Essays

• Raising Freethinking Children
• Family and Commitment Ceremonies
• Education
• • Freethought Clubs In High Schools
  • Mandated Prayer In Public Schools
  • Other Education Issues
• Boy Scouts Of America

Raising Freethinking Children

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• American Humanist Association's Response to the Christian Coalition's "Contract with the American Family" (Off Site)
• Atheistic Education by Michael Martin | Article originally published in The American Rationalist
• Good and Bad Reasons for Believing by Richard Dawkins (a letter to his daughter, Juliet) (Off Site)
• How to Educate an Atheist by Michael Martin (2000)
• Parents at School (Off Site)
• Protect My Children from the Ten Commandments By Lewis Vaughn (Off Site) | Why we should not permit the posting of the ten commandments in schools
• Raising Children Without God by Dave Silverman, American Atheists (Off Site)
• Secular Family News by Jan Loeb Eisler (Off Site)
• Raising Humanist Children by Terri Mandell (Off Site)
• Rebuttal to the "Contract With the American Family" by Bryan Zepp Jamieson | A point-by-point rebuttal of the so-called "Contract with the American Family"

Family and Commitment Ceremonies

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• Humanist Child Dedication Ceremony by Patricia Burnet (Off Site) | A ceremony for welcoming a new child to the world while reaffirming the worth of the new child's older siblings
• Humanist Naming Ceremony (Off Site)
• Online Directory of Humanist Celebrants (Off Site)

Education

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• Freethought Clubs In High Schools
• • Alabama's First High School Freethinkers Club Forms by Adam Butler (Off Site) | Adam Butler tells of his fight to start a freethinkers club at his high school in Alabama
  • Equal Access Strikes Back by Adam Butler (Off Site) | Excerpted from a speech by Adam Butler, given at the Freedom From Religion Foundation convention in Madison, Wisconsin during October 1996. Recounts Butler's fight to start a freethinkers club at his high school.
• Prayer In Public Schools
• • Constututional Amendment on School Prayer (March 11, 2002, ACLU) (Off Site)
  • Bible Believers Should Oppose School Prayer by Rick Lott (Off Site) (Scroll down) | Argues against forced prayer in schools
  • Case Against Government-Sponsored Prayer (Off Site) | The conservative argument for school prayer is based on flat distortions of the truth and a deaf ear to the Constitution, as this article shows (from Separation of Church and State Home Page)
  • Case Against School Prayer (Off Site) | A brochure produced by the Freedom From Religion Foundation on why forced prayer in public schools is a bad idea
  • Index of Separation of Church and State articles on this site
  • What's Wrong With a Few Harmless Prayers in Courtrooms or Classrooms? By Ronald J. Barrier (1997) (Off Site)
• General Education and Religion Issues
• • In God We Trust in Public Schools: Talking Points (Off Site)
  • One Nation "Under God": Questions and Answers (Off Site)
  • People for the American Way: Education Issues (Off Site) | A collection of articles about the religious right's assault on public schools, including vouchers and tuition tax credit programs
  • Religion in Schools (Off Site) | Press releases from the ACLU
  • Religion, Public Schools, and Gray Areas By Wendy Kaminer (2001) (Off Site)
  • School Board Elections: Countering the Fundamentalists By Frank Prahl (Off Site) | Tips on how to fight local fundamentalists who try to take over school boards
  • Separation of Guru and State? Influence of the New Age Movement on Public Education by Frank Beckwith (Off Site) | Discusses the growing influence of Eastern and New Age religions in the public schools. Although Beckwith is a Christian, this article will be of interest to nontheistic parents who oppose Eastern and New Age superstitions as well as their Western counterparts.
  • Should You Pay Taxes to Support Parochial Schools? (Off Site) | Argues against the use of tax dollars for parochial schools

Boy Scouts Of America

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• Boy Scouts Of America Practices Discrimination By Annie Laurie Gaylor (1994, 2000) (Off Site) | The Boy Scouts of America has earned a merit badge for hypocrisy by discriminating against atheist children.
• How Your Tax Dollars Support the Boy Scouts of America by Larry Taylor (Off Site) | Rebuts the BSA's assertion that it is a private, non-tax-funded organization, and may therefore legally discriminate against atheist children.