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Plenty of Christmas Trees at State House, and Creches


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State House Holiday Tree

The Governor has banned Christmas from the State House! Except, of course, he hasn’t.

There is hardly a building in Rhode Island more decorated for the coming Christmas season than the RI State House.

Sure, the tree at the center of the State House rotunda (and also at the center of the fake controversy being promulgated by the likes of John DePetro, Doreen Costa, Bishop Tobin and Fox News) has been designated a “Holiday Tree” in deference to the wide range of religious and non-religious beliefs held by the citizens of our state, but there are almost two dozen other trees scattered around the State House, all but one of which are clearly intended to be, if not outright identified as, Christmas Trees.

An Atheist Tree?


But for those who might feel that Christmas Trees just aren’t Christmas-y enough, that they don’t really get into the anti-Grinch-like meaning of the holiday, which is after all about the baby Jesus, well you are in luck. There are plenty of manger scenes scattered about as well.


For years now the second floor of the State House has been the location of Guatemalan, Puerto Rican, German, Irish and Chilean Christmas trees positioned next to tables that display the cultural heritage of these groups. These Christmas trees are often loaded with religious symbols, and the tables more likely than not contain nativity scenes centered around the birth of Jesus.

Perhaps DePetro forgoes mentioning these displays because they celebrate Rhode Island’s proud immigrant cultures, and we all know that DePetro has little patience for immigrants and immigrant rights.

There is one other decorated evergreen in the State House, located in the formal State Room, next to a delicious smelling gingerbread house in front of which a Santa Claus figure has landed his sleigh. You won’t hear a peep from the Governor’s critics on this tree, even though it is “clearly a Christmas tree” to borrow their common phrasing, “and should be called a Christmas Tree.”

Heroes Tree

This is the Heroes Tree, erected and decorated to honor military families. And it is a Heroes Tree, not a Christmas tree, because Christians are not the only American heroes. This tree is not placed in such a special spot because we are interested in only honoring those military families that happen to be Christian and celebrate Christmas. This tree is meant to honor the military families that might identify as Christian but don’t celebrate Christmas, as well as non-Christian military families including, but not limited to Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Humanists, Pagans, Atheists, and any other belief system you can imagine.

As a symbol to honor military families, the Heroes Tree is imperfect. Decorated evergreens are far too commingled with the Christian celebration of Christmas to ever be considered truly inclusive symbols. The brouhaha over the Governor’s decision is ample proof of this. Non-Christians may rightly feel that the symbol does not truly represent their beliefs. Founding father John Adams said, “The United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion” and we would do well to remember that when we cavalierly assert Christian privilege at this time of the year.

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Bishop Tobin and His ‘Wizard of Oz’ Logic

The Wizard of Oz revealed

John DePetro has long referred to Governor Lincoln Chafee by the insulting and disrespectful name of “Governor Gump.” DePetro has taken the name “Gump” from the 1994 Tom Hanks movie Forrest Gump, the implication being that Chafee is in some way as mentally handicapped as the titular character.

But there is an older use of the word, dating back to L. Frank Baum’s 1904 sequel to his children’s book The Wizard of Oz entitled The Marvelous Land of Oz. In this book a gump is a magnificent elk-like creature common throughout Oz.

This thought occurred to me as I listened Friday morning to Providence Diocese’s Bishop Thomas Tobin on the John DePetro Show. Speaking about the made up controversy regarding the Holiday Tree/Christmas Tree, Tobin compared Governor Chafee to the Wizard from the 1939 The Wizard of Oz movie:

In many ways the Governor is like the Wizard of Oz, the man behind the curtain in the movie. The Wizard of Oz who creates an illusion, who creates a fantasy land he thinks everyone else lives in, but in fact it’s a different world.

Who would have thought that the radio shock jock and the Catholic bishop would be so enamored of old children’s books? Putting aside DePetro’s comparison, which is infantile and unworthy of serious consideration, let’s take a closer look at Tobin’s literary metaphor.

When we think of the Wizard, in either the original novel or in the movie, we think of a man who claims to have magic powers. This man deceives the gullible and the ignorant, and uses deception to ensure his own political, temporal and secular power. We all know the famous line, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” But the Wizard, when exposed as a fraud and confronted with his lies, ultimately confesses that he is, after all, just a “humbug.”

I bet you see where I am going with this. Just as a comparison to the mentally handicapped Forrest Gump is better suited to John DePetro than to DePetro’s intended target, so is the comparison of the Wizard of Oz much more suited to Bishop Tobin than to Governor Chafee.

Tobin is, after all, a man who makes outrageous, unverifiable claims about reality. He claims to have the power to bless people and things. He claims the magical power of being able to transform wine into blood and bread into flesh. He tells the gullible and the ignorant magical stories about himself and others. Unlike Governor Chafee, it is Tobin who lives in an illusory fantasy land. Tobin’s title, “Bishop,” possesses the same sense of medieval gravitas as the word “Wizard,” though I’m sure your average peasant feared the politically and religiously ruthless Bishops more than they did the spells of faraway and mostly mythical Wizards.

In L. Frank Baum’s original novel, the Wizard forces the inhabitants of the Emerald City to wear green tinted glasses in order to fool them into thinking the city is made from precious gems. We have an idiom about the folly of seeing the world through “rose-colored glasses” rather than as it truly is. But whether the lenses are tinted green, rose or Catholic, one’s perception of reality is “colored” and our relationship with the world becomes warped and perhaps even dangerous.

The difference between Bishop Tobin and the Wizard of Oz is simply that the Wizard knows better than to believe his own hype. The Wizard knows that he is deceiving people and when confronted with reality the Wizard is man enough to admit his wrongdoings and to try and make amends. Of course, The Wizard of Oz is a book for children, and the novel’s reality is simple and justice is almost always ensured. Here in the real world things are more complex. Liars and mendicants, even when revealed, either double down on their claims or move onto the next gullible victims.

Here in the real world, justice and happy endings are rare.

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Fact Checking DePetro


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John DePetro is spreading holiday lies again this year.

Yesterday he falsely claimed a “flash mob” he organized last year did not interrupt the Children’s Choir when they began singing “O’ Christmas Tree” to drown out the kids who were singing “Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas.”

Video, taken at the scene, proves otherwise.

Also keep in mind that DePetro is accused of propositioning a co-worker who later sued him for sexual harassment on the way to this rally to defend Christmas.

DePetro also maintains that Gov. Carcieri always maintained it to be a Christmas Tree, which is another distortion of reality. Politifact covered this already. DePetro, even after the Poltifact story, went on Fox News and repeated the falsehood. This morning, the Providence Journal even runs a picture of a holiday ornament Carcieri had made that does not use the word Christmas.

It’s okay for WPRO to broadcast his unpopular and often disturbing opinions if they feel that is in the best interest of their business. It is not okay for the federally-licensed radio station to sanction obvious lies over the public airwaves.

Meanwhile, his national counterpart Bill O’Reilly is now on the holiday tree beat too. Last night, he too was misrepresenting the situation in Rhode Island.

What’s happening here is we have a governor who is trying to be inclusive, and DePetro and O’Reilly don’t like that.

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Athiest ‘Found Common Ground with Religion’

Author Chris Stedman will speak at Bryant University at 7PM on Wednesday, November 28. Copies of his book, “Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious” will be available for sale, with proceeds going to benefit Habitat for Humanity of Rhode Island-Greater Providence. The event, co-sponsored by Humanists of Rhode Island  will be held in the Bryant Interfaith Center. The public is cordially invited to attend.

Having endured intolerance as a gay Christian and then as an atheist interfaith activist, Stedman now argues for respectful dialogue between atheists and believers and cooperation in social action between secular and interfaith communities. He is the Assistant Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University, Values in Action Coordinator at the Humanist Community at Harvard and author of “Non-Prophet Status,”  a blog dedicated to atheist-interfaith engagement.

Stedman earned his MA in Religion from the University of Chicago and served on the Leadership Team of the Common Ground Campaign, a response to anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence surrounding the Park51 controversy. He also served as a Content Developer for the Interfaith Youth Corps and now sits on the Board of Directors of the interfaith global development organization World Faith and advises the “Challenge the Gap” charitable initiative of the Foundation Beyond Belief.

The Bryant University campus is located at 1500 Douglas Pike in Smithfield, RI. Campus sponsors include Literary and Cultural Studies, History and Social Sciences, Applied Psychology, the Women’s Center, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Interfaith Center.

