Dear Friends & Supporters,

This past Saturday I drove over to Montgomery for the "Save the
Commandments" rally, sponsored in support of Alabama Governor Fob James and
Etowah County Judge Roy Moore. Moore, as you probably already know, has
refused another judge's order to stop opening session with a Baptist prayer
and remove a hand carved replica of the Ten Commandments from his courtroom
wall. He has become a hero to the religious right for his refusal to abide
by Judge Price's ruling and Fob James has jumped on the bandwagon, as well.

Attendance was estimated by rally organizers to be between 20 and 25
thousand. I can tell you from one who was in the crowd it was no where near
that. The New York Times estimated about 6 thousand, and other media outlets
ranged up to 10 thousand. Probably between these last two is the more
accurate number. But what they lacked in size they more than made up for in
overzelousness!

The crowd wave signs concerning everything from Moore's prayer to abortion,
gay rights (or rather gay bashing), the ever esoteric "family values" and
all the other areas of deep concern to the religious right.

I photographed a couple of Operation Rescue supporters who wore t-shirts
declaring "Intolerance is Beautiful".

Several attendees told me that they believed non-Christians should not be
allowed to serve on juries or hold public office. Their reasoning behind
this is the fact that these duties involve swearing on a Bible, and a
non-Christian can't be trusted in this regard. My query as to whether or not
Christians "always" always perform their duties with 100 percent honesty
brought a variety of unconvincing responses, including not much more than
scratched heads, and furrowed bushy, backwoods brows.

Another attendee informed me that the phrase "separation of church and
state" appears nowhere in the Constitution. I told him that the phrase
"right to a fair trial" does not appear as well, and then I asked him if he
supported the right to a fair trial. He paused for a moment and said, "This
nation was founded as a Christian nation." Folks, it's pretty hard to keep
up with this kind of reasoning.

The self-righteousness poured from the crowd in smothering proportions, as
did the disdain for their favorite targets of the day. On the top of that
list was the ACLU, or in right wing lingo, the "Un-American" Civil Liberties
Union. Next came the Supreme Court Justices, who were pounded with
accusations of being tyrants, elitist, and anything else that would push the
button of a paranoid fundamentalist.

One attendee assured me that we will soon see persecution of Christians in
this country equal to that of the Jews in Nazi Germany. He supported this
claim by explaining how people are not allowed to distribute Bibles in the
public schools. 

When I asked several of them about the recent bombings here in Atlanta, of
course they were sure to point out they thought it was wrong, but it was
such a half-hearted attempt they might as well have come right out and
condoned them.

Myself and another young man, two of about ten rally opponents there that
day, found ourselves in the middle of a loud verbal assault from a man in a
suit about my age holding a Bible that could have prevented Dorothy's house
from being swept away in the tornado. He refused to allow me to tape record
him but instead screamed scripture at as us as we dodged the fountain of
saliva that was his mouth. We finally tired of him and I began to describe
the numerous incidences of sex and violence I have personally read in the
Bible and told him, "that book should be pulled off of every library shelf
in the country. It should only be available in adult book stores, right next
to the porno videos." This silenced him for a moment as a couple of police
officers moved closer to us. He saw them and turned and walked away. One of
the officers remarked, "I thought for sure we'd be taking that guy (the
preacher) in for assualt." He smiled at me and shook his head.

Ralph Reed can try all he wants to paint a tolerant picture of his
supporters, but it just is not the case, folks. They were all there that
day, from the radical right wing to the extreme right wing. Free books on
the New World Order were everywhere. One bumper sticker said, "Abort
Clinton". I got a great shot of a guy stomping on a United Nations flag. He
was very happy to have me take his picture until he asked me where it was
going to be printed. Walking past him I said, "The ACLU National Journal;
We'll raise two million dollars with your picture alone. Thanks for the help."

Speaker after speaker blasted through loudspeakers the same misinformation,
the same rhetoric that is working so well for them. Looking around the crowd
they looked like a bunch of addicts, nodding their heads as they got their
fix of ridiculous propaganda.

Much kudos to my heroes of the day, the Birmingham Freethought Society and
the Alabama Freethought Society! I was standing near the front of the crowd
when some signs appeared that, without even reading them, seemed strangely
out of place. They read "Jesus Christ was not a bigot!",  "This is not Roy
Moore's Court", "Fight Religous Bigotry", and several more.

Within two minutes they were surrounded by rally supporters, crowding them
and making sure they knew they were not welcome. It was rather pathetic how
this so-called "Christians" were so immature and confrontational that they
couldn't handle a few dissenters among them. Jesus would have been so proud,
huh?

But the freethinkers held their ground and were swamped by the media, who
must have been getting pretty sick and tired of the boring, repititious
stuff they'd been hearing all day.

I was told that the police were thinking of removing them "for their own
safety" but after watching the situation, decided to let them stay.

I drove home from the rally with two things learned that day. First, the
people there have been spoon fed a carefully balanced diet of misinformation
and fear from Ralph Reed and his ilk for so long they are now to the point
of being like robots.

Secondly, and most importantly, they are fired up and out of control. I hate
to say this, but I think we're in for a rough time. I think there will be
more violence as the courts and governments hold them at bay and their
distorted perceptions turn every loss into persecution. As time passes I
think they will see extreme and even violent measures as last resorts; that
sentiment could be felt in the air at the rally.

For this last reason I think it is very important for us to work harder to
oppose them, and to wake more Americans up to the dangers they pose. We have
got to spread the message about the dangers of the religious right. We here
in Atlanta know too well what they are capable of when they feel no other
alternative but to lash out violently. It is our obligation to help as many
other people understand this as well.

Sincerely,

Skip Evans, President

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Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Atlanta Chapter
PO Box 79174
Atlanta GA 30357-7174
404-607-0660
tallulah@mindspring.com
http://www.mindspring.com/~tallulah/au/
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