The Most Boring People In The World Want To Make All The Rest Of Us Just Like Them.

Isaac Bonewits has an excellent post up about the Religious Reich. He notes that, "Remember, Fundamentalists + Money + Political Power = Fundamentalists with Weapons = Terrorists. It’s more urgent than ever than sane people, of all moderate religions and none, unite to stop the religious lunatics from bringing on the Armegeddon they so lust after."

Bonewits provides some suggestions, via America United's Church and State newsletter. Here's the list:

1. Be active in Americans United. If you are not a member, become one. Support AU financially. Sign up for AU’s Activist Network at AU’s Web site: www.au.org/register. Join an AU chapter if there is one in your area. If not, consider forming one.

2. Get involved politically. Register to vote and pay attention to what candidates say about church-state issues. Attend voter forums and ask questions. Participate in voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives. (Note: You may do what you want in politics as a private citizen, but remember that houses of worship and non-profit groups may not intervene in partisan politics.)

3. Speak out in public to defend the separation of church and state. Respond to letters to the editor attacking church-state separation or spreading misinformation about the principle. Remember that many people are undecided about these issues and need to see both sides.

4. Mobilize the faith community. If you attend a house of worship, ask your religious leaders to publicly support church-state separation. When religious leaders speak out in favor of church-state separation, it debunks the Religious Right canard that separation is hostile to faith.

5. Support public education. Pub­lic schools are often the Religious Right’s public enemy number one. Support public schools, even if you don’t have children attending them. Public education free from sectarian control is in everyone’s interest. Oppose Religious Right efforts to starve our schools by denying them an adequate tax base.

6. Expose Religious Right extremism. Remind your friends and neighbors that the Religious Right holds extreme views, far outside the mainstream. Use Church & State and the AU Web site to demonstrate the theocratic goals of the Religious Right.

7. Educate the public. Find out if your local public library will accept a free subscription to Church & State. Also consider donating books that promote AU’s point of view.

8. Contact your member of Con­gress. If legislation is introduced that threatens the separation of church and state, speak up. Write a letter, send an e-mail or send a fax to your senators and representative in the House. Let him or her know where you stand. (AU’s Church-State Action Center can help you with this. Go to www.au.org and click on “Legislative Action.”)

9. Speak to your local lawmakers. If there is a church-state controversy in your community, speak up. Address lawmakers at a public meeting. Gather supporters to your side. For more advice, contact Americans United.

10. Report a violation of church-state separation. If you are concerned that an action or legislation in your local public schools, local government or state government may violate separation of church and state, report it to Americans United’s Legal Department. Go to www.au.org and click on “In the Courts” and then “Report a Violation” for more information.

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The Wild Hunt has a great post about a group of religious leaders taking on the Catholic Church for trying to keep the rest of us from practicing our own religions. You should go read the whole thing, but here's just a taste:

"[N]o one faith should dictate, control, or unfairly influence the legal status of the sacred rites of another, and . . . where matters of love and the gods are concerned no human agency should meddle. While many of my readers are not practitioners of religious Witchcraft, I think this phrase from Doreen Valiente's 'The Charge of The Goddess' is most appropriate.

'Let my worship be with the heart that rejoices, for behold, all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals. And therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you.'

While the powerful and influential will continue to try to hold a monopoly on truth, they can't stop our sacred rites from happening. We will continue to marry and handfast those who are joined by love, no matter their gender, and eventually, the walls of a manufactured single truth will crack and crumble and all those joined will be lifted up together free of the boundaries that separate us."