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John DePetro, Psychic Readings and Catholicism


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The catechism of the Catholic Church is quite clear on the matter of communicating with the dead. On the official Vatican website under the heading “Divination and Magic” is the clear Church teaching on the matter (emphasis mine):

2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

Essentially, no Catholic in good standing should avail themselves of a medium, or promote the belief in a medium’s powers.

This is what so surprised me about the November 15th episode of the John DePetro Show featuring psychic medium John Edward. Call me naive but despite whatever differences exist between me and DePetro regarding religion and politics I always thought the radio personality was at least being honest when he maintained to me, his listeners and to frequent guest Bishop Tobin of the Providence Diocese that he was a devout Roman Catholic.

It is, after all, DePetro’s Catholicism that informs his attitudes on things like the State House holiday tree, the Cranston West prayer banner and the Woonsocket cross, among other issues. When I was on the DePetro Show to talk about the death threats made against my niece Jessica Ahlquist in the wake of the judge’s decision on the Cranston West prayer banner, DePetro asked me if Jessica was a witch, or a devil worshiper. These were ridiculous questions, and of course I answered that she wasn’t, but when self-proclaimed psychic John Edward was on his show, professing the ability to talk to the dead, DePetro practically bent over backwards to kiss ass, even though the Catholic Church categorizes psychic mediums alongside witches and devil worshipers as a matter of course.

DePetro says that Edward is “one my favorite guests that we have on the program” and wishes him “much continued success.” DePetro eagerly helped Edward sell his books, his website, and his personal appearances and shows. DePetro seemed genuinely entranced by the success of Edward’s website, which sells the concept of communicating with the dead. DePetro also gushed over the fact that Edward has a book on the New York Times bestseller list, and he joined with the callers to the show at being amazed at Edward’s supposed psychic abilities.

John Edward claims to be psychic, but as has been pointed out everywhere from Wikipedia to South Park, nothing he does hints at any sort of real supernatural power. Instead, it all seems to be based on a technique called cold reading “a series of techniques used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, and illusionists to determine or express details about another person, often in order to convince them that the reader knows much more about a subject than they actually do.” On South Park Edward is awarded the title of the biggest douche in the universe, and the episode contains the following bit of dialog between Stan and John Edward.

John Edwards:
But I’m a psychic.

Stan:
No dude, you’re a douche.

John Edwards:
I’m not a douche. What if I really believe dead people talk to me?

Stan:
Then you’re a stupid douche.

On the John DePetro Show in question Edward performed no better and actually quite a bit worse than a stage magician might have using techniques that are not the least bit supernatural in nature. In the following transcript, Edward communicates with Christine:

Edward: Hi Christine.

Christine: Hi how are ya?

Edward: Good. Are you Christine Marie?

Here Edward makes his first psychic guess, and he’s flat out wrong.

Christine: No.

Edward: Who’s the “M” name connected to you Christine?

Christine: Um…I don’t know. (nervous laughter)

Edward: Is it somebody living connected to you with an “M”?

Christine: I’m trying to think… No nothing that I know of…

Getting nowhere, Edward abandons that line of inquiry for a moment.

Edward: Okay. Keep going. What was your question?

Christine: Uh, I was just- my father passed away and I just wanted to know if he was happy and if he was with his dog and my grandmother who passed away who I lived with a long time ago. I always felt that I didn’t do enough for her when I was with her and I’ve always had regrets about that.

Edward: Um, I have to tell you I’m seeing a huge “M” connected to you.

Christine: M? Well, my last name begins with M.

Edward: Oh. So you’re Christine M.

Christine: Yes.

Circling back, Edward suddenly gets a hit. But think back a few seconds ago. Edward asked about an “M” name connected to Christine, who of course was thinking about someone other than herself. When Christine reveals that her last name begins with M, Edward can retroactively claim that this is what he was going for all the time. I should also point out here that Christine is dealing with quite a bit of guilt about the way she treated her grandmother and worry about the fate of her grandfather. Edward seems less interested in comforting Christine than he does in scoring a “hit.”

Edward: Okay. Because they’re telling me to put an M next to you and I’m like I thought that your middle name was with the M. Um, I do believe that your dad is totally with family and our fur pawed friends are definitely family specifically in my frame of reference. And somebody has a heart problem and they passed one, two, three, correct?

This is Edward talking fast, retrofitting information to his guesses, pausing briefly to provide false comfort to a bereaved woman with tales of her father living in the afterlife with a favorite pet, and then jumping to heart disease, the most common way for older males to die.

Christine: Uh, well yeah. Well, my dad kind of passed kind of like unexpectedly but you know through bad circumstances.

Christine does not confirm that her father died of heart disease. Just that he died “through bad circumstances” which sounds like it might be due to accident or crime rather than disease. Either way, Edward does not press the point. He moves off the “dad had a heart attack” idea and onto another deceased relative, or someone close to Christine and her father, who might have died that way.

Edward: Well, here’s what I’m seeing and you know I have a limited amount of time. I know that there’s somebody that’s with your dad, or with you, that passed from a sudden heart attack there was no pre-existing kind of clue  that this was happening

Christine: Mm-hm

Edward: And they’re coming through with your dad and around you. All righty?

Christine: Okay.

And that’s it. Hell of a psychic reading, isn’t it? Christine provided no confirmation about anything Edward said. What did Christine learn from this encounter? That her dad was in heaven with his favorite pet and that he knew someone up there who died of heart disease, the most common way for men to die. Since she offered up the idea that her father might be in heaven with his pet, all Edward did was agree with her. She learned exactly nothing, unless you count the fact that her last name began with the letter “M.”

Here’s the last caller of the morning, Kevin. Every guess Edward made in this encounter was wrong or went nowhere. It is hard to imagine a less impressive display of psychic ability:

Edward: I heard, I saw, in my head, somebody who drove a truck for a living. So, I don’t know if somebody actually worked in the trucking industry or transportation, but I was supposed to talk about someone’s truck or somebody driving in their truck for a living. Did somebody do that?

Kevin: My father was a fireman.

Edward: So he drove the firetruck?

Kevin: He was involved with the truck. Absolutely.

Edward: Is there something that you were doing this week, a lot of times they’ll talk about current affairs or current events around but is there something that you were doing that’s like talking about that talking about his involvement with that talking about, maybe looking at the photos or things of that nature?

Kevin: Uh, not really. I think about him all the time.

Edward: And why am I seeing 1986, 1987, what took place around then in the family?

Kevin: Um…

Edward: It’s got to be after 1985 and before 1989, I’ll tell you why, I started owing this work in 1985 and my mom passed in 1989 and I feel like it’s in between that period of time that I’m supposed to highlight something. But I feel that your dad would be the one. Is he the one connected to the truck, your dad is the one that I was sensing but there’s something about that time period that I want to highlight for you.

Kevin: uh… My brother passed away in 1996…

Edward: Nope. Too late it’s got to be before that. It’s got to be after 1985

Kevin: I moved from New York to Rhode Island in ’84, but that’s before ’85.

Edward: Nope. I think it’s right after that.

Kevin: Nope.

Edward: If that’s your benchmark, if that’s your move from New York to Rhode Island, think right after that. Like within a couple of years maybe somebody was born, maybe somebody got married but something had to take place within that period of time.

Kevin: uh…

Edwards: I’m sure your family’s around you.

Kevin: Okay.

Edward got zero out of zero on that one.

It should be pointed out that Edward does not consider himself to be just a performer. He writes books that are supposedly non-fiction that purport to explain psychic powers and abilities to people. He maintains that he has real and true psychic abilities. Edward is not doing a magic show with “tricks” and with an audience prepared to be knowingly deceived, he actually claims to communicate with the dead.

Edward performs to sold old audiences and maintains a for pay website, JohnEdward.net. As DePetro says in his opening:

Go to his website. I don’t know where he gets any time off. John Edward.net. Communicate Appreciate, Validate. Then you look at some of the events. He’s going to be in Boston November 29th. Sold out. November 30th in Boston. Sold out. December 1st, New Brunswick New Jersey. Sold out.

DePetro doesn’t mention that tickets to the Edward events are $150 each. Edward has books on and off the New York Times bestsellers lists. He charges $800 for private consultations. he has a TV show. He makes a lot of money, maybe millions, claiming to connect gullible and bereaved people with their deceased loved ones.

