Americans United for Separation of Church and State

Americans United for Separation of Church and State ( Americans United or AU) (English for: Americans United for Separation of Church and State ) is a US-based organization that is committed to the separation of separation of church and state in the U.S.. This principle is called for in the so-called Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

Organization

Americans United is independent and non-partisan. Their headquarters is located in Washington, DC. The organization includes religious and non-religious members from different parties. The current Executive Director Barry W. Lynn, priest at the United Church of Christ, and advocate for civil rights.

History

Americans United for Separation of Church and State was founded in 1947 as Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State ( POAU ). The occasion was a bill of Congress, who had to content, government funding for religious schools to increase ..

The organization wanted to influence the policy and gave the magazine Church & State and other materials out to raise awareness of their concerns.

In its early years, the organization focused on opposition to the Catholic Church and has been described by critics as " anti- Catholic".

1960 Executive Director Glenn L. Archer began a dialogue with presidential candidate John F. Kennedy.

In 1962 and 1963 when the Supreme Court of the United States of its decision Abington School District v. Schempp, a decision that banned state-sponsored school prayer and Bible readings in public schools. In the public debate, the AU verteigte the decision against attempts to introduce school prayer again.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, the Christian right in the U.S., including Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority began to attack secularism. AU stood in opposition to these experiments and achieved a number of successes.

In the 1990s, Pat Robertson formed the Christian Coalition of America. This organization called for an end to the state training and for a " Christianization " of politics. AU fought against this project.

Au participated in the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial Area School District, which was a major blow to the attempt to teach the pseudo-scientific Intelligent Design theory in public schools as an alternative to evolutionary biology.