"Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache: do be my enemy for friendship's sake." - William Blake
I'm not the smartest person in the world. I may not even be the smartest person in my living room right now, because the cat walked in and one of the AngryWhiteMen from MSNBC just came on. I'm certainly not the smartest person on this webpage. There's Randi -- he's so wicked smart that his nickname is actually "The Amazing." How many games of Trivial Pursuit do you have to win before you get that moniker slapped on you? JREF President Phil Plait is an actual astronomer with an actual degree in nuclear telescopes or something. All I have going for me is several years of drinking away a scholarship.
But even I, just by reading books and arguing with the neighborhood kids about moral relativism, know that saying a thing does not make it so.
James Randi talks about one of the most influential scientists of all time; Carl Sagan. Randi and Sagan were well acquainted, and Sagan once said of Randi: "We may not always agree with Randi, but we ignore him at our peril." Watch this video to see what Randi has to say about Sagan.
The Apocalypse has arrived for the second year in a row. In God's corner is a swarm of angry churches led by a group called the Alliance Defense Fund. In Satan's corner is, of course, the Internal Revenue Service. September 27, 2009 was "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" and it has caused churches across the nation risk their tax exempt status by making political statements and even explicitly endorse political candidates in open violation of tax law.
The Alliance Defense Fund is a legal organization unafraid of controversy, so their civil disobedience is hardly surprising. Its list of founders includes people like James Dobson (Focus on the Family) and Bill Bright, winner of the infamous $1.1 million Templeton Prize. On their website they tell prospective employees that they must "be ready, willing, and able to participate in public and private prayer" both "during working and non-working hours."
The Alliance Defense Fund is arguing that churches in America are being persecuted. They believe (without good legal precedent) that the IRS restrictions on churches amount to an unconstitutional limitation on their freedom of speech and need to be repealed. In response, they've organized a movement called the "Pulpit Freedom Initiative" and enlisted 83 churches in 30 states to help them in their cause. The initiative encourages pastors of all denominations to give political sermons from their pulpit as a form of civil disobedience. The ultimate goal is the provocation of a test case. If the IRS decides to drop the hammer on a rebelling church, the ADF will swoop in and attempt to take it all the way to the Supreme Court in hopes of getting the laws overturned on a national scale. Does the ADF have realistic chance? Do their claims hold water? The short answer is "no." The long answer requires a crash course in tax law.
We are sad to announce that A B Kovacs, our Director of Operations, is leaving the JREF. During her tenure with us she has worked tirelessly and with devotion to further the cause of the JREF, but sometimes outside events intervene.
A B was and will remain a great friend to the JREF and to the skeptical movement. She prepared a short statement for our community:
For the past 7 months, I have truly enjoyed my time as the Director of Operations for the JREF. I especially liked TAM7 planning with the team and getting to know some of you much better. Some of you may know that to take on the role of Director of Operations, I became a partner in a fledgling business called Audacity Events. This enabled me to work with the JREF and still meet the needs of my family. Unexpectedly, Audacity Events has taken off and for the past few months, I have been torn between my role at the JREF and my role as a business owner. If time were not an issue, and it became possible for me to work 3 full time jobs, I would be able to maintain the level of commitment to the JREF that the skeptic community deserves. However, time is an issue, and I find that my non-JREF responsibilities are taking up more time than I anticipated.
As a skeptic, the JREF has been and will continue to be very important to me. However, as a business owner, my life is going in a slightly different direction. After much discussion with Phil, we have mutually decided that it is best for both the JREF and for me that I focus on Audacity. I will continue as both a member of the JREF community and a fan of the organization. I do hope that I will see you all both here on the Forum and over at Skepchick.org!
While we're unhappy to see her go, we hope for the best for her, and will always look forward to seeing her at skeptical events in the future.
This week, Randi reflects on some of the "amazing" things he's seen during his life. Inspired by the memory of his dear friend Jerry Andrus, Randi appreciates the wonders of science, history, and culture that he's experienced all around the world.
Learn where Randi has star gazed, whose corvette he spent time in, and who he expected to see during hurricane Wilma.
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