Good news! Our PHRC complaint investigation is under way.

Our complaint has been filed, and the case has been taken up by the PHRC for now. In summary, the Chambersburg Borough Council has until April 11th to respond, although they can get a 30 day extension if they wish. After that response, we will be sitting down with the council to try and resolve this dispute amicably.

You can read up more about the current situation here: http://www.publicopiniononline.com/localnews/ci_14736754

“If the first event is successful and local members want to continue meeting on a regular basis, we’ll do whatever we can to support them,” Neubauer said. Membership in the organization is free.

Interested persons should contact us by email for meeting time and location.

Hour 1:
Download: Right Click here, then ‘Save Link As’

Hour 2:
Download: Right Click here, then ‘Save Link As’

Hour 3:
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Pennsylvania Nonbelievers presents the December 22, 2009 episode of “The Free Thought Forum”, our monthly cable-access TV show. Featuring Steve Neubauer and Carl Silverman. This is the episode that covers our legal action on the Chambersburg Creche Controversy.

Contact: http://www.panonbelievers.org/contact for details. We will release further information to press agencies who request it.

Atheist Group Files Religious Discrimination Complaint
Against Borough of Chambersburg

YORK, PA– PA Nonbelievers, Inc. (PAN), central Pennsylvania’s leading organization of atheists, agnostics, and secular humanists, announced tonight that it has filed a religious discrimination complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) against the Borough of Chambersburg. The action stems from the Borough’s treatment of the organization when it requested to install a seasonal display at the Borough’s war memorial fountain.

The complaint was submitted to the PHRC on December 7th and announced on PAN’s monthly cable television show in York today. A video of PAN’s announcement will be archived at the group’s website www.panonbelievers.org within several days. Note from webmaster: It’s now up – Click here to view it

In November, PAN asked the Borough of Chambersburg for the same display privilege afforded to other private groups, including one which had erected a Christian nativity scene annually at the fountain. PAN’s display would have celebrated the Winter Solstice and honored atheist war veterans, in keeping with the war memorial theme of the fountain, as specified by written Borough policy. Instead, the Borough Council, upon receiving PAN’s request, voted unanimously to immediately prohibit PAN’s display, the nativity scene, and all other displays in the entire square, except for flowers and American flags.

PAN president, Steve Neubauer, said the group considers its action part of a “larger national civil rights struggle against a religious majority that wants to keep nonbelievers as invisible as possible to prevent them from gaining even a proportional share of political power.”

“How else can you explain the Borough Council president’s comment that our simple request for equal treatment was ‘tyranny of the minority’?”

Neubauer said the organization hopes that the dispute can be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction through the PHRC without the long and expensive path of a federal lawsuit. But he said, PAN has spoken with civil liberties legal groups and could be forced to sue if an acceptable outcome is not reached through the PHRC proceedings.

Documents related to PAN’s display request are posted at

http://www.panonbelievers.org/2009/12/12/for-public-release-pan-documents-submitted-to-the-chambersburg-borough-council/.

Audio of PAN’s appearance before the Borough Council on November 23rd is available at

http://www.panonbelievers.org/2009/11/29/audio-from-chambersburg-borough-meeting-11232009/.

The discrimination complaint may be posted at a later date.

During the show, viewers can call in with questions at 717-846-5067, or they can send questions in advance to harrisburg@panonbelievers.org. (Please note: That number will only reach us during the call-in show).

In November, PAN asked the Borough of Chambersburg for the same display privilege afforded to a private group which had erected a Christian nativity scene annually at the fountain. PAN’s display would have celebrated the Winter Solstice and honored atheist war veterans, in keeping with the theme of the fountain, as specified by written Borough policy. Instead, the Borough Council voted unanimously to immediately prohibit PAN’s display, the nativity scene, and all other displays in the entire square, except for flowers and American flags.

Despite the prompt relocation of the nativity to a church front abutting the square, PAN’s proposal, as well as the Borough’s response, created a firestorm of controversy and international media coverage.

PA Nonbelievers, Inc. is affiliated with American Atheists, Atheist Alliance International and the Council for Secular Humanism.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Documents related to PAN’s proposal are posted at:

http://www.panonbelievers.org/2009/12/12/for-public-release-pan-documents-submitted-to-the-chambersburg-borough-council/

Audio of PAN’s appearance before the Borough Council on November 23rd is available at:

http://www.panonbelievers.org/2009/11/29/audio-from-chambersburg-borough-meeting-11232009/

The thing that mystifies me the most about the Chambersburg debacle is that Christians are acting the same way that they accuse atheists of acting, but are totally oblivious to that fact. I am sure that every person that has expressed a wish for harm to befall Carl and the other members of PAN, can justify the sentiment by what they perceive as a non-forgivable crime against them, God, Jesus and heaven itself.

Not once do they ever reflect on if any “sin” has actually, even been committed. The Christians have a lynch mob mentality that blinds them to facts, forgiveness, love or what they would have considered Christian virtues and morals before they got so damn riled up.

Christian philosophy dictates that to be a true Christian, you must have Jesus in your heart and mind at all times.  It seems to me that the Chambersburg Christians have substituted a cold hard plaster doll for what they should have inside them. Note how easy it was for the Borough Council to Pick-Pocket Jesus from the steadfast people and replace it with a lifeless figurine.

So much for the strength of Christianity, that can be felled by a plaster doll.

The residents of Chambersburg, and for that matter everyone that has responded with such vitriol, to examine what is beating inside their chest and note the hollow empty sound their ticker is making.

Doug.