It’s not like Edwards hasn’t been called on this. The Center for Inquiry reports on a Dateline: NBC episode where Edwards claimed to have gleaned psychically information he was known to have gotten through ordinary means. Reporter John Hockenberry interviewed Edward:

Hockenberry: So were you aware that his dad had died before you did his reading?

Edward: I think he-I think earlier in the-in the day, he had said something.

Hockenberry: It makes me feel like, you know, that that’s fairly significant. I mean, you knew that he had a dead relative and you knew it was the dad.

Edward: OK.

Hockenberry: So that’s not some energy coming through, that’s something you knew going in. You knew his name was Tony and you knew that his dad had died and you knew that he was in the room, right? That gets you…

Edward: That’s a whole lot of thinking you got me doing, then. Like I said, I react to what’s coming through, what I see, hear and feel. I interpret what I’m seeing hearing and feeling, and I define it. He raised his hand, it made sense for him. Great.

Hockenberry: But a cynic would look at that and go, ‘Hey,’ you know, ‘He knows it’s the cameraman, he knows it’s Dateline. You know, wouldn’t that be impressive if he can get the cameraman to cry?’

Edward: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Not at all.

Reasonable people know that John Edward cannot actually talk to the dead. It is barely possible that Edward believes he does in fact possess such an ability, but far more likely that he knows that he cannot and that he is faking it. It is also barely possible that Edward rationalizes the massive amount of money he takes from gullible and desperate believers by believing that he provides some sort of comfort, however false, as well as entertainment. But it is also possible that Edward is knowingly taking money from people under false pretenses, and laughing all the way to the bank, building a fortune on the backs of people who have lost those they loved most.

As South Park put it, John Edwards is either a douche, or a stupid douche.

The same goes for John DePetro. As I pointed out, DePetro can hardly maintain the facade of being a good Catholic while at the same time extolling the virtues of Edward’s supposed psychic powers. Mediumship is anti-Catholic at best, and at worst it is considered Satanic.

DePetro does not stand to make millions by promoting Edward so fiercely, at best he’ll score a small ratings bump. Perhaps DePetro simply believes that Edward is a performer, providing comfort, false as it is, alongside a good dollop of entertainment. But DePetro knows that all or nearly all of Edward’s fans and followers really believe in his professed abilities, and presenting something false as truth is, to borrow from South Park, douchey.

If John Edward is, after all, the biggest douche in the universe, perhaps those like John DePetro who help sell and promote his deceptions, are angling to come in second.

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Voters Reject Libertarian Lie of Self-Made Millionaire

The 2012 elections have been seen by many as a bold refutation on the part of voters to extreme religious conservatism: marriage equality made big strides in four states, women’s rights took a small step forward as the Senate is now comprised of 20% women and reproductive rights were supported as voters saw fit to reject Aiken, Mourdock and others who said unbelievably objectionable things about rape and abortion.

But the voters also rejected the other half of the Republican Party’s conservative agenda. They have rejected the libertarian lie of the self made millionaire in favor the reality that we all get where we are going with the help of others. While libertarians create elaborate schemes of minimal government and free market utopias, voters in the real world recognize the need for things like infrastructure and education investment.

Here in Rhode Island, voters approved a host of important bond issues. These bond issues are very different in character, but their approval demonstrates that in our heart of hearts, we are a kind and compassionate people who really want to help each other achieve our goals, not a group of ruthless competitors battling it out for supremacy in some sort of Darwinian financial Thunderdome.

Putting aside the first two questions, as to whether or not to expand gambling in the state, we can look at Question 3, Higher Education. 65.5% of voters decided that even in these financially difficult times, Rhode Island College is worthy of $50 million for renovations to key buildings and an expansion of the nursing program. At a time when conservatives are looking to corporatize and outsource education, Rhode Islanders have decided to support public education at a college level, because a commitment to education is a key value.

Question 4, provides funds for a new veterans retirement home. With 77% of the voters approving, this vote shows that we are a people committed to fairness and gratitude. Veterans sacrifice for this country, and one of our great shames is the second class treatment we afford our country’s heroes after they are dismissed from service. Yet this vote shows that we are in fact committed to honoring our debts to these men and women, despite the priorities of the politicians and bureaucrats who prioritize our veterans differently.

Question 5 deals with clean water, and since everyone wants that, the vote, with 73.2% approving, could be interpreted as being selfishly motivated. $20 million is to be spent on waste water facilities and drinking water infrastructure, but the Clean Water Finance Agency also provides low-interest loans for communities and utilities to undertake improvements. Rhode Island is of course proud of its amazing drinking water, and caring for this vital resource is a gift to future generations, as well as to each other.

Speaking of gifts to future generations, Question 6 concerned environmental management, and 69.3% of voters approved. Local recreation projects, open space and farmland preservation and improved water quality in the Narragansett Bay will all become realities due to this $20 million bond.

The final ballot measure, Question 7, passed by the lowest margin but with a 60.6% approval the vote wasn’t really close. This bond provides $25 million that will be matched with $225 million from other sources to provide affordable housing. As a strong supporter of and volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, such housing is a real priority for me, and at least 6 out of 10 Rhode Islanders concur, even in, or perhaps especially in, these economically difficult times.

Libertarians believe that education and environmental issues are best solved through the free market. If people want education, they’ll pay their way through private schools. If they want to breathe clean air they will purchase it in containers at the store. If they want large swaths of nature to be protected from development they should save their money and buy it before some developer strip mines it. If veterans want to retire in comfort and dignity they should have saved their money or found employment that paid them more and if people can’t afford decent housing they should live in a box and work harder.

But voters this election cycle, not only here in Rhode Island demonstrated that they don’t really believe in that. Elizabeth Warren, Senator elect from Massachusetts, said it well:

There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

This is the America that most Rhode Islanders believe in. For the libertarian policies to win acceptance by the greater public economic conservatives will need to convince us to turn away from our sense of fairness, our sense of charity and our duty to care for each other and for the future. To achieve their goals, economic conservatives need only to convince voters that the only thing that matters is our own short term self-interest and to reject the very values that best ennoble us.

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Catholic Church Avoids Domin Ave., KKK Issue


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Exalted Cyclops John Algernon Domin

The Catholic Diocese of Providence, under the guidance of Bishop Thomas Tobin, is not afraid to voice its opinion about a wide range of topics.

The church or the bishop has stated its position on everything from marriage equality and women’s reproductive rights to issues as trivial as the holiday/Christmas tree non-controversy and the cross on public land in Woonsocket. The Bishop went on the John DePetro Show to call President Obama’s thoughts concerning gay marriage “creepy and disturbing” and to call the entire RI Congressional Delegation “immoral.”

Given this record of impassioned moral outrage at issues great and small, why is the church silent on the issue of Domin Avenue in Smithfield, Rhode Island?

Domin Avenue, for those new to the story, is named for John Algernon Domin, the Exalted Cyclops of the RI Ku Klux Klan in 1928. Domin was not just some rank and file member of the terrorist organization, he was a leader and spokesman and owned the property where rallies were held and crosses were burned. Under his leadership the Klan attempted to take over 3 armed militias of the National Guard, in expectation of a coming war between Protestants and Catholics.

You see, back then there weren’t so many black people living in Rhode Island, so the Klan vented its hatred on Catholics and immigrants (Not that it neglected the few black people it could find. The Klan was held responsible for “torching an African American school in Scituate, Rhode Island.“) At this point in history the Irish and the Italians and other immigrants were mostly Catholic and just like today, immigrants bear the brunt of the blame for whatever ills the society faces.

Retired Colonel Roger Schenck, the man responsible for discovering the Domin Ave connection to the KKK, wondered why Bishop Tobin and the Providence Diocese, known for its outspoken opinion on a wide range of subjects, (Tobin recently weighed in on the replacement refs in the NFL, for instance) would remain silent on the issue of a street named for an anti-Catholic terrorist hate monger. He wrote a letter to the Bishop and received a short, non-specific reply from the Diocese Director of Communication Michael K. Guilfoyle:

Thank you for writing to Bishop Tobin relative to the matter before the Town Council in Smithfield, Rhode Island. As you know, this particular issue has received a great deal of attention before Smithfield residents and the Town Council. I understand that those on both sides of the matter relative to changing the name of the street in question have stated their concerns before the Council.

