Abstract
The impact of theism on public policy in the United States is real and unequivocal. In Louisiana, for example, the Louisiana Family Forum, a Focus on the Family affiliate, is second only to the oil and gas industry in political influence.1 Executive director Gene Mills, a Pentecostal minister, has direct access to the governor.2 At the national level, both Democratic and Republican politicians consider public religiosity a prerequisite for holding office. Barack Obama has continued George W. Bush’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives as the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, permitting discriminatory hiring by religious charities receiving public funds—a practice concerning which, at this writing, newly appointed executive director Melissa Rogers will say only that it “remains under review.”3 Former executive director Joshua Dubois (2009–2013), also a Pentecostal minister, pointedly met with the American Bible Society during his tenure in order “to begin a dialogue on the importance of the Bible in the founding of the country,” while shunning civil liberties advocates.4
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Notes
Clancy Dubos, “Da Winnas and Da Loozas,” Gambit, June 12, 2012, http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/da-winnas-and-da-loozas /Content?oid=2020081.
Melinda Deslatte, “Conservative Group Seeks to Sway La. Lawmakers,” Real Clear Politics, July 30, 2011, http://www.realclearpolitics.com/news/ap/politics/2011/Jul/30/conservative_group_seeks_to_sway_la__lawmakers.html.
Sarah Posner, “Hiring Discrimination Issue Remains ‘Under Review’ for Faith-Based Office,” Religion Dispatches, March 22, 2013, http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/6968/hiring_discrimination_issue_remains_under_review_for_faith_based_office/.
Barry Lynn, “Silent Treatment: Obama Faith-Based Official Meets with Bible Society Rep, but Ignores Civil Rights Advocates,” Wall of Separation blog, April 19, 2012, http://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/silent-treatment-obama-faith- base d-official-meets -with-bible-society-rep.
A. James Reichley, “Faith in Politics,” Journal of Policy History 13, no. 1 (2001): 159, 165, doi:10.1353/jph.2001.0027.
Matthai Kuruvila, “Catholics, Mormons Allied to Pass Prop. 8,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 10, 2008, http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Catholics-Mormons-allied-to-pass-Prop-8–3185965.php.
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Barbara Forrest, “A Defense of Naturalism as a Defense of Secularism,” in Sidney Hook Reconsidered, ed. Matthew J. Cotter ( Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books 2004 ), 103.
Jerry A. Coyne, “Seeing and Believing,” New Republic, February 4, 2009, http://www.newrepublic.com/article/books/seeing-and-believing.
National Academy of Sciences, Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science ( Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1998 ), 58.
Vincent P. Lannie and Bernard C. Diethorn, “For the Honor and Glory of God: The Philadelphia Bible Riots of 1840,” History of Education Quarterly 18, no. 1 (Spring 1968 ): 44–106.
Robert Draper, “And He Shall Be Judged,” GQ, June 2009, http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/200905/donald-rumsfeld -administration-peers-detractors.
Barbara Forrest, “Methodological Naturalism and Philosophical Naturalism: Clarifying the Connection,” Philo 3, no. 2 (Fall –Winter 2000): 12.
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Kenneth R. Miller, “Thoughts of an ‘Ardent Theist,’ or Why Jerry Coyne Is Wrong,” June 10, 2009, http://www.millerandlevine.com/evolution/Coyne-Accommodation.htm.
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David Niose, Nonbeliever Nation: The Rise of Secular Americans ( New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012 ), 99.
Kenneth R. Miller, Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul ( New York: Viking, 2008 ), 163–64.
David Hume, “Of Miracles,” in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, ed. Tom L. Beauchamp ( New York: Oxford University Press, 2000 ), 83–88.
David Hume, The Natural History of Religion, in Principal Writings on Religion, Including Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and The Natural History of Religion, ed. J. C. A. Gaskin ( New York: Oxford University Press, 2008 ), 183.
Barbara Forrest, “Thank You to Our Friends Across the Country Who Tried to Help Us,” Louisiana Coalition for Science (blog), June 27, 2008, http://lasciencecoalition.org/2008/06/27/thank-you-from-lcfs.
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© 2014 Anthony B. Pinn
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Forrest, B. (2014). The Danger for Humanism: Winning the Battles and Losing the War against Theism in Public Policy. In: Pinn, A.B. (eds) Theism and Public Policy. Studies in Humanist and Atheism. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137465306_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137465306_7
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