An op-ed by Ellen P. Aprill about why the Johnson Amendment is so important was published in the New York Times on December 10. The Washington Post reported on December 11 that the repeal no longer appears in the GOP tax “reform” draft proposal. Thanks to all of you who contacted legislators about this important matter.
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her and Donnybrook founder Ray Hartman spoke at our annual picnic on October 15. This was the second time that Ray has joined us for our picnic. We have also had Bill McClellan, from Donnybrook, as our speaker. The weather was cloudy and threatening in the morning, but the afternoon was bright and pleasant. We ended up with a good crowd, as you can see from the photos on our Facebook page.
For 25 of its 70 year history, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution’s religious liberty provisions.There will be a gala celebration for Barry in Washington on November 2, but our Chapter had its own dinner and lecture by Barry himself on October 1.
$50 pp, included buffet dinner, wine and beer.
This is the first time we collected money through our MeetUp
This is the case of Liberty Lutheran School, in Columbia, Missouri, that asked for Missouri government support for their playground upgrade. The AU comment on this is at: http://au.org/media/press-releases/americans-united-dismayed-by-us-supreme-court-s-decision-in-trinity-lutheran.
We had planned to have State Representative Stacey Newman, who represents the 87th district
give us an update on happenings in the legislature, but her work in Jefferson City kept her there. However, we were very pleased and fortunate to have Anti-defamation League Regional Director Karen Aroesty provide a broader view of the law with respect to religious freedom. The meeting was at 7:00 pm on April 20 at The Center of Clayton, 50 Gay Avenue in Clayton. Light refreshments were served, and over twenty members attended. This was also our official Annual Meeting, and four current board members were re-elected.
Rev. Lynn has provided outstanding leadership to AU for 25 years. He has visited our Chapter many times, and will be missed. The announcement of his retirement at the end of 2017 is on the AU national website.
Trinity Lutheran Church in Columbia would like to get public funding to improve their
preschool playground. After their application to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources was denied, they sued in federal court, claiming that they had been discriminated against. They lost in that trial but appealed to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which also ruled against them. In January 2016, the Supreme Court agreed to hear their case, and it has now been scheduled for arguments on April 19. The details of the case are described in Church and State: http://au.org/media/press-releases/mo-church-has-no-right-to-taxpayer-funds-americans-united-and-allies-tell-us. The most recent development is that Missouri Attorney General Hawley has appointed James Layton, who served under previous Attorney General Koster to defend Missouri’s Blaine Amendment.
We had another successful Movie Night on February 16 at The Ethical Society. The video was the award-winning documentary, “The Revisionaries”, by Scott Thurman. It is the story of the Texas State Board of Education’ decisions on curricula, that determine the content of textbooks throughout the country for years at a time. The 2010 round of decisions was dominated by the religious right. This video tells the complicated story of the “standards” decision and how the two sides battled over the contents of American education. The Ethical Society was again our host for the evening, and we enjoyed the much-improved sound system for the video setup that we have donated to the Society.
This event could not have been more topical. A story about the 2017 battle over evolution in Texas textbooks appeared in the Post-Dispatch for February 1, 2017.