Atheist Candidate Has Crusade

UNION, KY--Edwin Kagin knows he can't win. This makes him an entertaining candidate for Kentucky senator. Instead of pandering to Northern Kentucky's Right-to-Life movement, he calls its members Right To Run-Your-Lifers.

He pens poetry that skewers the sacred. He freely associates with fringe characters. On Tuesday night, he even joined five other atheists for a jokey debaptism, in which his hair was symbolically ruffled by a hand-held dryer.

All this irreverence is simultaneously funny and dis concerting. It's also wrapped around an important idea: More and more frequently, public officials are contemplating laws that promote Christianity. Mr. Kagin is convinced America is engaged in a religious civil war, and that Kentucky's General Assembly is one of the battlefields.

He has a point.

So far this year, Kentucky legislators have clamored for the Ten Commandments in public schools and for a consensus against extracurricular activities on Sunday. They want to exempt churches from certain civil-rights laws and offer classes on religious history in schools.

Another resolution, proclaiming the Ten Commandments an a historic document, referred to Christianity's influence on American U.S. history. When Christianity was changed to Judeo-Christianity, sponsor Albert Robinson threw a fit. The amendment does a terrible injustice to Christians, the Senate Republican said.

To Ed Kagin, these measures push us down a dangerous road. If we're not careful, he warns, we'll end up with one official religion, as is the case in other countries.

Mr. Kagin, 59, is well-suited to the role of human speed bump. He knows the Bible and U.S. law. Most important, he's a fearless yakker.

It's no picnic to be an atheist in the Bible Belt. Consequently, those with the fortitude to speak out also tend to be exasperating people.

Mr. Kagin's Web site is full of mean, clever essays on self-righteousness, homosexuality and religion as a public health threat. One poem takes a jab at Ken Ham, whose Answers in Genesis organization wants to open a creationist museum in Boone County.

To the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies theme song, the poem begins: "Hear the story of Kenneth Ham, Australian huckster slick as jam . . ."

Ouch.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Answers in Genesis intends to build the nation's first, large-scale creationist museum. In 1996, Mr. Kagin and his wife, Helen, started the nation's first summer camp for atheist children.

A lawyer by profession, Mr. Kagin also fights religion in public life. He sued Northern Kentucky courts, for instance, for ordering family counseling offered only by Catholic Social Services. He represented a Kentucky prison inmate who wanted an abortion. He sued a Christian school for expelling a sexually active student.

Now he's running for state Senate. The seat is held by Republican Dick Roeding, who is up for re-election. Mr. Kagin faces John Stephenson in the Democratic primary.

As a legislator, he says he wouldn't limit himself to fighting reli gion. But he can't seem to name any other cause.

He admits he can't win. Instead, he's sending a message: Not every Kentuckian believes in God, and it's not government's job to muck around in matters of religion.

I agree. If only Mr. Kagin weren't so outrageous, maybe people would listen.