Puzzled by the non-response response he received, Schenck wrote:

Thanks for your email. I assume by your answer that the Diocese does not intend to take a stand to support changing the name of a street memorializing John Algernon Domin who headed an evil organization that focused much of its hate against Catholics. The Diocese should be leading the charge to change the name but instead has chosen to remain neutral. I wonder who the Diocese is trying not to offend.

If possible the response from Guilfoyle was even more curt:

Mr. Schenck – Thank you for your reply.  Please know that the diocese does not condone the actions of such organizations.  We are monitoring the matter.

Colonel Schenck’s final email to the Providence Diocese reveals frustration and puzzlement. I will let the Colonel have the last word on the matter:

I don’t get it.  The Catholic Church takes a firm stance on many issues, some of which are very controversial, including abortion, contraception, homosexuality, gay marriage, euthanasia, and the death penalty, but the diocese will not take a stance against the name of a street memorializing Ku Klux Klan Grand Cyclops John Algernon Domin who led an evil organization that focused much of its hatred against Rhode Island’s Catholics.  The Diocese may not condone the actions of such organizations, but remaining silent in this instance, as the Diocese has chosen to do, says the diocese is ambivalent, complacent or just does not care if the Domin Avenue name changes or remains.  You say you are monitoring the matter.  That may sound good to some people, but what good will it do?  It will not matter how many people you have monitoring the matter as it works its way to the town council meeting, if, at that meeting, the council votes to retain the Domin Avenue name.  It will be too late at that point to do anything, but I suppose Rhode Island Catholics will have some consolation in knowing that the diocese monitored the matter.

Michael Guilfoyle was contacted for this post but did not respond.

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Dalai Lama Talks Income Inequality, Environment

Photo by Mike Cohea/Brown University

The Dalai Lama came to Rhode Island yesterday, courtesy of Brown University. The event was held at the RI Convention Center under the the strictest security the United States State Department could provide. I sat with the other media representatives, next to Palden Gyal from Radio Free Asia. Palden had been assigned the task of covering the Dalai Lama’s two week tour of the United States, and had been at every public event so far.  He commented to me about the security, so I asked him if he thought the Dalai Lama was in any actual danger from the Chinese government (this while men with flashlights were doing security sweeps in the rafters of the room.) Palden felt that an attack by Chinese assassins was unlikely and that the greater worry was your garden variety crazy person or generic terrorist.

At about ten past two Brown University President Christina Paxson  introduced the Dalai Lama, noting that he is a self described “simple Buddhist monk” and a winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize as well as the 2012 Templeton Prize, regarded as “the most prestigious award in religion.”  (The controversial Templeton Prize is given to those who work to bridge the gap between science and religion, or as Martinus JG Veltman, 1999 Nobel laureate in physics suggested, between “sense and nonsense.”)

The Dalai Lama then took the podium, quickly connecting to the predominantly Brown University audience by wearing a university-branded baseball cap. Known for his somewhat cornball sense of humor, the Dalai Lama removed his hat and made jokes about his white hairs and encroaching baldness, suggesting that they were competing for dominance on his head.

After this brief comedic intro, the Dalai Lama got down to more serious business. He talked about seeing past the ethnicities and borders that divide us, and suggested that we see the world as one planet, where we all live. He said that the gap between the rich and poor must be closed, and as an example he pointed out that Washington DC is the capitol of the richest nation on Earth, yet the city is surrounded by poor.

The other great problem confronting us, according to the Dalai Lama, is the degradation of the environment. Given these problems, and the great silence from most of the governments on this planet, the Dalai Lama declared that if he were to affiliate with a political party, it would be the Greens.

The Dalai Lama then discussed scientific issues, a subject he is very interested in. He stated that science and spirituality used to be separate, but now science is beginning to study the human mind and the mind-body connection. This is true, but though great inroads are being made in neuroscience, and many interesting discoveries are being made, I think it would be a mistake to call these investigations “spiritual” in the sense most people take the word. We are not talking about souls, angels, answered prayers and gods. Under the Dalai Lama’s definition, as I understand it, we are talking about mindfulness and compassion training, (mostly through meditation) the ways they can reduce stress, and the positive mental and physical health benefits stress reduction accompanies.

Perhaps the most interesting and unexpected part of the Dalai Lama’s message was his call for a set of secular ethics based on universal human values. The Dalai Lama makes his case by maintaining that all the world’s religions have common values. He believes that when we sift the common values out of all the different religions, we will have a set of humanistic values upon which a set of secular ethics can be based. These values and ethics would be secular in the sense that they would be common to people of any religion, as well as to those with no religion. He points out that in India, the Founding Fathers were religious people (like Ghandi) but they established a secular Constitution. Of course, this reminds Americans of our own Constitution, a secular document written and ratified by a bunch of Protestants, Deists and nonbelievers. Countries like India and the United States, which have within their borders many forms of belief and non-belief competing for our attention, need a strong secular government to serve as referee.

The common secular values of humanity should be taught in schools, from Kindergarten through University, according to the Dalai Lama, who values education quite highly. Ultimately, he wants humanity to learn that the never ending quest for material success, based as it is in greed and selfishness, is a shallow, empty pursuit unless we also work towards an inner peace through mindfulness and humanistic values.

To some it might seem odd to hear a religious leader champion secular values and secular government, but here in Rhode Island we have our own model, also a Founding Father, Roger Williams. Williams was a Christian minister of unassailable character who was convinced that people could best flourish economically and spiritually under the aegis of a secular state guided by secular values. In that sense the Dalai Lama’s message should resonate here.

The lecture ended with the Dalai Lama answering a few questions, then a final word from the religious leader. “If you feel these points are relevant,” he said, “tell people and investigate them for yourself. If don’t feel these points are relevant, then forget it.” Unfortunately, the person working the closed captioning for the event rendered the words “forget it” as “fuck it.” Now I’m sure I heard “forget it” but the crowd seemed divided on the issue, and I overheard two students who were sure that the Dalai Lama ended his lecture with an expletive. It was an odd and funny ending to an interesting event.

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Dalai Lama in Providence

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, is currently about halfway through his two week visit to the United States, and will be speaking on Wednesday at Brown University’s 86th Stephen A. Ogden Jr. ’06 Memorial Lecture on International Affairs to be held at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

The talk is entitled, “A Global Challenge: Creating a Culture of Peace” and will presumably offer spiritual and philosophical arguments bearing on the Dalai Lama’s commitment to a rejection of the means of violence to achieve political ends.

Over the 77 years of his life the Dalai Lama has continually advocated for the rights of the Tibetan people, especially after he was forced to flee his home country after the the People’s Republic of China took control while quashing the 1959 uprising. He led the Tibetan government in exile until last year, when he stepped down after instituting a democratic process for future leadership. His unique status as leader of a government in exile and exalted religious leader has allowed him to travel the world, denouncing the Chinese takeover of his homeland, teaching about the beliefs of Buddhism and advocating on a broad range of topics such as the environment, economics (he considers himself a Marxist), women’s rights (he has also claimed to be a feminist) reproductive rights and sexuality.

Looking at the long course of the Dalai Lama’s career one cannot help but notice a secular shift in the Dalai Lama’s views. Recently he has been quoted as saying, “…if science proves facts that conflict with Buddhist understanding, Buddhism must change accordingly.” It is difficult to imagine Pope Benedict or a high ranking Muslim Imam making such a comment.

The Dalai Lama has also said, in his latest book Beyond Religion Ethics for a Whole World, “…the reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate. This is why I am increasingly convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether.” You might expect such a statement from atheist firebrand Richard Dawkins, not a man who is held by many to be a manifestation of Jainraisig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

The talk is sold out and security, provided by the U.S. State Department, will be quite high, but you can watch the talk live-streamed in its entirety and I will have a full report on my impressions of the event right here, tomorrow.

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Candidate Without a Prayer in Providence Tonight

In 1990 Herb Silverman ran for governor and challenged a South Carolina law that prevented atheists from holding public office and won a Supreme Court victory, but not the election. He went on to become a prominent atheist and secular activist, and founded the Secular Coalition of America, “a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization whose purpose is to amplify the diverse and growing voice of the nontheistic community in the United States.”

Silverman will be at Books on the Square, 471 Angell St. in Providence at 7:00pm  this evening to talk about his run for governor and his subsequent adventures to promote his book, Candidate Without a Prayer. (Even though I linked the book title to Amazon I suggest showing up and supporting Books on the Square, a fantastic local bookstore). This event was planned in conjunction with the Humanists of Rhode Island.

