Join Us For Justice the El Paso Chapter of AU

09/15/2020

David Marcus JUFJ president, participating today in Lobbying Day on the Hill -- from his office as part of the Americans United virtual National Leadership Conference.

He and others are meeting virtually with Texas legislators or their legislative assistants: Representatives Veronica Escobar and Kenny Marchant, and Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz to represent our organization's members and supporters throughout the state.

Issues at hand: the Do No Harm Act and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

06/30/2020

Religious school voucher program: new ruling exposes taxpayers to forced funding of discrimination

Five takeaways from today's Supreme Court Ruling on Vouchers.
Go to:
au.org/blogs/montana-voucher-ruling

For latest daily news on all current activities impacting separation of church & state, go to our website at joinusforjustice.org. Scroll down to the bottom and see the link to the Americans United blog.

06/09/2020

Opinion | The Quiet Demise of the Separation of Church and State

Opinion | The Quiet Demise of the Separation of Church and State

The government is allowing federal pandemic aid to pay for clergy salaries, something that once would have been unthinkable.

05/30/2020

Supreme Court, in 5-4 Decision, Rejects Church’s Challenge to Shutdown Order

Supreme Court, in 5-4 Decision, Rejects Church’s Challenge to Shutdown Order

A California church argued that restrictions on public gatherings treated houses of worship worse than many businesses.

04/26/2020

04/09/2020

Our Tax Money Is Going to Directly Fund Religion

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a32068491/stimulus-bill-fund-religious-organizations

"...this is the direct funding of religion with money taxed from the rest of us, some of whom may not believe in anybody’s god."

This is unconstitutional.

04/05/2020

Note To Christian Nationalist Pastors: You Don’t Have A Constitutional Right To Make People Sick

Note To Christian Nationalist Pastors: You Don’t Have A Constitutional Right To Make People Sick

When the health and well-being of the population is at stake, and public officials have a duty to take steps to protect it.

03/28/2020

Opinion | The Religious Right’s Hostility to Science Is Crippling Our Coronavirus Response

Opinion | The Religious Right’s Hostility to Science Is Crippling Our Coronavirus Response

Trump’s response to the pandemic has been haunted by the science denialism of his ultraconservative religious allies.

03/02/2020

-- March 1 Trivia Night fundraiser --

According to the staff at Scenics Bar & Kitchen we attracted the largest crowd they've had so far at the Trivia Night event we hosted Sunday, March 1st.

A portion of each person's entry fee was used to award a cash prize to the winning team with the larger portion going to our organization.

In addition to the regular trivia questions, we also held three bonus rounds of trivia questions related to the separation of church & state. Two winners for each round received our "I Respectfully Disagree" signature mug.

Congratulations to all the winners. And thanks to everyone who came to support our organization.

02/29/2020

On what night is Super Tuesday?

Too easy? We guarantee that the questions in tomorrow’s “Geeks who Drink Quiz Night” will be more challenging than that! But if you enjoy trivia, we can guarantee that you’ll have a great time. Some of you may go home with cash prizes!

5:30 Sunday, March 1
Scenics Bar & Kitchen
4130 North Mesa in El Paso
Entry fee $5 per person.
Proceeds benefit Join Us for Justice

The game begins promptly at 8 so be there early (7:30) to ensure your best chance of winning. Food and drinks are available for purchase.

Bring your friends and join the fun!

02/21/2020

InterFaith Alliance of the Southwest

Many thanks to Amy Wilson Feltz for hosting us at St. Paul's United Methodist Churchthis past Tuesday. Enlighteningl talk presented by David Marcus from Join Us For Justice the El Paso Chapter of AU about separation of church and state in our current world which stimulated some great discussion for us as faith leaders from Baha'í, Jewish, Muslim, Sathya Sai Baba, Buddhist, Karunaseva, and Christian faith traditions. Thank you, Nosrat Heidarian for the photos!

02/04/2020

Praying For A Political Payoff? Trump Tells Evangelicals He'll Take Action To 'Safeguard' School Prayer

Most Trump supporters probably aren't even aware of the more extreme Trump initiatives.....but this one is one of the more frightening ones.

If you're a parent, hoping to send your child to a public school, paid for with your tax dollars, and you want to be able to have some control over what faith your child is brought up believing in, good luck.

Trump hopes to use your public schools, and your tax dollars, to force your children to pray to whatever Christian faith is in the majority in your community.

And, almost without fail, that majority won't be Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, or any other minority faith. And if you happen to practice a more secular lifestyle, good luck.

We are rolling back the clock to the worst of times and all
our children will have to learn to conform, or they will be the target of incredible abuse. Prayer in school will become a tool to convert those of other faiths, and an excuse to harm those children who refuse to participate.

Here are some of the more abusive guidelines outlined in the piece below:

• The guidelines state that students have an absolute right to “attempt to persuade their peers about religious topics just as they do with regard to political topics.” Interpreted broadly, this rule could open the door to religiously based harassment and bullying. Equating religious speech with political speech also invites students to introduce religious topics into classrooms at times when it may not be appropriate.

