At age 16, I converted from Methodism to Seventh-day Adventism, the theological equivalent of going from the proverbial frying pan right into the fire.  Since I was struggling to change my gay sexual urges at that time, this switch from moderate Protestantism to fanatical fundamentalism had a devastating effect on my psyche.  After years of waging a foredoomed battle with my same-sex orientation, I finally capitulated to my true same-sex erotic core and gave up all religion entirely.

      A major step in that odyssey and transformation was seeing "Inherit the Wind," the wonderful Broadway play and later movie freely adapted from the actual Scopes monkey trial in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925.  For me, the two big players in the trial were card-carrying atheists attorney Clarence Darrow who volunteered his considerable legal skills for the defense and columnist H.L. Mencken who covered the trial for his newspaper The Baltimore Sun. 

      Against such formidable talent, the ever-popular Christian apologist William Jennings Bryan didn't have a prayer in his pitiful efforts to demonize evolutionary theory.

      My favorite line from the drama was Bryan's feeble attempt at humor when queried by Darrow as to whether or not the seven days of creation were literal twenty-four hour periods: "I am much more interested in the Rock of Ages than I am in the age of rocks."  That ridiculous retort struck me as a desperate attempt on the part of Bryan to defend the indefensible. The dramatic contrast between Darrow's calm, cool and collected demeanor and Bryan's emotional, feverish and impassioned sermonizing left an indelible impression on my questioning mind.  It surprised me not in the least that Bryan, worn and haggard, died just five days after the trial ended.

     Today, I wholeheartedly subscribe to Stephen Jay Gould's rational argument that since humans represent the only species in the animal kingdom aware of our own mortality, adoption of religion becomes a coping mechanism in order to deal with the unpleasant certainty of our eventual demise.

      Gould's threefold metaphor of how insignificantly human life figures in relation to the overall age of the planet earth also helps me keep things in true perspective.
 

     Clarence Darrow, the real hero of the Scopes monkey trial, anticipated Stephen Jay Gould and other evolutionary scientists many decades ago when he gave us his unique, succinct and memorable reduction of where we humans stand in importance to the rest of the universe: "We are a speck on a speck." That terse summation says it all for me and aids me immensely in living each day to the fullest because, as British rationalist Barbara Smoker argues so persuasively, I have been lucky enough to win in the great cosmic lottery called life.

      We are the last of the social pariahs in the United States.  Atheists are the only citizens who cannot be elected to public office if their unbelief is known, and the only group that some dictionaries actually define as synonymous with immorality, wickedness and sinfulness. The Atheist Alliance Inc. (AAI) seeks to change this. We are proud to be religion-free.

      Unique among national organizations, AAI is dedicated to coalition-building as a primary function. The assaults on our intellectual integrity and ethical sense are so relentless that only a concerted effort by all freethought groups offers any hope that we will prevail. AAI seeks to work with like-minded organizations to achieve a united front. We must lobby together, take legal action together, and mount protests together. There is strength in unity, but only marginal successes at best and ineffective posturing at worst by going it alone.

      As a step toward united nationwide action, AAI has established the Coalition to Advance Rational Thinking (CART). This is a free-wheeling vehicle for collaboration to be used by all freethought groups. AAI does not "own" CART. Any group, or even an individual, can initiate a CART project that advances freethought goals. The initiator runs the project and is the media contact. All groups that agree with the project sign on as supporters to give credibility and strength. There are many national and local freethought organizations. If all signed on to each other's projects, the list of supporters would be extensive, impressive, and effective.

      AAI is also unique in that another primary function is to help establish strong independent atheist organizations in every state. The local level is where atheists can be most effective in preserving state-church separation and defending the rights of atheists. This is where we can best reach our elected local, state and federal representatives because we are part of their constituency. This is where we can best affect public opinion because we are part of our community. AAI provides a connecting link for these local groups so a chain of concerted action can be created for both nationwide and local purposes.

      AAI is completely democratic. Every member society elects its own representatives to the AAI board of directors. This board elects the executive officers. The member societies are the Atheist Alliance. They have direct control over developing and implementing organizational policies.

     AAI consists entirely of local groups working together to help each other and to help new groups get established.

All local freethought groups are welcome to join AAI and to unite in coalition to achieve a secular nation. Atheist Alliance, Inc., P. O. Box 242, Pocopson, Pennsylvania 19366. Phone 1-866-HERETIC Email web site www.AtheistAlliance.org

 -- Marie Castle 
President of Atheist 
Alliance International

       Muslims in Gamle -- "old town" Oslo, Norway -- applied for the right to call worshipers to prayers, calling "Allahu akbar" ("God is great") over loudspeakers. The neighborhood council granted the request, to the delight of the World Islamic Mission. A spokesman said the decision is a "victory of great symbolic importance. It means our religion is respected on the same lines as other religions." But to keep things completely equal, the council also approved a request by The Norwegian Heathen Society to summon members to their meetings by calling out "There is no God" over the loudspeakers.    (from the AP) 

 ...Next step: everyone screaming "Our God can beat your God" at the top of their lungs.    --   Randy Cassingham 

      UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has been called upon to investigate claims of World War II era Genocide by the Vatican and Franciscans.  An open letter on behalf of Serb and Jewish survivors of wartime atrocities by the fanatical Catholic Croatians known as the "Ustasha" requests the UN Secretary General to investigate allegations of genocide committed by the Vatican and Franciscans. Specifically the victims claim:

     The Vatican and Franciscans knowingly helped Croatian and Nazi war criminals escape justice by organizing and funding the Nazi smuggling ratline based at San Girolamo and the Vatican whose many beneficiaries included Eichman, Barbie, Artukovich and Pavelic. Allegations of money laundering of the Croatian Nazi (Ustasha) Treasury consisting of loot stolen from concentration camp and other victims; and as to the Croatian Franciscan order, actual participation in genocide against Serbs, Jews, and Roma comprising the over 500,000 victims of the Croatian Nazis slaughtered in Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia during Word War II.

     Victims' claims in the class action Alperin v. Vatican Bank include mass rape, beheadings, torture, mutilations, burnings, establishment of concentration and forced labor camps, destruction of Orthodox Churches and Jewish Synagogues, and looting of assets valued in the hundreds of millions by the Ustashe and Franciscans. Post war the Vatican provided sanctuary for the Ustashe killers until they could be whisked away to safety in South America via the Vatican ratline financed by Ustashe loot.

      The Vatican and Franciscans have steadfastly denied involvement in these activities despite documentation by the US State Department, recently declassified documents, and numerous exposes of the ratline.

      The victims through their attorneys Easton and Levy have called upon the Secretary General to consider and investigate the allegations and to call upon the Vatican and Franciscans, both of whom enjoy Observer status at the United Nations, to open their wartime archives.

 For more information and full text of letter see: 
www.vaticanbankclaims.com/press6.html 
-- Law Offices of Easton & Levy 
Tel. (513) 528-0586

e-mail: jlevy1@cinci.rr.com
June 20, 2000 

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