Event Announcement: Feb. 23, US Supreme Court

The US Supreme Court and Separation of Church & State

Presenting: UMKC Constitutional Law Prof. Doug Linder

Wednesday, Feb. 23

7pm-8:30pm

University of Missouri,
Kansas City
Law School

Stoup Courtroom, lower level of law school

One hour program, followed by a short question and answer session.

Location and Parking: UMKC School of Law is located at the corner of 52nd and Oak Streets, at 500 E. 52nd St, Kansas City, MO. The Stoup Courtroom is on the lower level. The visitor parking lot is located on the west side of Oak St. directly across from Administrative Center for $1 per hour. For maps and directions, please see: http://www.law.umkc.edu/map.htm

For more information: http://www.aukc.org, info@aukc.org

Army Faces Questions over Spiritual Fitness Test

Army Faces Questions over Spiritual Fitness Test

If soldiers received a low score on their spiritual fitness questions, they received an assessment that said “Spiritual fitness is an area of possible difficulty for you. ... Improving your spiritual fitness should be an important goal.”

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE. HELLO? CAN WE SAY, "WHAT?"
http://www.ethicsdaily.com/army-faces-questions-over-spiritual-fitness-test-cms-17264

Cole -having fun- Morgan

Thanks to Cole Morgan for passing this along. It is not the government's job to decide who is "spiritually fit" or even to make the value judgment that spiritual fitness is a desirable goal. American soldiers have diverse views on the subject of spirituality and this diversity does not in any way negatively impact their bravery or their service to this country.

Anti-evolution bill introduced in MO

Missouri has introduced anti-evolution legislation, House Bill 195. It is a typical "equal time" bill calling chemical and biological evolution "controversial," even though there's no controversy among biologists or chemists that evolution happens. There are a number of problems with equal time bills, such as:

1- There's only so much time in the school day and science classes need to be devoted to science. Creationism (including Intelligent Design) is not science.

2- In order to understand science, students must understand what is science and what is something else masquerading as science (pseudoscience).

3- Not all ideas are equally valid. Teaching real science alongside nonsense because politicians are pushing a religious agenda will only confuse students.

More information:

Text of the bill here:
http://www.house.mo.gov/billtracking/bills111/biltxt/intro/HB0195I.htm

And here's a post on it from the National Center for Science Education:
http://ncse.com/news/2011/01/antievolution-legislation-missouri-006421

Lawyer Jailed For Not Saying Pledge Of Allegiance

When a Mississippi judge ordered everyone in court to stand for the pledge of allegiance, Danny Lampley stood to his feet silently and would not say the pledge. The judge jailed him for contempt of court, and he was released a few hours later.

More here: http://www.scpr.org/news/2010/10/07/lawyer-jailed-for-not-saying-pledge-of-allegiance/