Groups wants atheists included in DNC interfaith service

The interfaith service scheduled to take place at the Democratic National Convention's Aug. 24 in Denver is supposed to be about unity.

But to a Washington, D.C., coalition that supports nontheistic views, it's about division.

The Secular Coalition Group, a lobbying organization for church-and-state separation, is pushing to get an atheist on the speaker list, and contends the service is divisive because it alienates nonreligious Democrats at a time when the party needs to unite to support the presumptive nominee, Sen. Barack Obama.

"We can all hold different beliefs," said the group's executive director, Lori Lipman Brown, "but we can still come together as patriotic Americans."

The interfaith service, the first official event of the DNC, has Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist speakers on the roster. Convention CEO Leah D. Daughtry, a Pentecostal minister, said in a statement that the purpose of the first-ever Democratic Convention service is "to honor the diverse faith traditions inside the Democratic Party."

Brown said the coalition wrote Daughtry twice in July asking for inclusion but has received no response. She said Thursday she didn't know if the group would make another request.

Natalie Wyeth, a convention spokesperson, said Wednesday that everyone, regardless of belief, is welcome at the public service, but would not address if an atheist would be added to the speaker list.

"The goal is to come together in the spirit of unity and start the week off right," Wyeth said.

Becky Hale, a founder of the atheist group Freethinkers of Colorado Springs, said the service discriminates against nonbelieving Democrats.

"By reaching out to people of faith," Hale said, "they have shown the back of their hand to those who do not believe."

Marvin Straus, co-founder of the Boulder Atheists and part of the Colorado Coalition of Reason, which includes 11 state atheist groups, said some organizations are planning to protest during the Aug. 25-28 convention because of the Democrats' "pandering" for the religious vote. But no protests are planned to take place during the Aug. 24 interfaith service.

Religion - or lack thereof - has already made headlines in the months leading up to the convention. In June, the Madison,Wis.-based Freedom from Religion Foundation, a 12,000-member watchdog group for the separation of church and state, erected a billboard near the Colorado Convention Center that proclaimed "Imagine No Religion." In early August the sign was changed to "Keep Religion Out of Politics."

During the convention, the foundation will fund mobile billboards asking for church-state separation and broadcasting its view that religion is divisive.

"Faith does not unite us," Freedom co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor said. "And this is a time when we should be in unity behind our secular government."

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0367 or mark.barna@gazette.com.

Democratic National Convention interfaith service
Where: Wells Fargo Theatre inside the Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th St., Denver
When: 2 p.m. Aug. 24
Cost: Free, but tickets are required and can be obtained at www.demconvention.com/interfaith, or by calling 1-720-362-2520.