Did Atheists Try to “Hijack” National Religious Freedom Day?

The Fredericksburg Coalition of Reason participates in a religious liberty parade in Fredericksburg, VA.

In January of last year, the Religious Freedom Coalition’s William Murray (who is the self-described son of “destructive atheist and Marxist leader Madalyn Murray O’Hair”) wrote that atheists tried to “hijack” a National Religious Freedom Day in Fredericksburg, Virginia. This event was designed to commemorate the 1786 Virginia Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom drafted by President Thomas Jefferson. In his speech Murray asserted that “Freedom is about offending others. If I am not allowed to offend someone today, then I must not have freedom of speech.” Having read Murray’s WorldNetDaily article describing the event, I had to attend this year’s parade on January 11 to see what might go down this time.

The Knights of Columbus sponsored the event (initially created by a local professor) and dominated the parade as they have in the past (see their program from 2010), with a large number of people adorned in feathered hats, swords, and capes. Following closely behind the Knights of Columbus was a local Boy Scouts troop, followed by a group from a local Lutheran church with their banner, then a small group of Muslims from the Fredericksburg Ummah Islamic Center, the Fredericksburg Coalition of Reason (CoR), the Washington Area Secular Humanists, and finally the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Fellowship of Fredericksburg. When we arrived at the Thomas Jefferson Religious Freedom Monument (flanked by twenty or so Knights on each side), instead of pushing to the front, as Murray claimed they did last year, the UU and Fredericksburg CoR groups were invited to stand nearer to the platform with their banners. The platform was packed with an array of around forty-five dignitaries—listed in the program of events—at least twenty-five of whom were Knights, at least three Masons, more than five Christian leaders, three Muslims, and the remaining were various elected officials.

The master of ceremonies, Virginia Delegate Robert D. Orrock, opened the event with the Pledge of Allegiance, expressing and requiring the use of the phrase “under God.” As he explained to me via email, “the term ‘under God’ in the pledge…is how the pledge is written and as I explained [at the event], when said grammatically correct there should be no pause in the recitation.” Following heavily theistic prayer delivered by Rev. Lawrence Davies (former mayor of Fredericksburg), the Honorable Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw provided the historical backdrop to the importance of the commemoration.

Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (himself a Knight and now working with the Senate Conservatives Fund) brought the keynote address, which was filled with some broad-sweeping and inaccurate phrases of religious and cultural history. “So much of the foundation of what has grown to be unique American freedom that is the light of the world began in Virginia,” Cuccinelli said, also stating that the Virginia statute showed that “a government that was destined to become the greatest in the world would recognize that at the outset and do it right here where America intellectually began in Virginia.”

Given Virginia’s rich diversity, reflected in its most recent census, in addition to watching groups with sincerely held beliefs directed to the rear of the parade, raised questions for me. I emailed Cuccinelli and Grand Knight Nunez at the Knights of Columbus 4034 to ask why there wasn’t a more diverse range of belief groups—including nontheistic—represented on the platform and why, in light of religious liberty, nobody asked the Sheikh Imam to offer a Muslim du’a, despite being only a few feet behind the podium. Neither Cuccinelli nor Nunez responded to my emailed inquiry for comment.

To see real religious liberty, one would have needed to attend the event after the parade, co-sponsored by Fredericksburg CoR and the University of Mary Washington. There, three students—self-professed and unashamed Christians—were given cash awards for their essays on why religious liberty for everyone is important to them. The seventh-grade student, Abigail Leidy, understood what real religious liberty is: respecting people of different faiths and cultures. That’s diversity, and it stood in stark contrast to what was on display earlier in the day.

Over 150 people attended a co-sponsored event celebrating religious liberty in Fredericksburg, VA.