Originally published Friday, February 23, 2007 at 12:00 AM
Atheist organization rises quickly out of obscurity
Annie Laurie Gaylor speaks with a soft voice, but her message catches attention: Keep God out of government. Gaylor has helped take the...
The Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. — Annie Laurie Gaylor speaks with a soft voice, but her message catches attention: Keep God out of government.
Gaylor has helped take the Freedom From Religion Foundation from obscurity into the nation's largest group of atheists and agnostics, with a fast-rising membership and increasing legal clout.
Next week, the group started by Gaylor and her mother in the 1970s to take on the religious right will fight its highest-profile battle when the Supreme Court hears arguments on its lawsuit against President Bush's faith-based initiative.
The court will decide whether taxpayers can sue over federal funding that the foundation believes promotes religion. It could be a major ruling for groups that fight to keep church and state separate.
"What's at stake is the right to challenge the establishment of religion by the government," said Gaylor, 51.
Among its victories, the group has stopped funding for a Milwaukee charity that Bush visited during the 2000 campaign and an Arizona group that preached to children of prisoners.
The case in front of the high court says White House conferences to promote the faith-based initiative turn into unconstitutional pep rallies for religion. The initiative helps religious organizations get government funding to provide social services.
George Washington University law professor Ira Lupu called the Madison-based foundation "by far the most aggressive litigating entity against the faith-based initiative."
Critics say the group imposes such an extreme view of the First Amendment that religious groups can't receive tax dollars even for laudable purposes.
"They are successful in the sense that they have disrupted government funding for faith-based initiatives," said Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund, which defends religion in the public arena. "But real people with real problems are no longer getting help because of some of their lawsuits."
The group has grown as its legal challenges mount. It claims 8,500 members in 50 states. Members consider themselves freethinkers who form opinions based on reason, not faith.
![]()
Gaylor and her husband, Dan Barker, a former fundamentalist minister who turned against religion, are co-presidents. Her mother, Anne Nicol Gaylor, founded the group in 1978 to counter religious influence in government after clashing with religious leaders over abortion.
Its leaders say the surge in membership reflects a U.S. population that is becoming less religious and growing liberal alarm since Bush's re-election.
"There was a feeling that there was almost a near religious-right takeover of our government and that we better speak up now," Gaylor said.
The American Religious Identification Survey in 2001 estimated that 29 million Americans had no religion, double the number from 1990. The survey, which was conducted by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, estimated that 1.9 million identified themselves as atheist or agnostic.
Copyright © The Seattle Times Company
UPDATE - 01:13 PM
DC sniper's Muhammad's execution set for tonight
UPDATE - 01:10 PM
DOD worker assessed Fort Hood suspect months ago
UPDATE - 01:25 PM
Obama salutes Fort Hood victims, condemns murders
White House: Obama eyeing host of Afghan choices
UPDATE - 01:10 PM
North, South Korea clash at sea before Obama visit

Ken Auletta talks about "Googled"
Ken Auletta talks about Google with Brier Dudley at the Seattle Central Library.
nwjobs

Post a comment

Michelle Goodman blogs about work/life balance.
How to tell your office you're gravely ill
Post a comment
nwautos

Choosing a new sedan? Weigh the impact of your choice on your wallet and on the planet.
Post a comment
- 'Missing' SeaTac man found with new name, in new state
- Police: DNA from officer's slaying matches suspect
- Lt. governor's son shot by co-worker in Kent; gunman then shot self
- DNA, ballistics tie man to cop killing, police say
- McGinn next Seattle mayor; Mallahan concedes as vote gap widens
- Prosecutors consider charges against suspect in police shooting
- Three more fires ignite in Greenwood
- Steve Kelley | Hasselbeck gives Seahawks' sagging season a stay of execution
- Trucker dies as big-rig plummets off SF bridge
- Plans call for Triangle to become West Seattle gateway
- House health bill unacceptable to many in Senate
263 - Prosecutors prepare charges against suspect in police shooting
262 - Pelosi tours Seattle's Swedish after health-care vote
207 - McGinn more than doubles his lead over Mallahan
188 - King County OKs 'don't ask' law on immigration
181 - Resolute Fort Hood soldiers ready for return
130 - Time to bring Ken Griffey Jr. back in 2010
95 - 'Missing' SeaTac man found with new name, in new state
88 - Josh Smith picks UCLA
85 - DNA, ballistics tie man to cop killing, police say
74
- For 80-year-old Maple Valley man, hoops aren't just a dream
- Plans call for Triangle to become West Seattle gateway
- Three more fires ignite in Greenwood
- 'Missing' SeaTac man found with new name, in new state
- Silver Lake restaurant destroyed by fire
- Pakistani-American cafe, bar owner on verge of being Granite Falls mayor
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tours Seattle's Swedish after health-care vote
- All You Can Eat | Fruit flies: thrill to the kill
- McGinn next Seattle mayor; Mallahan concedes as vote gap widens
- Rainier Pacific Financial calls rescue 'unlikely'








