By SPENCER WARD
The American Atheists will unite in front of the U.S. Capitol today to protest the proposed Religious Freedom Amendment. The American Atheists have not been invited to participate in congressional hearings concerning the amendment.
The American Atheists organization has petitioned the House Judiciary Committee to end its policy of inviting only religious groups to comment on First Amendment issues.
'We want to point out that any discussion for tampering with the First Amendment to the Constitution, including religious freedom, should include all parties that will be affected,' said Ron Barrier, national spokesperson for American Atheists.
The American Atheists is an organization founded in the 1960s for the advancement of Atheism and the total separation of government and religion.
The American Atheists are trying to get their voice into the Congressional Record, as they have not yet been allowed to testify, said Spike Tyson, director of American Atheists.
'The American Atheists are welcome to submit written testimony as they have in the past,' said a spokesperson for the Constitution subcommittee.
The hearings are to debate the proposed Religious Freedom Amendment to the Constitution.
The Religious Freedom Amendment, as introduced by Congressman Istook, R-OK, reads: 'To secure the people's right to acknowledge God: The right to pray or acknowledge religious belief, heritage or tradition on public property, including public schools, shall not be infringed. The government shall not compel joining in prayer, initiate or compose school prayers, or discriminate or deny a benefit on account of religion.'
The American Atheists want to represent their view.
'We are totally, absolutely opposed to it. This is nothing more than an end run around the First Amendment. ... all of it. There is nothing good in it,' Tyson said.
Tyson said the Religious Freedom Amendment protects rights we already have and then tries to institute rights we don't: like praying in school.
'If anyone should be speaking, we should be,' Tyson said. American Atheists are responsible for the act that made prayer in schools illegal in the 1960s.
'The purpose of this is to destroy what we have already built,' Tyson said.
These hearings are being held in the wake of a Supreme Court decision striking down the Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed in 1993. This act passed with broad bipartisan support and backing from many church groups representing a wide spectrum of beliefs.
Not all groups are opposed to the Religious Freedom Amendment.
'A Religious Freedom's Amendment is needed,' said William J. Murray of the Government Is Not God, a political action committee, before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.
Murray is the son of the founder of American Atheists, Madalyn Murray O'Hair. Murray said he has separated himself from the collectivist teachings of his mother.
'Without this amendment, America's school systems will continue to move off a moral center,' Murray said. 'Our Founding Fathers did not want freedom from religion; they promoted freedom of religion.'