Silverman is a larger than life personality and a gifted storyteller, so this is sure to be a great event of interest to anyone with an interest in politics and religion and where the two intersect.

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Town to Address Road Named After KKK Leader

“Exalted Cyclops” John Algernon Domin

Tonight the Smithfield Town Council gets to take up, for a third time, the issue of Domin Ave., named for John Algernon Domin, Exalted Cyclops of the RI KKK in 1928. When Colonel Roger Schenck pointed the history of Domin Ave. to the Town Council in a letter, he suggested the name be changed, because, after all, who would want to live on a street named after the hate mongering leader of a terrorist organization? (Schenck called it “a stain on Smithfield.”)

By 1928 the Klan in Rhode Island was dying, and according to David M. Chalmers in the 3rd Edition of his book Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan, was composed of about 900 members. On March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day, the Providence Journal reported that the Klan had successfully infiltrated and taken control of three companies of the state militia. Having fallen on hard times, the First Light Infantry Division, which had an honorable history in the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, was close to being disbanded. But suddenly, companies E, F and H showed up at the Cranston Street Armory 200 strong, with brand new armaments to boot. The new membership was made up entirely of Klansmen.

The plan was to reinvigorate and militarize Klan membership by requiring anyone who wanted to join the First Light Infantry Division to first join the Klan at $15 a pop. As Chalmers points out, “With the United States, as the Klan saw it, in the midst of its continuing “Roman crisis” and a religious war impending, the 1st Light Infantry would be but the first step toward control of the nation’s militia and armories.” In other words, the Klan was positioning itself for a kind of military coup of the United States, to fight a war against Catholics, minorities, immigrants and other American citizens.

John Algernon Domin was a major part of this and was called to testify in front of the Rhode Island General Assembly in hearings looking into these allegations.  The April 6, 1928 Providence Journal covered the hearings and reported on some of what Domin said:

Exalted Cyclops Domin was then called. He said he was 42 years of age and lived at 6 George street, Pawtuxet. He is a motorman for the United Electric Railways Company and had joined the F.L.I. [First Light Infantry] in September at the suggestion of Sergt. Hawes of the F.L.I., also a member of the Klan.

Domin said he knew that eight or 10 or possibly a dozen Klansmen were members of the F.L.I. and did not know if more Klansmen were members of the military organizations because he cannot remember the names of all Klansmen.

The Roger Williams Klan of which he has been President for 18 months has between 2000 and 3000 members, he said. In addition six sub-divisions of the Klan were organized in Providence early this year, he declared. He said he had not attended F.L.I. drills lately.

It should be noted that though no legal charges were filed, it was speculated for good reason that the Klansmen who were called to testify, including Domin, perjured themselves in their testimony.

“What is the attitude of the Klan towards non-Protestants?” [Domin] was asked.

“The Klan believes in the Constitution, that men can worship according to their beliefs.”

Later, Domin spoke of his military history:

Domin said he had no military record and had joined the F.L.I. for good fellowship and exercise. He claimed exemption during the war because he was married and had two children, he said.

Domin said that the ultimate aim of the Ku Klux Klan was to band all Protestants together through the Klan. He said he thought Protestants should organize and there should be a Klan in every State, but, he denied that the organization is antagonistic towards Catholics or towards any church. He said there is nothing in Klan regulations which prohibits voting for Catholics.

After Representative Sullivan had produced Klan literature attacking Governor Al Smith of New York, Sullivan asked, “Are Klansmen banded together to vote against Al Smith because of his religion?”

“No.”

Domin declared, however, he thought no man should be elected President who kisses the hand of another man. Domin said that Klan literature is not circulated to foster prejudice.

The General Assembly investigation prevented the Klan in Rhode Island from attaining military power, and, according to Chalmers, by 1930 the organization boasted less than 500 members. Domin’s ambition to see the Klan grow in Rhode Island was over.

But what of Domin? He was not just the leader of a local branch of a murderous terrorist organization, but a man who hoped to wrest power from the government in a military coup. He was a traitor to the United States willing to perjure himself while claiming to hold the Constitution in high regard. He’s so much worse than just a mean spirited bigot, he represents everything America stands against.

Those in favor of keeping a street named after this man might want to reconsider, and tonight’s Town Council meeting in Smithfield might be a good start in that direction.

One final note: In researching this piece I came across some papers at the Rhode Island Historical Society compiled by Joseph W. Sullivan in 1987, which listed all Rhode Island Klan members that had been publicly identified in sundry news reports and during the General Assembly investigation. I converted this list into a database that can be accessed here. The database can be searched by name of Klan member, or by occupation or city.  It makes one wonder what other secret or lost street names and fields might still bear the taint of the KKK. (I’m looking at you, Westerly.)

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Concert Tonight for Separation of Church, State

It’s hard imagine something more encoded into the very DNA of the United States than the concept of separating church from state. It was this concept, enshrined in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution with the words “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” that made our country unique. Here in Rhode Island this idea takes on added meaning because Rhode Island was the first government, anywhere in the history of the world, to enshrine this concept into law. This is a wonderful legacy, and one Rhode Islanders would do well to cherish and nurture.

Of course, nothing so important and wonderful could ever just be allowed to go on unchallenged, so this core American principle is under attack by religious right legal groups such as the ADF and the ACLJ, by disgraced pseudo-historian David Barton, and by the Providence Diocese and Bishop Tobin right here in our own state. Given this opposition, could there be a better time to remind people of the importance of our secular heritage?

To that end, the 65-year-old Americans United for the Separation of Church and State are sponsoring a series of concerts across the country as a way of rallying Americans to remember the importance of this idea. Voices United for the Separation of Church and State will bring together some of our area’s best performers for some excellent entertainment tonight at The Locals, 11 Waterman Avenue in North Providence.

Featuring the award winning talents of  Ed McGuirl, Jacob Haller and Allysen Callery,  and with a suggested donation of only $5, this promises to be a fantastic show for an important cause. I hope to see you there.

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Bishop Tobin Confuses Anti-Choice for Pro-Life


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Providence Diocese Bishop Thomas Tobin has a tendency to very publicly take Catholic politicians to task for their stand on reproductive rights. Tobin’s very public fight with Congressman Patrick Kennedy was seen by many to be a bold assertion of clerical power to control the votes of Catholic legislators on issues of importance to Catholic theology. Most recently the Bishop went after James Langevin in his June 28th Without a Doubt blog, saying:

Although he continues to identify himself as a “Catholic, pro-life member of Congress,” consider his record. He voted in favor of Obamacare that allows the funding of abortion; he has championed the use of embryonic stem cells, a practice that results in the destruction of human life; he has proudly announced his support of homosexual marriage, a concept that is, ultimately, an offense to human life; he supports the HHS Mandate that requires Catholic ministries and others to provide insurance coverage for immoral practices; and recently he voted against the bill that would have banned the horrific practice of sex-selection abortion. It’s clear that Langevin has abandoned the pro-life cause. What a disappointment!

Randall Edgar, in the September 13th Providence Journal article Bishop says Langevin no longer pro-life followed up this story, with comments from Langevin, who still considers himself “pro-life.” Langevin said

…he has differences with Bishop Tobin, for whom he has “deep respect.” Among them: He believes that being pro-life requires that he work to “reduce unwanted pregnancies,” which is why he supports “making contraceptives available.” He also said he sees stem cell research as offering “hope for curing some of life’s most challenging chronic conditions and diseases.”

What is clear from the disagreement between the legislator and the bishop is that the “pro-life” position is not in any way the opposite of the “pro-choice” position. In fact, the reality is that everyone, on either side of the reproductive rights issue, is pro-life. The only real disagreement is how we express our point of view through our political actions.

Tobin and others who wear the pro-life label with pride love to tarnish those who believe in reproductive health care as being pro-death, as seen in this editorial from the April 19th Rhode Island Catholic entitled “Planned Parenthood’s War on Women” in which The American Civil Liberties Union, Humanists of Rhode Island, Rhode Island Medical Society, Brown Medical Students for Choice and Catholics for Choice were labeled “culture of death allies” to Planned Parenthood.

