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Project Freedom of Religion (Project FOR) is a Southern California organization of Unitarian-Universalists (UUs) who actively support religious liberty for all Americans, and who work to preserve the religious freedoms found in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

THE ATTACK ON OUR FEDERAL COURTS

The Bush administration is nominating extremely conservative judges to lifetime appointments on our federal courts. This can have the effect of turning back many laws that protect our environment, consumers, privacy, and abortion rights. To learn more about this the Federal Judiciary and the Bush administration's extremist judicial nominations agenda, go to
http://www.independentjudiciary.com

WHY ACT FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY NOW?

"There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America." --Pat Buchanan

As members of a religious community, we are concerned about the growing strength of religious political extremists and their agenda to infuse their personal religious beliefs into our society by ...

• Undermining public education through school board take overs and advocacy of plans (such as school vouchers) to fund church schools.
• Censoring public school curriculum, public libraries, the media and the arts.
• Ending sex education and AIDS education in schools (other than abstinence-only).
• Demonizing gay men and lesbians.
• Promoting state-sponsored prayer.
• Creating legislation that allows the government to intrude into our religious and civil life.

PROJECT FREEDOM OF RELIGION ACTIVITIES

Project FOR is an advocate for tolerance, diversity, and religious freedom in our communities. We speak out about attempts to subvert constitutional guarantees of the separation of church and state in our local school districts, in state and national legislation. As an information resource on church and state issues, we also join with other organizations in offering the media an opposing point of view to the religious right.

Welcoming the Freedom Train in San Diego

Our activities fall into these four areas.

I. Provide resources to our member congregations.

• Create guidelines and glossaries for ferreting out "stealth" candidates for school boards and other local elections.
• Develop and produce talking points and meeting guides on church and state issues.
• Send Project FOR representatives to support local activities by speaking from the pulpit, organizing and leading workshops, and troubleshooting on specific local issues.
• Help individual congregations organize local Project FOR committees.
• Communicate to local congregations with regular newsletter stories.
• Provide videos, signs, bibliographies, bumper stickers and other educational materials.

II. Build coalitions with other religious and secular organizations who are concerned with church and state issues.

• Foster coalitions of faith communities at the local level, especially with chapters of the Interfaith Religious Liberty Association.
• Distribute "talking points" and other materials that we develop on church and state issues to other religious organizations.
• Support and work on specific issues with other national and regional organizations who are concerned with the invasive power of the religious right.

III. Conduct advocacy on selected legislation.

• Monitor school board elections and other issues taken up by the religious right.
• Encourage letter writing to media and legislators on issues.
• Use personal and coalition contacts to tell our story.

IV. Strengthen linkages with the Pacific Southwest district of the Unitarian Universalist Association with resources for their prophetic and teaching ministries.

Established in 1994, Project Freedom of Religion is made up of congregational representatives from more than twenty-five UU congregations. We meet regularly to share information, develop strategies, and act on local, statewide and national church and state issues and actively support interfaith work to preserve religious liberty through separation of church and state.
	PFOR Table at UUA, Phoenix

Co-sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and the Pacific Southwest District of the Unitarian Universalist Association, Project FOR is also funded by donations from individual donors.