Colo. Governor Refuses to Welcome Atheist Group

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Gov. Bill Owens  and Mayor Lionel Rivera declined to extend an official welcome to the Atheist Alliance for its national convention this weekend, and attendees said they felt slighted.

Rivera said he thinks the group's request for a letter of welcome was the only one he had turned down in his 11 months in office. Terry Sullivan of the Colorado Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau  said the governor rarely declines requests for welcome letters.

Rivera said he refused to offer a letter of welcome in part because the group scheduled its convention during Easter and just days after Passover.

"Anybody in the United States is welcome to express their beliefs and opinions," Rivera said. "I just think it's bad timing."...

--AP, via Fox News

Anti-secularism is the anti-Semitism of the right.