Secular Singers at Christmas

We, the Secular Singers, had a good time singing at the HAT meeting last Sunday, although I wish I could have done a little better playing the keyboard.

Now we are focusing upon the Christmas, or Winter Soltice, concert, which will be held on December 18 at Randy Bradley's house. Our next rehearsal will be at 10am on Saturday, November12.

Final preparations for concert

The Secular Singers met for a two and a half hour practice session this afternoon at my house. We tweeked the program a bit and made a slight modification in the order of the songs we will be singing. Here it is:

The Battle of Church and State
I Don't Need Jesus
Joe Hill
The Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues
No Masters and No Gods for Me
The Ballad of Judge Roy Moore
Draft Dodger Rag
This Land is Your Land
Hard Traveling
Oklahoma Hills
Just Say 'No' to Religion
What a Wonderful World

Secular Singers to Sing this Sunday

The vocal ensemble The Secular Singers will give a free concert at the HAT meeting this Sunday at the Hardesty Library, starting shortly after 1:00 PM. Members of the Secular Singers come from HAT and include Bea McCartney, Randy Bradley, Julia Topi, Gail Storey, and Dan Nerren. Included in the concert will be the well-known songs (at least well-known among freethinkers) "Just Say No to Religion," and "I Don't Need Jesus."

Jimmy Carter on Fundamentalism

I would describe fundamentalism as, first of all, a movement led almost invariably by authoritarian males who consider themselves to be superior to others and who have an overwhelming commitment to subjugate women and to dominate their fellow believers.

Second, fundamentalists draw clear distinctions between themselves, the true believers, and others. They are convinced that they are right and that anyone who contradicts them is inferior and beyond the purview of God's full blessing.

Third, fundamentalists are militant in fighting against any challenge to their beliefs, are often angry and sometimes resort to verbal or even physical abuse against those who oppose the implementation of their agenda. Finally, they tend to make their self-definition narrow, to isolate themselves, to demagogue social and emotional issues and to view change, cooperation, negotiation or other efforts to resolve differences as signs of weakness."

The following letter appeared in the Tulsa World on Sunday, October 2, 2005. Randy is currently vice-president of the Humanist Association of Tulsa.

Judge rules correctly

Judge Lawrence Karlton's ruling is correct. The phrase "Under God" violates school children's right to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God." I would prefer that Oklahoma officials support the U.S. Constitution rather than gloat that the majority has the power to force its superstition on the rational.

A persistent misrepresentation made by the religious in America is that our Founding Fathers desired to make America religious. This is not true. They argued vehemently against the governments providing support to religion. Of our first six presidents, none attended an established church. During the term of our second president, the U.S. Senate agreed unanimously, in the Treaty of Tripoli, that the United States was in fact not a Christian nation.

Language cannot be more plain than that used by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William Short:
"I have examined all the known superstitions of the world and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth."

Randy Bradley, Tulsa