• The guidelines imply that “student-initiated prayer” is permissible at school-sponsored events, a standard that has never been adopted by the Supreme Court.

• The guidelines cite a 1984 federal law known as the Equal Access Act to assert that student-led religious clubs may deny leadership positions based on religious or moral views. In fact, the Equal Access Act does not say that.

While Trump made a big deal about the release of the document, it was hardly the Earth-shattering move he portrayed it to be. Federal law requires that administrations periodically issue religion-in-public-school guidelines.

01/31/2020

Student Essay Contest

Please share this with the educators and students and students in your life. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌
‌ ‌ ‌
The future of religious freedom – ten, twenty, thirty years from now – depends on the commitment of young people to defend the principle of church-state separation.

That’s why AU is proud to announce our 2020 Student Essay Contest is launching TODAY, with a first-place prize of $1,500!

The Topic:

Religious freedom should be a shield that protects the rights of everyone to practice any faith or no faith at all, without harming others. But some politicians’ regressive agenda seeks to misuse religious freedom to justify discrimination against LGBTQ people, women, religious minorities and the nonreligious. Recent ways we’ve seen it misused include:

· Legislative efforts to turn the U.S. into an officially “Christian nation” and roll back positive social change by misusing religious freedom to discriminate.

· Policies that allow health care workers to deny care to patients based on religious or moral objections, and allow employers and universities to use religion to deny employees and students access to birth control.

· Legislative efforts to divert public money away from public schools to fund religious education through private school voucher schemes.

Why is the separation of religion and government important to you? (Your essay can, but doesn’t have to, include one of the issues mentioned above.) What have you or others in your community done to oppose threats to religious freedom? What more can be done?

The Fine Print:

· The contest is open to high school juniors and seniors in the United States, including the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

· The essay length should be between 750 and 1,000 words.

· Essays should be well written, well researched and should be the student’s original writing, supported by specific examples and/or properly cited sources where appropriate. Essays can reference current events, U.S. history, primary sources, personal experiences and information from AU.org.

· Essays must be submitted no later than 11:59PM on Sunday, April 19, 2020.

· Employees and board members of Americans United, and members of their families, are not eligible to participate.

The Prizes:

· First place: $1,500 and essay will be printed on AU’s website and in Church & State magazine

· Second place: $1,000 and essay will be printed on AU’s website

· Third Place: $500 and essay will be printed on AU’s website

ENTER THE CONTEST

Please take a moment to share this contest with the students and young people in your life. This is a great way to bring them into our movement for church-state separation.

We look forward to reading all your submissions (in years past we’ve received over 600 essays)! For more information, visit www.au.org/essaycontest.

Sincerely,

Alicia Johnson
National Organizer and Student Network Manager

AU’s annual essay contest encourages high school students to reflect on why religious freedom and the separation of religion and government are important to them and their communities—and what they can do to ensure religious freedom is used as a shield that protects, not a sword to harm others. ...

01/07/2020

Photo 1: Some members of our movie committee during the debit in El Paso of "Where's My Roy Cohn" Sunday, Jan 5. Left to right: Phyllis Petersen, Isabel Latz, Cesar Rivera and David Marcus.

Photo 2: Our invited guest speaker holds a Q & A with audience following the movie

01/04/2020

Aaron Montes at the El Paso Times interviewing our guest speaker, regarding tomorrow night's event at the Alamo Drafthouse.

12/25/2019

Roy Cohn's DNA in the Trump Phenomenon

View our latest blog

.... it was when things seemed out of his control with the Mueller investigation that Trump called out for his fixer and mentor by asking, “Where’s my Roy Cohn?”

12/19/2019

5 Things You May Not Know About My Vile, Malicious Cousin Roy Cohn (Guest Blog)

Meet Roy Cohn's Cousin in person. Sunday,
Jan. 5th at the Alamo Drafthouse. See event details.

https://www.thewrap.com/roy-cohn-cousin-5-things-to-know/

Cohn's mother "was the original helicopter parent, fussing over her only son's grades, appearance and relationships," writes his cousin, journalist David L. Marcus

12/18/2019

WHERE'S MY ROY COHN?

If you were in his presence, you knew you were in the presence of evil.

El Paso movie premiere to feature cousin of Roy Cohn. Get the inside story.
Tickets available now.

Watch the trailer:
http://sonyclassics.com/wheresmyroycohn/

One of the most controversial and influential American men of the 20th Century, Roy Cohn was a ruthless and unscrupulous lawyer and political power broker whose 28-year career ranged from acting as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Communist-hunting subcommittee to molding the career of a...

10/22/2019

Under Growing Scrutiny For Misdeeds, The Trump Administration Embraces Christian Nationalism

Under Growing Scrutiny For Misdeeds, The Trump Administration Embraces Christian Nationalism

You don’t have to be a cynic to question the timing of this eruption of God talk. We have an administration that claims to be championing Christian values at a time when news headlines every day expose more rot and corruption within it.

10/19/2019

Americans United Demands Investigation of Secretary of State Pompeo, Dept. of State for Church-State Separation Violations

The US State Department promoting Christian Values (as opposed to other religious beliefs and values??).

