Unitarian Universalist church denied tax exempt status in Texas.

[Kazak]

<snip>

AUSTIN - Unitarian Universalists have for decades presided over births, marriages and memorials. The church operates in every state, with more than 5,000 members in Texas alone.

But according to the office of Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a Denison Unitarian church isn't really a religious organization -- at least for tax purposes. Its reasoning: the organization "does not have one system of belief."

<snip>

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/8692961.htm?is_rd=Y

:mad:

[Name removed]

Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BlueEyedSon]

6. I second that.

OTOH, maybe this will be a wedge we can use to take tax-exempt status away from all religious entities....

[mitchum]

66. That is an excellent idea!

I have been advocating removing the mumbo-jumbo-amen tax dodge for years

[VelmaD]

54. So, just to clarify...

you know that calling her a nasty gender epithet is something you probably shouldn't have done but you don't care who you offend so you did it anyway?

I hate that woman as much as anyone but can we please please PLEASE stop using gender slurs? Surely you can come up with something else to call her.

[Love Bug]

1. Hope they take this one to court

The IRS recognises UU as a tax-exempt religion, so that should be good enough for one lone TX moran.

[truth2power]

19. It'll go to court alright.!

What an idiot! :silly:

[GOPisEvil]

2. That's an outrage!!!

I cannot stand the state I live in sometimes! :mad:

[Th1onein]

51. DITTO!

AND, I live in Galveston County. Most of our news stations are in Harris County (Houston). Have you noticed how they are now featuring at least one story a night on the local news about how becoming a born again has changed someone's life? I do not want to hear this shit anymore!

[drdigi420]

3. Religion and Rednecks

As bad of a combo as Guns and Whiskey

[BabsSong]

63. drd---oh my god that is priceless---what a great, and true line n/t

[Az]

4. Oh for crying out loud

This is freaking insane. What? Tolerance as a belief is too much for Texas to handl?

[dolo amber]

31. Ummmm....Az?

Tolerance as a belief is too much for Texas to handle?

Is that a rhetorical question? ;)

[Az]

41. I hold out hope

for those caught in the pit that is Texas that are still able to form cogent thoughts. But from all reports it certainly appears that they are a dying breed.

[Stuckinthebush]

5. Here are our beliefs (or principles)

We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote

The inherent worth and dignity of every person;

Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;

Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;

A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;

The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within
our congregations and in society at large;

The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;

Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.


Sounds like Texas doesn't have a case here - except a case in discrimination against UUs.

[roguevalley]

8. I would join if there was one around here. I love this church. I hope they

take the monkeys to court.

[Az]

10. Look here

http://www.uua.org/CONG/index.php

[NJ Blue Collar]

12. Sounds scary.

/sarcasm

[progressiveBadger]

55. Wanna bet it has something to do with liberal thinking?

*SNIP*
I believe that the greatest service our faith community can perform right now is to help Americans reclaim our democracy. We should never again have a president or a legislature elected by only half of the eligible voters as happened in 2000.

http://www.uua.org/news/2004/voting/index.html

[SaveElmer]

7. It's always Texas

Sorry to any DU'ers who live there...but I hate that f'in state.

[PfcHammer]

13. I hate that f'in state too and I live here !

[0007]

64. I live here in Texas and I hate the fucking state

[Warpy]

9. The ACLU is gonna be on this bitch

...like a duck on a June bug.

[Book Lover]

11. Aha! This is

state regulation of religious practice and they can't do it!! That damn pesky federal Constitution ...

[salin]

14. In their infinite arrogance... they again open a can of worms

that has the potential to hurt themselves far more greatly than 5,000 Unitarians in Texas. Do they really want to open the door on churches and tax exempt status.... which further allows the push on the blatant political actions of some churches (think the Colorado Bishop who is now threatening parishoners that those who don't VOTE a particular way should be prevented from taking communion... think those preaching similar things about voting one way and going to heaven or hell accordingy from the pulpit...) I know the issue being used here is slightly different... but it very easily could open that door... Do the texan republicans really want to go there? These folks are as short-sighted as a mole.

[proud patriot]

15. This Pisses Me OFF

:mad:

[Gothmog]

16. Sometimes it is tough to be from Texas

This is a horrible decision and will not stand up in the courts. The Unitarians are interesting. My son's first scoutmaster was a unitarian. The Unitarians are also having a fight with BSA on their religious award for scouting because the unitarians believe that it is wrong to discriminate.

This will be a interesting fight.

[Mountainman]

17. I can see why Texas has a problem with UU

I went to the web page someone posted and went to the FAQS

Here is what the problem is:

What do you teach children?

Our children are taught to think for themselves, ..............


It is a rare thing in this country when someone teaches kids to think for themselves.

[KamaAina]

18. You have to believe in a god to be a religion?

There are Buddhists in Texas. Quite a lot of them, in fact. A lot of Vietnamese "boat people" settled along the Gulf Coast; many work in the shrimping industry. Look out, Texas Buddhists -- you're next. Christian Soldiers Strayhorn and Ancira have you in their sights! :puke: If our seven principles don't cut it with the God Squad, then maybe the Four Noble Truths don't, either.

You don't suppose this has anything to do with the fact that Unitarian Universalism, which is based in Boston, eagerly began performing same-sex marriages in Mass. on Monday, do you? We've been performing civil union ceremonies for quite a few years now. We even have a "Welcoming Congregation" process to promote acceptance of gay and lesbian congregants. Maybe that's what's really eating at them...

[charlie]

25. Yep

Republicans are all about payback. It's the price of supporting the homaseckshul agenda.

[booksenkatz]

20. Goddamn it!!!!!!!

That's it. I'm pulling off my own head. I can't take it anymore. I've been thinking about joining this church, but my dear State o' Texas says that it's not The True Religion, my dear State o' Texas has declared it is a gutter religion. I've been saying for 3 years that all of this faith-based shit will have the government deciding which religions are "real" and which are "fake." Now we're seeing it, my friends.

Go ahead and shoot me. Just stick the barrel in my mouth and pull the trigger and put this hossie out of her misery.

[Az]

23. Na

Not gonna shoot you. Better yet. Stick it in there face. This sunday march on down to the local UU church and see what all the commotion is about.

[booksenkatz]

26. LOL

Seriously! I'm laughing and screaming all at the same time. I do that alot the past 3-4 years.

I'm astounded that the government can have such a narrow definition about what a spiritual search is about. I was raised a Methodist, but even as a child I thought the Christian religion was chock-full of holes and illogic; so I've been an agnostic since I was about 20. However, I am a "searching agnostic," and consider myself very spiritual. That's why I think that UU would be a good fit, to assist me on my search. How dare the state tell me that my search is not a genuine one, even though I'm not set on the idea of a god/gods yet. How dare the state tell my pagan friends that their spiritual experiences are not real. How dare the state call anything that is not traditionally Christian a "crazy cult," while they attend their churches each Sunday and eat flesh and drink blood. Does it occur to them that some of us find their behavior to be cultish and bizarre?

These are the same people who tell me that my agnosticism is a system of belief...!

Heck, the Methodist church in which I was raised doesn't even have "one system of belief" any more, because half of them are supportive of gays, the other half is not. Does the Methodist church retain tax-exempt status in Texas these days????

We either grant all of them tax-exempt status, or NONE of them. This is utter crap.

[HootieMcBoob]

21. Some well known Unitarian Universalists who might disagree with Texas

Who are some of the more famous UUs?

Five United States presidents were Unitarians: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore and William Taft. While he did not specifically identify with any organized religion, Abraham Lincoln had Universalist leanings. Other famous UUs are listed below.

Horatio Alger (1832-1899), writer of rags-to-riches books for boys.
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), author of Little Women and other books.
Tom Andrews, U.S. Representative from Maine.
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), organizer of the women's suffrage movement.
George Bancroft (1800-1891), founder of the U.S. Naval Academy.
Adin Ballou (1803-1890), critic of the injustices of capitalism.
P.T. Barnum (1810-1891), well-known showman, owner of the Barnum and Bailey Circus, and a founder of Tufts University.
Bela Bartok (1881-1945), Hungarian composer.
Clara Barton (1821-1912), founder of the American Red Cross.
Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), inventor of the telephone; founder of Bell Telephone Company.
Henry Bergh (1811-1888), a founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Nathaniel Bowditch (1773-1838), mathematician, navigator, astronomer.
Ray Bradbury, science fiction writer.
William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), author and newspaper editor.
Charles Bulfinch (1763-1844), architect of the United States Capitol building.
Luther Burbank (1849-1926), American botanist of the early 20th century.
Robert Burns (1759-1796), Scottish poet and song writer.
William Ellery Channing (1780-1842), abolitionist, founder of Unitarianism in America.
William Cohen, U.S. Senator from Maine.
Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888), lithographer, partner of James Merritt Ives.
e.e. cummings (1894-1962), 20th century American poet, noted for his unorthodox style and technique.
Charles Darwin (1809-1882), scientist and evolutionist, author of Origin of the Species.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870), English novelist.
Dorothea Dix (1802-1887), crusader for the reform of institutions for the mentally ill.
Don Edwards, U.S. Representative from California since 1965.
Charles William Eliot (1834-1926), president of Harvard, editor of the Harvard Classics.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Unitarian minister, philosopher, essayist.
Edward Everett (1794-1865), president of Harvard, governor of Massachusetts, UU minister.
Fannie Farmer (1857-1915), cooking expert.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), scientist, writer, statesman, printer.
Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), a feminist before her time. Leading figure in the Transcendentalist movement and an editor of The Dial, along with Ralph Waldo Emerson.
William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879), abolitionist, editor of The Liberator.
Horace Greeley (1811-1872), journalist, politician, editor and owner of the New York Tribune, champion of labor unions and cooperatives.
Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909), Unitarian minister and author of The Man Without a Country.
Andrew Hallidie (1836-1900), inventor of the cable car.
Bret Harte (1836-1902), writer, author of The Luck of Roaring Camp.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), 19th century American novelist, author of The Scarlet Letter.
John Haynes Holmes (1879-1964), co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935), lawyer and member of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1902-32.
Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910), composer of Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876), pioneer in working with the deaf and blind.
Abner Kneeland (1774-1844), advocate of land reform, public education and birth control.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), poet, author of Paul Revere's Ride.
James Russell Lowell (1819-1891), noted 19th century poet, anti-slavery leader, and Unitarian minister.
Horace Mann (1796-1859), a leader in the public school movement, founder of the first public school in America in Lexington, Mass., President of Antioch College, U.S. Congressman.
John Marshall (1755-1835), Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Thomas Masaryk (1850-1937), the first president of Czechoslovakia (1920), proponent of democracy and social justice.
Herman Melville (1819-1891), writer, author of Moby Dick.
Samuel Morse (1791-1872), inventor of the telegraph and Morse Code.
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), British nurse and hospital reformer.
Thomas Paine (1737-1809), editor and publisher of Common Sense.
Theodore Parker (1810-1860), a renegade Unitarian minister of the mid-19th century and a leading figure of the Abolitionist movement in the Boston area.
Linus Pauling, chemist, won Nobel Peace Prize, 1962.
Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), author of Peter Rabbit and other children's stories.
Joseph Priestly (1733-1804), discoverer of oxygen, Unitarian minister.
Elliot Richardson, former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, and Attorney General (1973).
Paul Revere (1735-1818), silversmith and patriot.
Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), signer of the Declaration of Independence; physician, considered to be the Father of American Psychiatry.
Carl Sandberg (1878-1967), American poet, won Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Abraham Lincoln.
Ted Sorenson, speechwriter and aide to John F. Kennedy.
Charles Steinmetz (1865-1923), electrical engineer, holder of 200 patents, known for his theoretical studies of alternating current.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965), Governor of Illinois, candidate for President, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.
George Stephenson (1781-1848), English engineer, invented the first locomotive.
Gilbert Charles Stuart (1755-1828), artist, best known for his portrait of George Washington.
Sylvanus Thayer (1785-1872), engineer, founded U.S. Military Academy.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), essayist and naturalist, author of Walden Pond.
Hendrik Wilhem Van Loon (1882-1944), historian and author.
Kurt Vonnegut, writer, author of Slaughterhouse-Five.
Daniel Webster (1782-1852), orator, U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, presidential candidate.
Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795), English potter, founder of Wedgwood Pottery.
Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959), architect.
Owen D. Young (1874-1962), Chairman of General Electric Company.
Whitney Young (1921-1971), head of the Urban League.

[Az]

22. Who's Who in UU

Is a book distributed by UniUniques and written by a friend and former room mate of mine details a huge list of all the notable UUs throughout history.

http://www.uniuniques.com/Books/WomenIssues.htm Lower left.

[LosinIt]

34. Actually, Susan B. is a Quaker by birth

[SaveElmer]

37. I was a Catholic by birth

Not one now!!!

[progressiveBadger]

56. Me Too

Even went to seminary. That's what put me over the edge. That, and this one time I was at a wedding and they wouldn't let the groom take communion because he was Lutheran.
I NEVER enjoyed Catholic Church, but I love going to UU service on Sundays.

[Michael Costello]

43. Haven't four presidents been UUs?

Not that this should even be necessary to say unless we've turned into some Nazi or Ayatollah run country, but four presidents have been Unitarians: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore and William Howard Taft. And all of a sudden it isn't a religion because Strayhorn thinks it strays too far from whatever she is (probably a Pentecostal wacko or something)? This reminds me of the pre Revolutionary war religious persecution that went on in the colonies. Unbelievable!

I wouldn't even want to imagine that this can stand on the books. I think these people just push different buttons to see how far they can push things in post-US Patriot Act USA.

[Az]

45. Thomas Jefferson stated that he believed

That Unitarianism would be the nation's foremost religion by the end of the century.

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

62. And, they're all Godless heathens and devil worshipers.

ONLY BAPTISTS...Texas Baptists at that...get into heaven. Oh, I almost forgot. Only "white Repuke Texas Baptists" get into heaven.

JB

[Walt Starr]

24. Let her have it!

Contact info:

Carole Keeton Strayhorn [phone] Executive Administration

Carole Keeton Strayhorn
Texas Comptroller
Post Office Box 13528, Capitol Station
Austin, Texas 78711-3528

[LeftHander]

27. I sent this along to my UU church discussion list

I am sure that there already is a law suit being written as we speak.

YOu see how dangerous Religious Fundementalism is in a free society...

It warps reality and creates an environment where one faith discriminate, dehumanize, villify and ultimately exterminate others.

I am outraged.

Here she is: Check out the big cross she is sporting. This picture is her "official" Texas Government portrait for public display.



And Her Bio:

http://www.window.state.tx.us/comptrol/ckrbio.html

Send her a letter or phone call

Carole Keeton Strayhorn

Texas Comptroller

Post Office Box 13528, Capitol Station

Austin, Texas 78711-3528

[phone]

[PatGund]

32. And look at who she spawned.....

They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree....

"Her youngest son, Scott McClellan, is Press Secretary to the President of the United States; her eldest son, Dr. Mark McClellan, is the Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; her twin sons, Brad McClellan and Dudley McClellan are both attorneys. Brad is an Assistant Attorney General for Texas-Chief of Workers’ Compensation Section and Dudley is a respected attorney in Austin’s private sector."

In other words, she's a good little officer in the BFEE and has popped out good little propagandists and lawyers. And Shrub must owe a lot to her, if one of her spawn is his press secretary and another is the FDA Comissioner.

[SaveElmer]

39. So it is her whack husband

That wrote the book blaming LBJ for JFK's murder...?

edit for type

[GOPisEvil]

40. Ex-husband #1...

;-)

Republican family values, ya know.

[Kazak]

48. MmmmBoy...

Just look at that execution device...er...cross around her neck.

[Az]

50. Is it my imagination or

I really hate having to descend to this sort of attack buttttt sheesh, is she embalmed or something?

[Roaming]

28. This will 99% certain to be overturned. If they grant tax-exempt status

for the Scientologists, who for goodness sakes believe in a religion founded by a science fiction writer, then UU certainly falls well within the realm of the requirements.

[TreasonousBastard]

29. "It is a creedless religion"...

and Texas seems to insist on creeds for tax exemption. There must be a codified belief in a supreme being for Texas to consider it a religion.

Apparently, this decision has been around since the prior comptroller, but at least one other UU church has the exemption, so they're not playing as fair as they claim.

This does not bode well for Quakers, B'hais, Buddhists, pagans, animists, and other sects that don't codify a belief in a particular God. It also does not bode well for anyone who believes in a God or gods that don't meet Texas' definition of a "proper" god.

In fact, the article does mention some others that have been specifically denied tax exemption because they didn't comply with Texas' definition of a religion.

Maybe we should just let the Republic of Texas types have their way. It's out of oil and we have the BBQ recipes, and there's nothing else we need from them, so let them go their way.

Does the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo let us give it back to Mexico?

[Az]

30. This does open some doors

If UUism is not a religion in Texas then that means we can teach it in the schools. We can include UU ideas in legislation. We can force UUs tolerance on others as law.

[Bridget Burke]

33. Jesus!

There are already a bunch of UU churches in Texas. I'll bet they've already got the ACLU on the line. In Houston, we also have Buddhist temples, a Taoist group, some Parsis, etc.

Carol Keeton Strayhorn may well be running against Governor Perry; her office is rumored to be the source of "the rumor". Kinky Friedman is looking better every day.

[chelsea0011]

35. Just Great! One of the countries oldest institutions of religion slapped

Just what does it mean "doesn't have one set of beliefs"? Knowing how these so-called Christian belt states operate, I bet the true meaning is "doesn't believe in Christ". Watch out for the next group.

[Bread and Circus]

36. If I were to ever attend a religious institution it would be a Unitarian

Church....

[Sword of Whedon]

42. Church taxes

We either grant all of them tax-exempt status, or NONE of them. This is utter crap.

None of them, especially people like Falwell and Pat Robertson. If they want to peddle their faiths, they do it totally on their own dime and pay into the pot like everyone else.

[SaveElmer]

38. To be "Strictly Constructionist" about it

There is nothing in the constitution that defines religion!

The underlying reason for not taxing churches is to maintain the seperation between church and state. If this is not reversed it is headed to the supreme court.

We'll see how strictly constructionist Scalia is now eh ?

[Stuckinthebush]

44. Let's take a look at some of the scary UUs, shall we?

http://www.famousuus.com/

Who were some famous
Unitarian Universalists?

In American politics:
Abigail Adams*
John Adams*
John Quincy Adams
Ethan Allen
Chester Bliss Bowles
Harold Hitz Burton
John C. Calhoun
Joseph S. Clark
William S. Cohen
Paul H. Douglas
Emily Taft Douglas
Thomas H. Eliot
Edward Everett
Millard Fillmore*
Benjamin Franklin*
Horace Greeley*
Hannibal Hamlin
Thomas Jefferson*
Edward S. Mason
Wade McCree
Maurine Neuberger
Lucius Paige (1802-1896)
Thomas Paine
William J. Perry
Paul Revere*
Josiah Quincy (1722-1864)
Elliot L. Richardson
Leverett Saltonstall
Francis George Shaw
Col. Robert Gould Shaw
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965)*
William Howard Taft*
Daniel Webster*

In Arts and Literature:
Hannah Adams (1755-1821)
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)* (posters)
Horatio Alger (1834-1899)*
Blanche Ames Ames (1878-1969)
Thomas Appleton (1812-1884)
Ben H. Bagdikian (1920-)
P.T. Barnum* (1810-1891) (stamp)
Béla Bartók* (1881-1945)
Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
José María Blanco White (1775-1841)
Ray Bradbury
William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)
Charles Bulfinch (1763-1844)
Robert Burns*
Alice Cary (1820-1871)
Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Henry Steele Commager
Norman Cousins
e. e. cummings (1894-1962)
Nathaniel Currier* (1813-1888)
Merle E. Curti
Charles Dickens*
John Sullivan Dwight (1813-1893)
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)*
William Emerson
Fannie Farmer (1857-1915)
Arthur Foote (1853-1937)
Robert Fulghum
Buckminster Fuller
Margaret Fuller (1810-1850)
Frank Gannett
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865)
Caroline Howard Gilman (1794-1888)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935)
Edvard Grieg*
Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909)
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Bret Harte (1836-1902)*
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)*
Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne (1809-1871)
Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911)
Richard Hildreth (1807-1865)
Edith Holden (1871-1920)
Mary Austin Holley (1784-1846)
John Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935)
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894)*
Frederick Lucian Hosmer (1840-1929)
Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)
Jordan Jones
Georgy Kepes (1906-2002)
W.M. Kiplinger
Luigi von Kunits
Charles Lamb (1775-1834)
Margaret Laurence (1926-)
Michael Learned
Arthur Lismer
Dorothea Livesay (1909-)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)*

Henrick Van Loon
Amy Lowell (1874-1925)
James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)*
Edwin Markham (1852-1940)
Harriet Martineau (and more)
Bernard Maybeck
Frederic G. Melcher
John Milton (1608-1674)
Herman Melville*
Robert Munsch
Paul Newman (1925-)
James Pierpont (1822-1893)
Daniel Pinkham
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)
Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)*
Olive Higgins Prouty (1882-1974)
Christopher Reeve (1952-)
Malvina Reynolds
Carl Sandberg (1878-1967)
Lillian Steichen Sandburg
May Sarton (1912-1995)
Edmund Hamilton Sears (1810-1876)
Pete Seeger (1919-)
Rod Serling
Robert Shaw (1916-1999)
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851)
Lister Sinclair
Jerry Sohl
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)*
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)*
Kurt Vonnegut
Dan Wakefield
José María Blanco White (1775-1841)
John Greenleaf Whittier
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
Frank Lloyd Wright*
Quincy Wright
N. C. Wyeth (1882-1945)

In philosophy and theology:
James Luther Adams
Henry Steele Commager
John Dewey
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)*
Charles Hartshorne
John Hayward
Arthur Lovejoy
Henry Nelson Wieman


In science & medicine:
Alexander Graham Bell*
Tim Berners-Lee
Elizabeth Blackwell
T. Berry Brazelton
Luther Burbank*
Hugh Cabot
Ida M. Cannon
Walter Bradford Cannon
Walter Channing (1786-1876)
Brock Chisholm
Laurel Salton Clark (UU coverage)
Stanley Cobb
Arthur Code
Peter Cooper
Charles Darwin
Edmond Halley (Edmund Halley) (1656-1742)
Lewis Latimer
Maria Mitchell
Ashley Montagu
Samuel F.B. Morse*
Winfred Overholser
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
Florence Nightingale
Linus Pauling
Cecila Payne-Gaposchkin
William Pickering
Joseph Priestley*
Benjamin Rush (1745-1813)
Michael Servetus (1509/11-1553)
Herbert A. Simon
Lyman Spitzer
Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879-1962)
Charles P. Steinmetz (1865-1923)
Emily Howard Stowe*
Clyde Tombaugh (1906-1997)
Maurice B. Visscher (1901-1983)
Dr. Joseph Workman (1805-1894)
Sewall Wright

[MurrayDelph]

52. Not to mention (apparently)

Orville Redenbacher.

Many years ago, my wife (who quit the local UU church when they hired a female minister, who:
a) tried to make the services more Christian
b) hit on my wife's teenage daughter)

was at the local church service when someone who looked a hell of a lot like Orvilee walked in. No one talked to him, because they didn't know what to say other than "Wow, you look a lot like Orville Redenbacher."

The next day it was in the paper that Orville was in town on business.

[Sparkly]

59. I used to work at a UU church

and I can tell you there are a lot of Washington lawyers who are UU, believe it or not!

[Az]

46. Na. Couldn't have anything to do with this.

Legal at Last: Julie and Hillary Goodridge Married at UUA Headquarters

(Boston, May 17, 2004) In Eliot Hall on the second floor of the UUA's Headquarters building, a room in which civil rights leaders are memorialized and which overlooks the Massachusetts State House grounds, Julie and Hillary Goodridge were legally married in a 2 PM ceremony attended by friends, family, and dozens of media representatives from around the world

www.uua.org

[Az]

47. Affirming the inherent worth and dignity of every person

Guess that doesn't count as a belief in Texas.

[Michael Costello]

49. Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn's web site

The Texas comptroller web site is http://www.window.state.tx.us

Her bio which features a picture of her with a giant cross is here http://www.window.state.tx.us/comptrol/ckrbio.html

A line to general help in her office is 1-800-531-5441 ext.50996

I called and asked why she is going after churches. I did not want to hassle the bureaucrats there too much, but I did ask rhetorically to each one I was transferred to if she was a Nazi. I called information, was transferred to communications, told they only talk to the press, then I was transferred to general counsel.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

53. It's way past time for someone to MESS WITH TEXAS. Learn'em to play nice.

[pop goes the weasel]

57. Carole Keaton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn

is gunning to be gubner. She is positioning herself as the champion of family values. Should be a good show in the Republican primary 2006. Serial monogamist Strayhorn, closet gay Perry, and "I slept with the whole team" Hutchison duking it out over who is the Bestest Defender of Values No One Upholds.

[montieg]

58. Whoa! Wait a minute all

you stereotypers. Not all Texans are guilty because of the actions of one--or even many. We're not all rednecks or cretins or a dying breed. True, the Republicans have taken the reins of government, but this didn't start till the 70's, when thousands upon thousands of non-natives began to move here--to wit: George f'ing Bush! HE NOR ANY OF HIS FAMILY IS TEXAN! None of them would make a pimple on a Texan's butt!

[PurityOfEssence]

60. Texas truly is the State of Hate

What is the matter with this place? I guess a belief that accepts that it may not have all the answers to the universe just doesn't qualify as belief.

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

61. CAN WE SELL TEXAS BACK TO MEXICO?? Stupid fundie hicks

Why is it that Texas is filled with backwards-assed fundies who are more than willing to fry folks on the electric chair, yet they will fight tooth and nail to "save the babies"?

You couldn't pay me enough money to live in this godforsaken state. Hot. No real vegetation. Hicks. Racists. Bush family members.

Ugh...


JB

[BabsSong]

65. Okay, Unitarians, this is what ya' gotta do down there:

1) roll around on the floor once in awhile and scream that God just talked to you. 2) find a kid that your 'clergy' can molest. 3) suck money big time out of your members. 4) Preach that George is Jesus II. And then they'll let you off the hook in Texas---obviously the size of the state has nothing to do with the size of the IQ down there.

[dawn]

67. This better be overturned. If not, I think this is just the beginning.

As others have mentioned, Buddhists and other non-theistic religions will be next.

And other states will follow Texas' lead, and then Bush* will try to amend the constitution to state what is and isn't a proper religion. IE if it doesn't require worship in a sky-God, or induce a sheep-like deference to authority without questioning, it's not a religion.

Wake up, America!