Tobin has every right to publicly cajole or privately persuade legislators to vote as Tobin interprets  God’s will. Legislators, Catholic or otherwise, are free to heed Tobin’s words or not. The voting public, however, many of whom are not Catholic, and many of whom follow faith traditions that understand the necessity of reproductive health care choices for women, might understandably become worried about casting votes for candidates with otherwise fine credentials that happen to be Catholic, their worry being that they are not voting for someone who will act in the best interests of our country and our citizens, but only for what is in the theological interests of the Catholic Church.

It should be remembered that we are not just talking about abortion here. We are talking about condoms, birth control pills, marriage equality, doctor patient privilege, sex education and a myriad of health care and lifestyle issues important to the lives of real people living in the real world. The harder the Providence Diocese pushes Catholic legislators to forgo a multicultural and secular perspective in favor of Catholic theology, the more likely it is that voters will find themselves unable to be sure that Catholics can be trusted to hold public office.

Catholic Senator John F Kennedy faced this head on in 1960, speaking to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association :

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute–where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act… I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish–where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source…

At the time, though prejudice against Catholics was waning, there was still enough serious suspicion that a Catholic president would be little more than a puppet of the Pope that Kennedy felt it necessary to make this speech disavowing such influence. Kennedy was faced with essentially the same problem posed to Jesus, who famously told his interlocutors to render unto Caesar (the government) what was Caesar’s, and render unto God what is God’s. In other words, separate church and state.

Tobin wants Langevin and all other Catholic officials to stop making any distinction between church and state, rendering everything unto God, Caesar be damned. What Tobin risks with his very public pressure tactics against Catholics in high office is the very ability of Catholics to attain high office. Under the conditions Tobin wants to impose on Catholic office holders, how could anyone who disagrees with Catholic theology concerning marriage equality or birth control reasonably vote for any Catholic?

Tobin has resorted to what amounts to religious extortion in the past to get his way politically, when he denied the sacrament of communion to Representative Patrick Kennedy in 2009. His strong words against Langevin might mark the beginning of a second round of religious bullying. Langevin maintains that he has “deep respect” for Tobin, and though little in Langevin’s voting record should overly worry those in favor of reproductive health care rights, can we be sure that Langevin’s deep respect won’t eventually cause him to compromise his duty as an elected official?

I ask the question rhetorically. I think there are many fine Catholic politicians holding elected office in our state, and I have little cause to doubt them. But the louder Tobin publicly demands allegiance to Catholic doctrine over duty to our country, the more a reasonable person has cause to worry about the loyalty of those in Tobin’s cross-hairs.

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Lombardi Campaign Tainted by Scandal


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Frank Lombardi

The State Senate Race in District 26, Cranston took an interesting turn Friday as Sean Gately, Republican contender for the seat Democrat Bea Lanzi is voluntarily abdicating, issued a press release accusing Frank Lombardi, the Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate, of cronyism, backroom deals and wasting taxpayer money on “frivolous lawsuits for political cover.” Frank Lombardi is in a tight primary race with Rev. Gene Dyszlewski, a political newcomer with decades of experience working in the community.

Gately’s accusation comes after an examination of 187 pages of confidential Cranston School Committee executive session meeting notes that were leaked, accidentally or intentionally, online. According to Meg Fraser at the Cranston Herald, “DOCS LEAKED: 187 pages of confidential meeting details shared online“:

Caruolo is a common thread throughout the meeting minutes, and in the final meeting posted, the political implications of a Caruolo appeal are discussed. Former committee attorney Ben Scungio informs the committee that, should they appeal, the decision against the district would be suspended.“That would get the committee members through the election. If the committee says they will let it stand, they have to live with the lies in the decision. It hurts the committee more politically if they let it sit there.”

In 2007 the Cranston School Committee, of which Frank Lombardi was a member, decided to sue the State of Rhode Island under the Caruolo Act for the education money it felt it deserved but was not allocated. Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Judith Savage tossed out the lawsuit and blasted the school committee for not properly exhausting its options in balancing its budget before engaging in litigation. According to Gately, this lawsuit cost the taxpayers of Cranston $210,000 in legal fees paid to Attorney Ben Scungio. Behind closed doors, according to the leaked documents, Scungio advised the School Committee members that appealing the decision would get the committee members through the next election cycle, making it easier for them to keep their jobs in the wake of their shameful fiscal mismanagement.

In other words, the school committee was allegedly advised by Attorney Ben Scungio to risk further taxpayer money not because they had a winning case and could prevail on appeal, but because it would help the school committee members who incompetently wasted public funds to keep their jobs.

Worse, Ben Scungio is a contributor to Frank Lombardi’s present campaign for State Senate! The implication here is clear: Lombardi and the Cranston School Committee gave Scungio a $210,000 pay day, and Scungio is returning the favor by supporting Lombardi’s campaign.

Gately’s press release makes four demands of Lombardi:

1. Repudiate and disavow the advice that Attorney Scungio gave him to appeal a court decision for political reasons.

2. Return the multiple contributions that Attorney Scungio gave to the Lombardi campaign.

3. Pledge to stop the cronyism and special backroom deals by not taking any money from any vendors who  have done work for the Cranston School Committee

4.Apologize to the taxpayers of Cranston for wasting their money on frivolous lawsuits for political cover.

Gately, I think, echoes the anger of many RI voters when he goes on to say, “This is simply outrageous.  Here we have an example of politicians spending taxpayer money, claiming it’s to protect children, but in reality it is being used to protect their own political careers.”

Fortunately, Frank Lombardi is being opposed for the Democratic nomination by Gene Dyszlewski. Gene is not part of the politics as usual machine that cranks out shady insiders like Lombardi. Gene is new to politics, but not new to working for the community as a Reverend and as an advocate for the neediest among us.

Gene’s impressive list of endorsements include Planned Parenthood Votes! Rhode Island, Ocean State Action, National Association of Social Workers Political Action for Candidate Election, Rhode Island Progressive Democrats of America, Clean Water Action, National Organization for Women, Marriage Equality Rhode Island and the National Education Association of Rhode Island.

On Tuesday, September 11th, the people of district 26 in Cranston will have the chance to vote for Gene or Lombardi. They can vote for someone new, honest and untarnished by scandal, or they can vote for the same old tired politics that have plagued Rhode Island for decades.

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Jessica Ahlquist Honored at Touro Synagogue


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It sounds like the start of a bad joke: a Rabbi, an Imam, and an atheist walk into a Synagogue… 

In this case, though, it is the story of a ceremony at Touro Synagogue in Newport – the 65th annual reading of George Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation. It was a celebration of Washington’s poignant 1790 letter eloquently stating to Newport’s Jewish community (what was left of it after the British occupation of Newport during the Revolution) that the new country would be committed to religious freedom, to being a nation where the government offers “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” To a Jewish community used to being driven violently from country to country (including from England in the 1200’s, to be welcomed back somewhat reluctantly generations later,) these words meant that the religious tolerance they had found in colonial Rhode Island would continue in the new United States.

The invocation at Sunday’s reading of the historic letter, given by the Imam of a Providence Muslim community, and the benediction given by Touro Synagogue’s Rabbi, remind of us the breadth of this commitment: that the U. S. would be a country welcoming of Jews and Muslims (“Turks” in Colonial era parlance) as well Christians.

As was noted in the introduction of Jessica Ahlquist, the young atheist who successfully fought for the removal of a prayer banner from Cranston West High School, religious tolerance in Rhode Island applied not only to non-Christians but also to those who did not believe. And there were non-Church goers, and likely non-believers, in Colonial Newport along with Protestants, Jews, the occasional visiting “Turk,” and eventually Catholics.

Jessica was there to receive the Judge George Alexander Teitz Award, a non-monetary award from the non-sectarian Touro Synagogue Foundation that is given annually to “an individual or institution that best exemplifies the contemporary commitment to the ideals of religious and ethnic tolerance and freedom, expressed in President George Washington’s 1790 Letter.” Jessica joins the likes of the first recipient of the Teitz award, Senator Claiborne Pell.

She was introduced by Judge Teitz’ son, Andy, who reminded the audience of the threats and antagonism Jessica faced in Cranston for standing up for the Constitution and Separation of Church and State. In accepting the award, Jessica made perhaps the most meaningful statement of the afternoon’s proceedings. In talking about her experience with the Cranston school prayer banner, she said, in reference to this event at Touro, “This is what I wanted to happen, this is what I was fighting for when I did this…”

To see Jessica honored by a community that, while largely holding on to its belief in a supernatural “higher being” also sees the importance of Church-State separation, was a moving experience.

