OFS Demonolatry & OFSSFM Support Freedom of Religion and the Seperation of Church & State

OFS Demonolatry and the OFSSFM support the rights of ALL individuals to practice their religions peaceably and within the law. This includes ANY faith. For if we expect others to respect our right to practice our religion, we have to lead by example and respect others' rights to do the same.

As people who practice minority religions - Daemonolators, Theistic Satanists, and Darker Poly/Pantheists should get involved and support organizations and groups that are working to keep Church and State seperate so that we can continue to have the right to practice our religions. For those of you who believe there should be a seperation of Church and State, and who believe individuals should have the right to believe and practice their religion peaceably as they wish (within the law, of course) - get involved today. We can do something to ensure we don't have to go underground again. Please set aside a few hours to go over this page, visit the links, and to read through the various sites.

Organizations & Groups

The following groups and organizations are working to keep the seperation of Church and State. Many have local chapters you and/or your organizations can join, or you can simply donate to the cause as you wish. All of these sites have wonderful up-to-date information on political decisions and happenings affecting our religious freedoms.

ACLU -The ACLU fights for our first ammendment rights, including Freedom of Religion.

Americans for Religious Liberty - An organization that supports seperation of church and state.

American's United for Seperation of Church & State - Another organization that supports seperation of church and state.

First Freedom First - An organization working to protect freedom of religion. Sign their online petition while you're there.

Interfaith Alliance - Support your local group by becoming a member.

Theocracy Watch - Visit this site, a public information project of the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy at Cornell University, to learn about the theocratic right and why freedom of religion has become such a concern in the United States.

Universal Life Church - has been an avid supporter of religious freedoms for years and does good work through their interfaith discussion groups. They also help those with personal beliefs or minority religions by providing legal ordainment for clergy of all paths so those clergy can perform marriages and handfasting rituals recognized by numerous local and State governments provided all local laws are followed.

What You Can Do

Educate yourself about politics, political issues affecting those of alternative and minority faiths, and political candidates. See links below, provided to help you educate yourself on these issues.
Get involved with local groups that support Freedom of Religion and Seperation of Church and State. See links above and in this section.
Vote for candidates that support Freedom of Religion and who do not support the agenda of the religious right or interests benefitting any one religious group (especially extremist groups). If you're not registered to vote - you can register to vote through Rock the Vote, an organization dedicated to educating young people about politics and encouraging them to vote, or Go Vote.

Vote Smart! Educate yourself before you vote by checking out political candidates and their voting records before you vote for them!

For Clergy - Sign on to the Letter to not allow our tax dollars pay for religious discrimination!
http://www.stopreligiousdiscrimination.com/index.php

Religious Freedom FAQ

Why should I be concerned?

I don't know about you, but in the past six years I've gotten more extremist Christian group mail and flyers than I have in the ten years prior to that. I've been witnessed to more in the past six years than in my entire life. There are groups out there who really do believe we are a Christian nation and literally believe that they should not allow "witches and sorcerers" or "those people in league with Satan" to live. Paranoid? Maybe. But consider this - many of the extremist Christian groups preaching this, believing this, and bringing up their children to be the next generation of Christian soldiers, are the same people to whom the current administration is pandering to. I am not over-exagerating when I say that the extremist Christian right wants to control women's bodies in their attempt to reverse Roe vs. Wade, and teach abstinance education. It is no lie that they want to bring Christianity (their particular brand of extremist Christianity) into our public school systems, and use tax payer dollars to do it. Their agenda includes their want for people in public office whether politicians or judges to use Christian doctrine - and the ten commandments - to dictate governmental and judicial decision making. While the ten commandments may seem harmless, consider the first one: "Thou shall not have any other gods before Me." This commandment in and of itself excludes ANY religion whose God is not considered the same God of the people in charge. If you really care about your religious beliefs and your right to practice those beliefs you can't be apathetic. You have to be pro-active and stand up for the rights you have.

Also consider that I've known Pagans, Satanists, and Demonolators who have had their religion used against them in the workplace, during child custody battles, and in divorce proceedings. This is not right. I don't expect you to believe what I've written here. Check it out for yourself by doing some research. Read articles from both sides. Learn the facts - then decide what you believe.

