Local secular humanist group gets new leader

Retired journalist and author Richard Wackrow will take the helm of the Flathead Area Secular Humanist Association, a local limited liability corporation that supported a lawsuit seeking to remove a statue of Jesus from the side of Big Mountain.

Wackrow, who lives in Whitefish and the North Fork, will replace FASHA founder and administrator Ian Cameron. The group has grown from its initial eight members to more than 60 today.

Cameron founded FASHA in September 2011 to provide a local support system for the non-religious; educate the public about atheism and secular humanism; promote science, critical thinking and freedom of conscience; constructively address violations of separation of church and state; and provide local freethinkers with information about national secular humanist and atheist resources.

FASHA held its first public event in February 2012, Darwin Day, at the county library in Kalispell. A community-information event to be called “Ask an Atheist” is in the works for this fall. The group participates in the Adopt-a-Highway program and will perform volunteer work in Glacier National Park in September.

In a press release last week, the group said its e-mail campaign and Cameron’s testimony helped convince the Kalispell City Council to decline a request by the Fraternal Order of Eagles to move its Ten Commandments monument from county property near the old courthouse to city-owned Depot Park.

The group also lobbied in Helena to stop a bill that would have required the teaching of “critical thinking” in Montana public school science classes, which FASHA claims is the latest code name for creationism.

FASHA also supported a lawsuit brought by the Freedom from Religion Foundation to remove the Jesus statue from the side of Big Mountain. U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen, in Missoula, ruled June 24 in favor of allowing the statue to remain where it is on Forest Service land inside the Whitefish Mountain Resort ski area.

Under Cameron’s leadership, FASHA has worked with or connected its members to the American Humanist Association, the Council for Secular Humanism, the National Center for Science Education and the Missoula Area Secular Society.

In October 2006, Cameron was arrested in Whitefish and charged with five counts of indecent exposure. He admitted on the stand to exposing himself about 100 times to women, including a dozen times at City Beach in Whitefish. He blamed prescription drug use for his behavior. Cameron pleaded guilty in November 2008 and was given a five-year suspended sentence.

Wackrow earned a degree in philosophy from a college in Illinois, drove truck for seven years and then returned to college for a journalism degree. He worked for newspapers in Texas, Alaska and Illinois. In 2005, he started a Web site called “Frisk At Your Own Risk” warning the public about companies and governments violating privacy rights. Last year, he published a new book, “Who’s winning the war on terror?” that is critical of the government’s increased security measures.

For more information, visit online at www.flatheadsecular.com or www.facebook.com/pages/Flathead-Area-Secular-Humanist-Association-FASHA/272584432770466.