This post was written by Chuck Flippo, site manager at Loeb Visitors Center at Touro Synagogue National Historic Site, with small modifications and formatting by Steve Ahlquist.

Note: The Providence Journal covered this event with a small selection of photos yesterday, completely ignoring the fact that Jessica was honored with a prestigious award at this ceremony. As Chuck told me in correspondence:

[Not mentioning Jessica receiving the award] sounds like a deliberate slight. Though there were certainly other things to write about — the Imam giving the invocation, Sen. Reed’s speech — the award to Jessica was a significant part of the event. [It] should have been included. That’s really poor journalism.

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Vote For Gene Dyszlewski, Not Frank Lombardi

Frank Lombardi

Those of you familiar with the case of Ahlquist v. Cranston might well recognize both the candidates running for state senate in Cranston’s District 26.

First there is Frank Lombardi, a member of the School Committee who voted in favor of keeping a prayer on the wall of Cranston West High School three times, citing his Catholic Faith as one of his main reasons for doing so.

When questioned recently about marriage equality, an important issue in the upcoming legislative session of which Lombardi hopes to take part, Lombardi replied that he couldn’t switch off being a Catholic. In other words, he would vote against marriage equality, vote against reproductive rights and vote against church/state separation. It should be noted that Lombardi has the endorsement of outgoing State Senator Bea Lanzi, a solid yes vote for marriage equality. Why she should endorse a candidate so opposed to her values is a mystery.

Listen to Lombardi at a school board meeting in March of last year where he talks about the “three hats” he wears as an elected official. He speaks of being a lawyer, an elected official and a “practicing Catholic,” saying that all three roles come into play when he makes decisions as an elected official. Lombardi is simply unable to separate his religion from his politics, and this is bad for Rhode Island.

Later, Lombardi discusses a DVD he watched about the history of the United States. The video was a documentary by pseudo historian David Barton, and Lombardi’s take away is chilling. He learned that “religion is inevitably intertwined with our government and has been for… over two hundred years…” adding, “I learned about all the religious references in that DVD, and I paid attention.” That’s right, Lombardi has learned his history from a fringe right-wing Christian crackpot.

If this were all there was to Lombardi, that would be bad enough. After losing the case and exposing the taxpayers of Cranston to a potential $173,000 loss in defending the prayer banner, Lombardi used his three minutes of opening comments at the next school committee hearing to go after an anonymous social media poster who called the school board “dumb.” Lombardi’s public tantrum was an embarrassing display of defensive pettiness, and unbecoming of a public official.

It’s clear that Frank Lombardi is not suited to any elected position, and especially not the important role of state Senator where he will be voting on and introducing legislation of real importance and consequence to the lives of thousands of Rhode Islanders.

Fortunately, there is an alternative running for the Democratic Party nomination on September 11th, Gene Dyszlewski, he of the difficult to pronounce last name and the campaign website justcallmegene.com.

Gene supported the removal of the prayer banner at Cranston West, and after the judge ruled against the banner and in favor of Jessica Ahlquist, and the ugly death and rape threats against the sixteen year old student began, Gene was one of the many members of clergy who publicly stepped up and defended her. He was also a very visible and vocal presence at the school committee meetings where he challenged the expectations of the pro-banner crowd as a minister in support of church/state separation.

Gene’s take on issues of church/state separation fly in the face of his opponents. Rather than rely on the revisionist history of Tea Party zealots like David Barton, Gene reflected on the real accomplishments of Rhode Island’s visionary founder, Roger Williams, declaring, “The separation of church and state is one of those interesting paradoxes: In order to have freedom of religion, Roger Williams developed a secular society.”

Gene served on the board of Marriage Equality Rhode Island, and is a full supporter of equal rights for LGBTQ people. He recognizes the importance of reproductive freedom, and has earned the endorsement of Planned Parenthood, Marriage Equality Rhode Island, the Rhode Island National Organization of Women and the Rhode Island Progressive Democrats.

Unlike his opponent, a petty bureaucrat plugged into the political machine here in Rhode Island, Gene is a believer in higher ideals. He wants to make Rhode Island a better place for all its citizens, tackling real issues of real importance.

For anyone interested in challenging business as usual politics here in Rhode Island, the choice could not be more clear.

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Defending Rosary, DePetro Picks on Senior Citizen


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First things first. Freedom of conscience and expression, along with the right to pray or not to pray as one desires, are some of our most important rights. Limitations on these rights should only be tolerated when there are compelling and important reasons to do so, such as balancing one person’s rights against the rights of others to not be unnecessarily inconvenienced by such expression.

That said, the recent issue brought to light by John DePetro of WPRO  on Monday evening and continuing for the full three hours of Tuesday morning’s broadcast touches on these sensitive, delicate issues the way a hammer touches on butterflies. According to DePetro, wearing his metaphorical reporter’s hat and dutifully recording his adventures on his iPhone, Brook Village Retirement Home in North Providence recently “banned a small group of residents from praying the rosary in the common area after one resident complained.”

On DePetro’s radio program at least one caller thought the group in question consisted of as few as three residents.

Apparently the small group would gather in the common room at 11:30 AM on Mondays and watch The Holy Rosary with Mother Angelica and the Nuns of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery on EWTN, the Global Catholic Television Network, praying along and out loud. Another resident, Wanda Hughes, complained about the prayers which she called “an in your face ritual.”

As a result, the manager of the facility, Carol Conti, has apparently told residents that they could no longer pray the rosary in the common room.

Now is this true? Conti has made no statement to the media as of this writing, and the one resident who spoke to DePetro on the matter, besides Hughes, wasn’t really sure if prayers were allowed or not. This is the resident in DePetro’s video who says that Wanda Hughes has a vendetta against Catholics, and called them cannibals, because they eat the body and blood of Christ. He’s hardly unbiased and he wasn’t sure about the status of the prayers at all.

DePetro claimed on the radio that Wanda Hughes threatened to call the ACLU. In fact, she says just the opposite in her letter, at least the part she can be seen reading in DePetro’s heavily edited video. She specifically says, “It should not be an ACLU case.” When relating her conversation with the retirement home’s manager, Hughes claims to have said, “…the Constitution allows everybody freedom of religion…” but “The fact was that they were pushing their belief on everybody.” This hardly seems like the position of an anti-religion zealot.

Wanda Hughes seems like a very direct and honest woman in the video. She looks somewhat afraid of another resident who yells at her through the intercom while she’s talking to DePetro. The resident shrieks, “She’s what’s wrong with this building. You’re evil!”

Consider this a moment. Here’s DePetro, capturing a moment of this woman being bullied on video, and yet he’s so fixated on the idea that some residents inside the building are not allowed to pray the rosary he doesn’t even care. Wanda Hughes, whether she’s an atheist or simply not a Catholic, doesn’t factor into DePetro’s calculations. He’s on a bigger story, one that needn’t concern itself with the safety and comfort of an elder woman in a retirement home.

In DePetro’s mind, Catholics in particular and Christians in general, are under attack in this country. DePetro is happy to link the Holiday/Christmas Tree non-troversy of the last holiday season to the Cranston prayer banner, to the Woonsocket Cross, and now to the possible and unconfirmed banning of a rosary prayer group in a North Providence Retirement Home. When a guest called in and compared this imaginary pattern of events construed as attacks against Christians to historical attacks against Jews under the Third Reich in 1930’s Germany, DePetro did nothing to correct her.

The terrible thing is that because of DePetro’s ham handed intrusion into this tiny little issue that can and probably will be resolved to the satisfaction of all the parties involved if left to the residents and the management, Wanda Hughes will most likely become the victim of terrible abuse both online, through the telephone and in person. Already one person commenting on the story at 630WPRO has called Wanda Hughes an “idiot” and another has said, “As far as the complaining resident, that is what a lot of old people do if they have no friends, no family and no loved ones. They are bitter and go after the other residents that actually have a life. There are just mean people out there.”

And believe me, this stuff is mild compared to what’s coming if this story continues to be hammered on. DePetro knows full well the kind of threats and bullying people face when they speak up and out against religion and religious privilege, yet to further his false narrative of there being an atheist conspiracy against freedom of conscience, this second-rate shock-jock is willing to throw an elderly woman under the bus.

The man screaming through the intercom at Wanda Hughes was right. There was an evil in the building, but it wasn’t Wanda Hughes, it was the guy with the iPhone.

