Apparently, I wrecked the Jimmy Carter editorial thread, which I initiated in hopes of sparking a discussion of the state of collapse of the US human rights agenda under the Bush administration. Bobert responded positively to the excerpts from the Washington Post editorial, and introduced Jimmy Carter's "Christianness" (for lack of a better word) into the conversation. I objected to the mention of Carter's religious standing as a former president, as I felt it took attention away from Carter's secular moral standing as a supporter and defender of a strong human rights agenda for the US.

Well, I now regret having done that to the thread, as it took away from the conversation about human rights. But I do consider the discussion about the attacks on the American secular tradition to be an important one. I don't know how many of you watch NOW with Bill Moyers, but last night he had the author of a very important new book, Susan Jacoby, on the program. The title of her book is "Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism".

NOW's "America's Freethinking Tradition"

I first heard of the book when I read a review of it here:

"The attack on secularism" from the Boston Globe

The NOW website has provided a link to an interview with the author on beliefnet here:

"Freethought Revival"

My concern with Bobert's remark is this: I don't want my president to bring his religion to work. According to the US constitution, religion (or lack of it) is considered a private, personal matter not a political matter involved in the governance of the nation.

The separation of church and state is under attack by the Christian right, and the highest offices of our government now have leaders in them who are very vocal in their opposition to this fundamental, crucially important tenet of the US constitution: George W. Bush and Antonin Scalia.

The US constitution contains no reference to god, deity or divinity. The decision NOT to refer to divine sources in the constitution was debated by the Founding Fathers, and it was their intention that any reference to deity be expressly forbidden in it. For good reason.

I don't believe in countering arguments made by the Christian right, with invocations of the morality of the Christian left. The United States is the world's first secular state, and the secularity of the state is now under direct attack by the US Christian right. The way to counter and turn back that attack, IMO as a secularist, isn't to invoke left leaning Christian politicians or religious leaders, but to argue again and again and again, the case for secularism in American society, and to defend that most American of all traditions, the American secular tradition upon which the nation was founded.