An Open Letter to the Christian Right

[babylonsister]

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2736/81/

An Open Letter to the Christian Right
Thursday, 01 November 2007
by Robert Weitzel

snip//

What I am proposing is nothing less than a constitutional amendment. We’ll call it the “conscience clause”— think rape victim and emergency contraception and religious beliefs.

It reads as follows:

Amendment XXVIII Section 1. No citizen of the United States shall be forced to support, through taxation or other levies, any government agency whose actions disregard the sanctity of human life, if said action is contrary to that individual’s religious beliefs or moral convictions.

Section 2. Citizens of the United States shall have the right to allocate their tax dollars to government agencies proportionately as their conscience dictates.

What this amendment would mean for Americans who value the sanctity of human life regardless of race, creed, national origin, or neocon ideology is that they could choose to redistribute the 27 percent (a conservative estimate) of their federal income tax now going to the military—and its life-threatening mission—to a government agency whose mission is life-enhancing.

To get a visual of the impact this amendment could have, go to the interactive tax chart at www.nationalpriorities.org. If you paid $15,000 in federal taxes last year, $4080 was dedicated to the destruction of human life, $675 to education, $390 to nutrition programs, $225 to environmental protection, and $285 to housing. Now, reallocate your tax dollars according to your conscience.

This “conscience clause” amendment will allow the American people to decide our national priorities. If we choose life, we will pay for it. If we choose death, we will pay for it. Either way, the credit or the blame for our priorities will rest squarely on our heads. We will no longer be able to hide our culpability in a corrupted political process.

My question and my challenge then: can Atheists and Fundamentalists put aside our significant differences and work together to protect the sanctity of all human life?

I have to be honest here. I need you guys. You know how to get things done.

If you’re on board, we’ll need to act quickly and decisively. Every indication is that the “faith-based” administration you’ve supported these last seven years is about to expend more of our gold and our children’s lives on a new round of bloodletting in Iran.

[peacebird]

1. k& very enthusiastically r'd

[NMMNG]

2. Ugh

All of this whining that we "don't have the funds" for education, health care, veteran's benefits, eradicating poverty/homelessness/hunger, the disabled, etc. But they sure have enough money for war, war and and more war. :eyes:

[daninthemoon]

3. Wouldn't that be something. The jails would be less crowded.

We would get onto alternative fuels. Our schools would be incredible. The sick and aging and everyone would get health care and housing. Haliburton and it's ilk would close down. No more blackwater. It would almost be like taxation with representation. What a revolutionary notion.
Ok, now back to bush/cheneyland. A very different place.

[Enthusiast]

4. I like that, Dan............

"We would get onto alternative fuels. Our schools would be incredible. The sick and aging and everyone would get health care and housing. Haliburton and it's ilk would close down. No more blackwater. It would almost be like taxation with representation. What a revolutionary notion.
Ok, now back to bush/cheneyland. A very different place."

Taxation with representation! I'm all for it!

[lame54]

5. This clause could be used to deny rape victims the morning after drug

We’ll call it the “conscience clause”— think rape victim and emergency contraception and religious beliefs.


That is exactly what I'm thinking.
Many already have been denied this and birth control because it goes against either a hospital staffer or pharmacist's religious beliefs. I for one think there has got to be a better way than to cross the line of separation of church and state. I am a mother and a sister of rape victims and would not like to see their right to chose taken away from them because of another's religious beliefs.
patty lame's wife