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Are Non-Christians Not Welcome in Providence?

Peter Montequila, the owner of Finest Car Wash has stated a variety of reasons for having erected a cross on a publicly owned median strip on Pleasant Valley Parkway in Providence. According to one story the cross was built because the Fourth of July (or Memorial Day) was coming up. Montequila also claims he placed the religious symbol there to demonstrate solidarity with those who want the war memorial topped with a cross in Woonsocket to stay on public land. On the other hand, perhaps Montequila feels entitled to act as he did, having maintained the median by mowing the lawn, installing a sprinkler system, and planting flowers as part of what appears to be a city sponsored adopt-a-spot program. Still another reason for the cross, according to the owner, is that he seeks to honor veterans.

Of course, it’s not possible to honor all veterans by erecting a religious symbol particular to only some of them. How could a Christian cross possibly honor a Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or atheist veteran? Let’s be honest here: Peter Montequila only wants to honor Christian veterans with this cross, and more particularly, he only seeks to honor the tiny subset of Christian veterans who agree with him about the irrelevance of the First Amendment and the Constitution of the United States.

Read this quote from Montequila on 630WPRO:

an answer to atheist, and I’ll be quite honest with you I don’t really want them for my customers, let them go to an atheist car wash or an atheist gas station, we want customers that feel the way we do. [emphasis added]

What if you don’t feel the way Montequila does?

If it really offends them, you know what? Don’t drive down the street, or move someplace else or get out of the state, that’s how I feel.

The use of religious symbols to differentiate between us and them, those in our group and those outside our group, is a very natural human urge. When these symbols are used in a way that respects diversity of opinion and the rights of all citizens, then the lively experiment that is Rhode Island pays huge dividends in freedom of conscience and safety for minority opinions. But when these symbols are used to mark the territory of a putative majority interested in marginalizing those with differing opinions, the effect is to bully at best, and to terrorize at worst.

A cross has long been the symbol of hope and devotion to millions of people throughout history and throughout the world, but it has also been used as a symbol of persecution and conquest. Like the use of any symbol or word, the exact meaning of the cross depends on its context. For instance, compare a cross placed in the Basilica of Rome as opposed to one burning on the front lawn of a black family in the 1930’s.

The cross in Providence is a poor attempt at honoring veterans, as it only honors Christian veterans. It is a poor attempt at promoting Christianity because Montequila is only interested in promoting a particular brand of Christianity, one that seeks to blend church and state despite our Constitutional protections against such mixing. There are many kinds of Christianity, and many who identify themselves as Christian believe that a cross has no place on public land.

But the cross on the Pleasant Valley Parkway median in Providence is very good at promoting one message. And that message is this:

If you don’t believe in our particular kind of God, we don’t want you in Providence.

The fact that Mayor Angel Taveras has decided not to ask for the removal of the cross seems to indicate tacit governmental support for this message, much to the disappointment of those who take church/state separation seriously.

Unfortunately for Peter Montequila, non-Christians, including atheists and humanists, are not going anywhere. Instead, we’ll be sticking around and insisting that the government stay neutral in matters of religion by not allowing public land to be co-opted by those with a theocratic, anti-American agenda. Being a minority, our point of view won’t always be popular, but it will always be necessary. There isn’t, after all, one religious point of view today represented among the population of Rhode Island that wasn’t once held by a minority itself.

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A Cross on Public Land; This Time in Providence


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In Rhode Island, there’s a cross on public land. It’s not the one in Woonsocket, it’s the one in Providence, on a city owned median strip located at about 14 Pleasant Valley Parkway near the Coca-Cola plant.

The Humanists of Rhode Island sent a letter to Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, asking that the cross be removed, as the presence of a cross on public property violates the First Amendment. Certainly there is no secular purpose for this cross, as is argued in the case of the cross in Woonsocket. No veterans are being honored at this site, the cross exists purely to evangelize Christianity.

Here is the text of the letter sent to Angel Tavares:

Dear Mayor Taveras,

I am writing on behalf of our group, Humanists of Rhode Island, because we assume you are unaware about a cross on publicly owned land in Providence Rhode Island. The cross is located on what we believe to be a city owned median strip located at about 14 Pleasant Valley Parkway near the Coca-Cola plant. I am not of the impression that this cross was erected by anyone acting on the behalf of the City of Providence, or that the cross in any way serves as a marker for an accident victim. This seems to be the construction of a private citizen using public lands to create a permanent fixture for the purpose of proselytizing, and as such is in violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which neatly and essentially separates church and state.

I have enclosed several pictures of the cross in question.

Because the United States Constitution requires government to treat all religious viewpoints equally, failure to remove the cross indicates that the City of Providence intends to administer this median as a limited public forum whereby all religiously themed groups will have equal space and access. Should the cross not be removed, Humanists of Rhode Island plans to erect an icon of similar size and visibility on the median, and will vigorously defend other religious groups who wish to do the same.

Naturally, the City will be responsible for ensuring a fair and equal distribution of land area so that no one religion dominates, and for investigating and prosecuting any instances of vandalism that may hinder the free speech and free exercise rights of unpopular religious groups.

However, this solution is not our preference.

We respectfully ask that this cross be removed from public land. We do so as a local group, without the involvement of the ACLU, or the Freedom from Religion Foundation, or any other national group because we feel that as Rhode Islanders that we can deal with this matter “in house” as it were. We do not see the need for making a gigantic case out of this issue. The cross in question was not erected years ago, is not a tribute to fallen soldiers, and is not sanctioned by the city. The removal of this cross should really be no big deal.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and we eagerly await your response,

Steve Ahlquist

President, Humanists of Rhode Island

Here are some additional photos of the cross in question:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Time to Move Woonsocket Cross to Private Land


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The Supreme Court today denied an appeal in a case involving the Mount Soledad Cross in La Jolla, California, thereby effectively ruling the 29-foot tall cross on public property unconstitutional. (For a history of the Mt. Soledad cross, see Wikipedia. For a report on today’s ruling, see here.)

This ruling should give supporters of a similar cross in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, now the center of a swirling controversy  since the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to Mayor Leo Fontaine asking the cross be removed, pause. There are many similarities between the two crosses, and those similarities demonstrate without a doubt that the Woonsocket Cross is in fact in violation of the First Amendment.

Supporters of the cross in La Jolla had argued that the cross atop the memorial was only one element of the overall design, and that the display was a war memorial, which granted the monument a kind of secularity under the law. But in January 2011, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with that logic, saying that La Jolla was sending the message that the government was endorsing a specific religion, Christianity, in allowing the cross to be displayed on public property.

The Mt. Soledad cross was built in 1954, the cross in Woonsocket was constructed in 1952, as I pointed out back in May.  This dating places both crosses solidly in the anti-communist cold war religious boom of the 1950’s. Previous to this time period war memorials were almost never adorned with religious symbols. Look around, the cases in La Jolla and Woonsocket stand out because they are exceptions. Most war memorials are secular and patriotic, not religious. But the 1950’s became a heyday for ostentatious displays of Christianity, out of fear of “godless” communism, so in addition to dotting the land with Latin crosses and Ten Commandment displays we also saw the words “under God” awkwardly jammed into the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” scrawled on our currency.

The bill passed in Rhode Island by the General Assembly in the wee ours of the morning just before ending their last legislative session that sought to confer some sort of retroactive secularity on the Woonsocket Monument, if signed into law by Governor Chafee or allowed to stand without his signature, will not pass constitutional muster, and will only serve to muddy the issue. This poorly reasoned bill will end up being contested in and thrown out by the courts, costing our state more money in legal fees.

Mayor Fontaine and the Woonsocket City Council should be very much aware of the cross in La Jolla. They were briefed on it by by legal counsel on May 1, 2012 as can be seen and heard in this video ‪The Woonsocket Cross: Woonsocket City Council Special Meeting – May 1, 2012‬  at the 27 minutes 25 seconds point. Counsel for Woonsocket felt confident that the Supreme Court would overturn the Appeals Court ruling, which would strengthen Woonsocket’s case. Unfortunately the Supreme Court decided otherwise.

The City of Woonsocket could certainly decide to fight this case, and it would be well within their rights to exhaust every legal option in doing so, but the cost to the city both financially and emotionally could be quite damaging. It might be time for Woonsocket to consider a new strategy: Move the cross topped monument to private land, and re-dedicate Place Jolicoeur with a new, secular memorial to our cherished veterans.


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