion. A better solution, however, than attempting such a balancing act would be to leave religious expression in the hands of individual American citizens and any leaders they choose, rather than entangling the civic and the religious.”  

Atheists and others who demand strict separation of church and state are often falsely accused of trying to suppress all religious expression, which is utterly untrue. But a majestic, historic, and important civic ceremony does not need to omit or insult a substantial portion of the citizenry to be inspiring.

Mr. President-elect, we call on you to leave religious imprecations and supplications out of your inauguration, for the sake of the religious liberty of all Americans.

Happy seasonal celebrations to all, and our best wishes for all for 2009 CE and for the new administration in Washington, DC.

See what they're saying on the NoGodBlog about this topic!

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AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for Atheists; works for the total separation of church and state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.
American Atheists, Inc. P. O. Box 158, Cranford, NJ 07016
Tel: (908) 276-7300 Fax: (908) 276-7402