Americans United for Separation of Church and State

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Americans United for Separation of Church and State ( Americans United or AU ) is an American organization that campaigns for the separation of church and state in the USA . This principle is called for in the so-called Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution .

organization

Americans United is independent and non-partisan. Its headquarters are in Washington, DC. The organization has religious and non-religious members from different parties. The current Executive Director is Barry W. Lynn , United Church of Christ priest and civil rights attorney.

history

Americans United for Separation of Church and State was founded in 1947 as Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State (POAU). The occasion was a legislative proposal by Congress , which had as content to increase state funds for religious schools.

The organization wanted to influence politics and published Church & State magazine and other materials to raise awareness for its cause.

In its early years, the organization focused on opposition to the Catholic Church and was described by critics as "anti-Catholic".

In 1960, Executive Director Glenn L. Archer began a dialogue with presidential candidate John F. Kennedy .

1962 and 1963 who met Supreme Court of the United States his decision Abington School District v. Schempp , a decision banning government-sponsored school prayers and Bible readings in public schools. In the public discussion, the AU defended the decision against attempts to reintroduce school prayer.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, the Christian right in the US, including Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, began attacking secularism . AU stood in opposition to these attempts and achieved a number of successes.

In the 1990s, Pat Robertson formed the Christian Coalition of America . This organization advocated an end to state education and a “Christianization” of politics. AU fought against this project.

AU participated in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District , which was a major blow to the attempt to teach pseudoscientific Intelligent Design theory in public schools as an alternative to evolutionary biology.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from November 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.au.org
  2. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated June 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / diglib.princeton.edu
  3. ↑ OCLC 752009655 ; ISSN  0009-6334
  4. ↑ https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799797,00.html

Web links