I'm only one person, what do you expect me to do?

Care enough to vote and vote smart, educate yourself, educate others, respect others' rights to believe in and practice their own religions and lead by example (you can't expect others to respect your rights to believe and practice your religion if you don't respect their rights to do the same), and get involved by supporting groups that support your right to believe and worship your belief system peaceably. The reason the religious right has so much power here in the United States is because the extremist Christians DO care enough to get involved and vote. Their priests, ministers, and pastors rally them together and send them to the polls. This puts candidates who agree with them in positions of power, which means it gives them them leverage when they want the government to pass laws in their favor. This means the rest of us are poorly represented and could have certain freedoms taken from us because we didn't bother to care enough. Those of us who want to preserve religious freedom for everyone (whether you're a Satanist, Demonolator, Pagan, Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, or whatever you label yourself) need to do the exact same thing!

I'm not old enough to vote yet...

Just remember that the votes cast today have a tremendous effect on your future. You can start by educating yourself now so that when you are able to vote you can make educated voting choices that could help protect your interests as a person who practices a minority or other-than-Christian religion. You can also help to educate others by sharing information. The sites above contain a lot of information.

I don't care about anyone but myself. This doesn't affect me. I'll just pretend to be a fundie if they ever take over.

Apathy won't make the problem disappear. If you're not part of the solution, you're likely part of the problem. If you've ever been vocal about your belief system, consider losing that. Consider the rights of your loved-ones and friends. Are you sure you don't have a loved one or good friend who practices a minority religion who does stand to lose something sacred to them? If they knew you refused to stand up for their rights because you were apathetic, how would they feel? How would you feel knowing you could have at least tried to do something? In the very least you could care enough to exercise your right to vote. Also consider that when we lose one right, the rest could very well follow. Are there any other rights you'd want to lose? If you live in the U.S. and interact with other people in society on a daily basis - this does have an effect on you.

I live in another country, but I believe in freedom of religion. What can I do?

Respect others' rights to practice their religion (even if you don't agree with their beliefs). Join interfaith groups in your own country and international groups over the internet. Educate others about freedom of religion and its importance to the many religions and cultures the world over. If you have freedom of religion - embrace it and fiercly protect it. If you don't live in a country where you have freedom of religion, well - I'm not sure what you can do except maybe offer us pointers if we lose ours.

So does this mean we have to support the rights of violent religions or religions whose practices include killing people? Like terrorists or crazy people who do illegal and bad things (like rape, murder, etc...) in the name of religion?

Religious freedom simply means you have the right to believe as you wish and practice your religion peaceably within the law of where you live. Freedom of religion does not mean supporting criminals. Besides, most religions, in and of themselves, are not violent. It's individuals and extremist groups and their interpretation of a religion that can cause violence in the name of religion. There are nut cases, zealots, and militants in every religion. We can't let the few be the basis for our judgement of an entire religion. After all, the majority of Demonolators, Satanists, and darker poly/pantheists are good, law abiding people - but have gotten a bad rap by default due to criminals like Charles Manson, lies started by other religions, stereotypes, Hollywood films, and some really fantastic medieval literature. So in our support of religious freedom it doesn't mean we're supporting or condoning criminal behavior in ANY religion. It simply means that you respect your neighbor's right to be Christian and go to church on Sunday, just as he should respect your right to be a Demonolator/Satanist and worship your deity/deities wherever you worship him/her/them.

It means that no one has the right to force their religion on you by forcing you to pray to their deity or to follow the tenants of their religion.

In closing, I leave you with this:

Everyone thought someone else was doing something about it. But what everyone didn't know was that no one was doing anything because they all thought somebody else was handling it. That someone never came along and nothing was done and everyone suffered. The moral of the story is: if everyone had done something, 'it' would have been handled, and no one would have suffered.

Throughout human history, every time we allow one religious extremist group take control of a government - a lot of people die needlessly in the name of that religion. Obviously history has taught us nothing, or we're so ignorant of our history, or too many people think, "That won't happen here", or maybe we've taken our freedom for granted because we are so far removed from places like the middle east wherein some countries the penalty for belonging to a minority religion is death. Let's not let it happen in this country.

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