If you practice ANY faith other than Christianity, or no faith at all, I'll bet this makes you feel all warm and fuzzy about the Trump administration.

I wonder when this administration will take an occasional moment to glance at the US Constitution?

“Secretary Pompeo cannot use his official position and government resources to proselytize and impose his faith on the rest of us – those are fundamental violations of the separation of religion and government,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United.

10/17/2019

To see the status of current issues on the "Hill" in Washington, and the views and opinions by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, go to joinusforjustice.org. On the Home page scroll down to the bottom and click on "Daily Dispatches".

You can also click on "Our Blog" to read our latest blog post.

10/10/2019

Trump Administration Rules Prioritize Refusal of Care and Conservative Ideology Over Protecting Patients Against Discrimination

https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2019/10/trump-administration-rules-prioritize-refusal-care-and-conservative-ideology-over?fbclid=IwAR3nK1h2Mz34V1BhVbdg3EDDVRjb6mlIh4f_g0LAZa7TMMYMdRsHUL9Ejow

Two major regulatory actions taken by the Trump administration in May 2019 highlight different facets of the same agenda. First, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued its final version of a refusal-of-care rule that broadly interprets long-standing federal laws to maximize social....

10/02/2019

See below from Wikipedia describing that the first whistleblowers were -which was "appalled" by the case - to enact the Whistleblower Protection Law in 1778:
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Samuel Shaw was a Revolutionary War naval officer who, along with Richard Marven, were the first whistleblowers of the infant United States.[1] As a whistleblower, Shaw was instrumental in the Continental Congress' passage of the first whistleblower protection law in the United States.[2] Shaw, a midshipman, and Marven, a third lieutenant in the Continental Navy, were moved to act after witnessing the torture of British prisoners of war by Commodore Esek Hopkins, then Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy.[3] Shaw and Marven were both from Rhode Island, as was Hopkins, whose brother was Stephen Hopkins, Governor of the new state, and a signatory to the Declaration of Independence. For reporting the misconduct of the Navy's highest officer, Shaw and Marven were both dismissed from the Navy.[4] Worse still, Hopkins then filed a criminal libel suit against Shaw and Marven in the Rhode Island Courts.[4]

Appalled by the case, the Continental Congress then enacted a whistleblower protection law on July 30, 1778, by unanimous consent.[2] The law declared it "the duty of all persons in the service of the United States, as well as all other inhabitants thereof, to give the earliest information to Congress or any other proper authority of any misconduct, frauds or misdemeanors committed by any officers or persons in the service of these states, which may come to their knowledge."[2]

Congress then appropriated monies to represent and defend Shaw and Marven against the libel suit filed against Hopkins, resolving that, "reasonable expences [sic] of defending the said suit be defrayed by the United States," and ordered the termination of Hopkins' employment, as he "had misconducted himself."[5]

On the second National Whistleblower Appreciation Day,[6] Shaw was recognized as an unsung hero of American Whistleblowers.[6] On July 30, 2015, Shaw recognized at the First Congressional Celebration of National Whistleblower Appreciation Day,[7] honored as one of two federal employees who created protections for those who stand for truth.[8]

09/25/2019

09/23/2019

The winter of our discontent

Thank you to Jeryl Marcus for JUFJ's latest blog;

Not since I discovered the truth about Santa have I felt this disillusioned. The people that were supposed to protect me, the leaders of our government, have let me down. What was once sacred is now a facade. The patina ...

09/09/2019

"This isn’t the religious right we thought we knew.

The Christian nationalist movement today is authoritarian, paranoid and patriarchal at its core. They aren’t fighting a culture war.

They’re making a direct attack on democracy itself."
~ Katherine Stewart, author of “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children.”

08/24/2019

Americans United is busier than ever suing in the courts, educating policymakers in Congress and across the states and bringing visibility to the attacks on religious freedom. And we’re playing the long game – strategically and patiently building out the growing movement of Americans awakening to the urgency of joining us.

08/16/2019

Labor Dept. Moves to Expand Religion Exemption for Hiring and Firing

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/business/economy/religion-exemption-hiring-firing.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR2MbZ-FFQ1TssVvwSlX9n4CNvq3GMfgScbHshfKxwmuIPf2zI1RTI0-M4I

The policy director for a gay-rights group said the “proposed rule would permit taxpayer-funded discrimination.”

08/13/2019

Federal Court Approves ‘Christians-Only’ County Seal In Pa.

Last week, a federal appeals court ruled that a prominent cross on the county seal of Lehigh County, PA, may remain. It certainly sends the impression that Lehigh County is a Christian community.

This is just the beginning of fallout from the American Legion v. American Humanist Association ruling – the Supreme Court decision that a 40-foot-tall cross on public land in Bladensburg, MD, may stay where it is, in part because the cross, erected in 1925, has been up so long that the justices believe it has taken on secular meaning.

It's clear that the Lehigh County, Pa., seal was adopted for a religious purpose. It was designed in 1944 by Commissioner Harry D. Hertzog, who later said, “In center of Shield appears the huge cross in canary-yellow signifying Christianity and the God-fearing people which are the foundation and b...