Council for Secular Humanism. TEDxCambridge: Greg Epstein on secular community. Atheism in America. Godlessness is the last big taboo in the US, where non-believers face discrimination and isolation Point, Texas (pop. 792) is not the easiest place for a single lesbian to raise her child. But neither her sexuality nor her unwed parenthood are enough to make Renee Johnson an American conservative’s worst nightmare.
As she explained to me when I met her at Rains County Library, “I’d rather have a big ‘L’ or ‘lesbian’ written across my shirt than a big ‘A’ or ‘atheist’, because people are going to handle it better.” We had met in a private room because Johnson worried that anywhere else in the town, people might overhear us and be offended by her godlessness. No wonder she often feels alone in her non-belief. But Johnson is far from unique. America is the well-known exception to the rule that the wealthier and better-educated a country is, the less religious its population.
Renee Johnson, an atheist from Point, Texas: she often feels alone in her non-belief Friends have rejected him. Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology. On August 19, 2009, Tommy Davis, the chief spokesperson for the Church of Scientology International, received a letter from the film director and screenwriter Paul Haggis. “For ten months now I have been writing to ask you to make a public statement denouncing the actions of the Church of Scientology of San Diego,” Haggis wrote.
Before the 2008 elections, a staff member at Scientology’s San Diego church had signed its name to an online petition supporting Proposition 8, which asserted that the State of California should sanction marriage only “between a man and a woman.” The proposition passed. As Haggis saw it, the San Diego church’s “public sponsorship of Proposition 8, which succeeded in taking away the civil rights of gay and lesbian citizens of California—rights that were granted them by the Supreme Court of our state—is a stain on the integrity of our organization and a stain on us personally.
Our public association with that hate-filled legislation shames us.” David S. Organized Religion / atheism / humanism... Northwestern-Style Lentil Chili - Healthy Soups to Keep You Slim and Satisfied. Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology.