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FFRF warns Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin

Breaking News!

Over the past months several members of the Central Valley Alliance of Atheists and Skeptics have been reviewing the video archive of Fresno City Council meetings.  Our findings show that sectarian prayer has been used to open all Council Meetings in 2009.

Even in the case where the City Council invited an Islamic religious leader, that person still made a specific endorsement of Jesus Christ.  Why this was necessary seems unclear.

CVAAS has sent these findings to the Freedom from Religion Foundation and asked for their help.  The FFRF has responded by posting a letter to Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, urging her to discontinue the practice of hosting sectarian prayers.

This letter points out that by hosting sectarian prayers Fresno is alienating non-Christians and those who hold no religious beliefs, making non-Christians, “political outsiders of their own community and government.”

The Central Valley Alliance of Atheists and Skeptics has announced the letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation in a press release.

CVAAS regrets the religious prayers that exclude part of Fresno’s population.  The sanctioning of these prayers implies that some Fresno Citizens are more favored than others.

NOTE:  We are discussing this event at the Rational Valley Forums.  Why don’t you join us there?

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Continuing the Discussion

  1. A Gallery of Local Hatred and Unreasoned Animosity | Notes linked to this post on February 10, 2010

    [...] Central Valley Alliance of Atheists and Skeptics recently prompted the Freedom From Religion Foundation to send a warning letter to Fresno Mayor Ashley [...]

  2. Fresno City Council Discriminates Against Non-Christians… « Tulare County Atheists linked to this post on February 10, 2010

    [...] Christian prayer before council meetings. The story has been covered by the Fresno Bee and the CVAAS themselves. Be sure to read the comments on the Bee article. They’re good for a [...]

  3. uberVU - social comments linked to this post on February 11, 2010

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    This post was mentioned on Twitter by calladus: RT: @CVAAS: Freedom from Religion Foundation warns Mayor Swearengin over Fresno City Council Prayers: http://bit.ly/9JW1Ee...