Church/State Issues According to Americans United
By Kerry Messer

   The final presentation of the 47th National Conference of Americans
United for Separation of Church and State was a workshop entitled
"Building Coalitions and Grassroots Organizing: Nuts and Bolts," led by
AU staff member Bunnie Riedel. Ms. Riedel is the Director of Chapters
and Faith Groups for AU. She is also a former organizer and "Founding
Director" for the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights of Southern
California.

   In this workshop, Ms. Riedel began by stating:

   "The first thing you need to do [before organizing] is identify
   what the main issues are in your community. So, what I'm going to
   do is have you start identifying them. What's the main problems as
   far as church/state separation goes in your community"?

   The following is the list of "church/state issues" in the order
listed by Ms. Riedel. Each of the issues listed are areas where AU
disagrees with the Religious Right. Note the overwhelming emphasis of
AU's church/state concerns in regard to public education.
 
 1. Opposition to "sex education," including "condom distribution" in
    the public schools.

 2. "Censorship": "Whether it's library censorship, or curriculum
    censorship, or school censorship or whatever."

 3. Opposition to "promoting homosexuality" and "homosexual issues."

 4. Opposition to the promotion of "Multi-Culturalism" in the public
    schools.

 5. "Student-led, student-initiated prayer."

 6. Opposition to "OBE" (Outcome Based Education) curriculum.

 7. "Holiday observances" in public schools.

 8. "Mandatory school prayer": Ms. Riedel commented: "When they don't
    get mandatory prayer they go for student-led, student-initiated
    [prayer]."

 9. "Tax aid and vouchers" for choice in education.

10. Opposition to "reproductive rights."

11. The teaching of "creationism" in the public schools.

   Upon the conclusion of their list of issues, Ms. Riedel again stated:
"Before you begin to organize you have got to first identify the
issues..._and we've just done that_."

   These are the issues that AU considers to be a threat to religious
liberty and church/state separation. Ms. Riedel's list reveals quite
clearly AU's twisted concept of "religious liberty" and exposes beyond a
doubt their liberal agenda for American public education.

From: St. Louis MetroVoice, May 1995, Vol. 5, No. 5.

