Happy National Day of Reason Everyone!

Many who value the separation of religion and government have sought an appropriate response to the federally-supported National Day of Prayer, an annual abuse of the constitution. Nontheistic Americans (including freethinkers, humanists, atheists, agnostics, and deists), along with many traditionally religious allies, view such government-sanctioned sectarianism as unduly exclusionary.

A consortium of leaders from within the community of reason endorsed the idea of a National Day of Reason. This observance is held in parallel with the National Day of Prayer, on the first Thursday in May each year (May 7th in 2009). The goal of this effort is to celebrate reason—a concept all Americans can support—and to raise public awareness about the persistent threat to religious liberty posed by government intrusion into the private sphere of worship.

The Day of Reason also exists to inspire the secular community to be visible and active on this day to set the right example for how to effect positive change. Local organizations might use "Day of Reason" to label their events, or they might choose labels such as Day of Action, Day of Service, or Rational Day of Care. The important message is to provide a positive, useful, constitutional alternative to the exclusionary National Day of Prayer.

Continued on the National Day of Reason website

"Acts of Violence" threatened against author/former Missoulian

There's an article in the Missoulian today about Sherry Jones, a former citizen of The Garden City, who is back in Missoula for the time being because it's "where I feel safe and comfortable."

It seems she was in the process of having her first book published by Random House about A'isha, the youngest of Muhammad's 12 wives. The publisher canceled the contract, however, at the last hour because they received warnings that the book “could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.” Random House justified the decision by stating that the book "might be offensive to some in the Muslim community.”

So what? Who doesn't get offended now and then by someone else's words? I know that I do. There's no point in declaring "freedom of speech" if nobody ever says anything that someone else disagrees with. Nobody, not you or I or anyone else, has the right to never be offended, or to threaten violence against others simply for saying something we don't like.

Check out the Missoulian article, and then when Jones' book, "Jewel of Medina," is eventually published (by someone with more courage than Random House to defend freedom of speech), buy several copies as gifts for all your friends, even if it sucks. Always work to ensure that threats of violence to suppress freedom of speech consistently backfire and draw exponentially more attention to the very speech that was supposed to be suppressed.

Update (09/03/08): The book apparently has a new publisher, yet to be named. The English version now due to be released in October.