Groups wants atheists included in DNC interfaith service

The Colorado Springs Gazette ^ | August 15, 2008 | By MARK BARNA

[Oldeconomybuyer]

The Democratic National Convention's Aug. 24 interfaith service in Denver is supposed to be about unity.

But to a Washington, D.C., coalition that supports nontheistic views, it's about division.

The Secular Coalition Group, a lobbying organization for church-and-state separation, is pushing to get an atheist on the speaker list, and contends the service is divisive because it alienates nonreligious Democrats at a time when the party needs to unite to support the presumptive nominee, Sen. Barack Obama.

"We can all hold different beliefs," said the group's executive director, Lori Lipman Brown, "but we can still come together as patriotic Americans."

The interfaith service, the first official event of the Democratic National Convention, has Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist speakers on the roster. Convention CEO Leah D. Daughtry, a Pentecostal minister, said in a statement that the purpose of the first-ever Democratic Convention service is "to honor the diverse faith traditions inside the Democratic Party."

Brown said the coalition wrote Daughtry twice in July asking for inclusion but has received no response. She said Thursday she didn't know if the group would make another request.

Natalie Wyeth, a convention spokesperson, said Wednesday that everyone, regardless of belief, is welcome at the public service, but would not address if an atheist would be added to the speaker list.

"The goal is to come together in the spirit of unity and start the week off right," Wyeth said.

Becky Hale, a founder of the atheist group Freethinkers of Colorado Springs, said the service discriminates against nonbelieving Democrats.

"By reaching out to people of faith," Hale said, "they have shown the back of their hand to those who do not believe."

Marvin Straus, co-founder of the Boulder Atheists and part of the Colorado Coalition of Reason, which includes 11 state atheist groups, said some organizations are planning to protest during the Aug. 25-28 convention because of the Democrats' "pandering" for the religious vote. But no protests are planned to take place during the Aug. 24 interfaith service.

Religion - or lack thereof - has already made headlines in the months leading up to the convention. In June, the Madison,Wis.-based Freedom from Religion Foundation, a 12,000-member watchdog group for the separation of church and state, erected a billboard near the Colorado Convention Center that proclaimed "Imagine No Religion." In early August the sign was changed to "Keep Religion Out of Politics."

During the convention, the foundation will fund mobile billboards asking for church-state separation and broadcasting its view that religion is divisive.

"Faith does not unite us," Freedom co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor said. "And this is a time when we should be in unity behind our secular government."

[N3WBI3]

... “We can all hold different beliefs,” said the group’s executive director, Lori Lipman Brown ...

Lori this is an inter *faith* gathering not an inter ‘belief’ gathering what, precisely, do you have faith in?

[Bitsy]

But Atheists have no faith. Why include them?

Duh...They won't even be able to sing the hippie favorite of all times, Kumbaya” because it mentions Lord. What a quandary!

[madprof98]

If the Democrat Party is putting this thing on, there will be plenty of atheists present.

[Cheetahcat]

Heathens?? what good are they? the good thing is when they die just a garbage bag and in the landfill they go!