Making a difference by learning

Diversity. Equality. Religious Freedom. Civic Engagement.

It's a tall order for a small nonprofit. Responding to local, state and national issues and trends and developing programs to highlight these issues and trends could keep us busy all day, every day.

But sometimes, we need to unwind and get informed ourselves. And when we do, we turn to the library.

This month's issue of Freedom Watch Online is focused on getting knowledge through reading and critical analysis. In case you're wondering what's on our bookshelves these days, we invite you to explore some of the books below. And let us know what you're reading.

We believe that when we increase our knowledge, we increase our ability to make an impact. And we hope you agree.

 Book Review: The "Secular State" - picking words and picking battles

By Ken Burrows

Reflections on How to Be Secular: A Call to Arms for Religious Freedom by Jacques Berlinerblau

"Every new and successful example of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance. Religion and government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together." - James Madison, letter to Edward Livingston, 1822

"Whatever the Establishment Clause means, it certainly does not mean that government cannot accommodate religion, and indeed favor religion." - Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, interviewed in Hamodia magazine, 2009

As the quotes above suggest, something has happened over the last couple of centuries, and even in the last half-century, to the concept of church-state separation as seen by America's leading voices. How did this come about and what might it mean for the future? If it's a trend, is it inexorable?

This past year Jacques Berlinerblau attempted to answer such questions in his book How to Be Secular: A Call to Arms for Religious Freedom. One of its main theses is that secularism-defined by him as a philosophy wherein the state does not establish a religion or embrace an official preference for any-is in peril, and this peril is owed to extremism on both the right and the left, to both the fundamentally religious and the aggressively irreligious. In fact, in what may sound contradictory, he contends it is religious moderates that offer one of the best hopes of saving the secular state from demise.

Read on...

 The 15% Solution: Book review

Steven Jonas, a longtime member of the Citizens Project family, has recently re-released a futuristic novel titled "The 15% Solution," which is available for purchase on Amazon. 

Book review by Julie Cooper

The year is 2001 and "The Last Republican President," member of the soon to be American Christian Party, gives his inaugural speech declaring that America has "turned it's back on God," and now is the time to return Him to His rightful place in American Society, American Politics and our private lives.

The speech begins a new series of events and laws passed over the next few years that: denies citizenship to anyone unless at least one parent is an American citizen, repeals the Supreme Court's authority to review and void on Constitutional grounds Executive and Legislative branch actions, passes the Morality Amendment (31st) which outlaws abortion under any circumstances, repeals the fourth Amendment (which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure), gives the President power to declare "emergencies" when he legally rules by decree, and to declare the "Law of God" as superior to that of the U.S. Constitution, binding all judges to abide by its terms.

read on...

Job Opportunity at Inside/Out Youth Services  

Inside/Out is currently accepting applications for the position of Executive Director. Read the job description and learn how to apply here