THIS IS WHY ATHEISTS AND SKEPTICS NEED A COMMUNITY CENTER
United Church of Bacon wants to save Magician Penn Jillette's former home.......The Slammer ......and create The Nevatican!
The world's largest Skeptic and Atheist Community Center.
Penn is the vocal half of the Las Vegas magic act Penn & Teller.
For twenty years The Slammer has been a retreat of reason in the desert and we want to keep it that way.
Penn has moved to a new family-friendly home in the suburbs, and we plan to keep developers from buying this historic and unique place just to knock it down to make room for cookie cutter houses. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
We have been working tirelessly to find a buyer for the land who will not use the surrounding area to create a suburban abomination.
WE HAVE SUCCEEDED IN THAT GOAL!
Penn has made a very generous offer to allow the United Church of Bacon
to buy The Slammer for less than the developers would pay....in fact he will allow us to only pay for operating costs, needed repairs, and improvements until we get established!!!!
THAT'S WHERE YOU COME IN!
We need 3 million dollars to buy, remodel, and maintain The Slammer, but we have set the fundraising goal at $500,000. 500 grand is the minimum we need to just maintain the property. The amount we raise will be the deciding factor so donors have the final word on whether we merely maintain or own.
We need your help to raise the funds required to purchase, remodel, and manage the property so that we can do something good for the atheist and skeptic communities.
WATCH AN INTERVIEW WITH PENN
You now have the chance to help do something amazing. You can help transform The Slammer into the world's largest atheist community center, The Nevatican.
WHAT IS THE UNITED CHURCH OF BACON?
The United Church of Bacon is a real, legal church based in Las Vegas, Nevada with over 12,000 members worldwide that was founded during a meeting at Penn Jillette's house in 2010 to fight discrimination against atheists. The official launch of the church was at The Amaz!ng Meeting, in 2012. They believe in practical atheism and ignore the existence of gods and chose a funny bacon name with an argument that bacon is demonstrably real whereas god is imperceptible by the eye.
The United Church of Bacon opposes special privileges to religions on the grounds that religious people are somehow superior to inferior people for having strange beliefs, and promotes separation of church and state, science education and critical thinking, and an end to discrimination against atheists. For more information about the United Church of bacon, click HERE
With your donation, we can turn this beautiful property into the
WORLD'S LARGEST ATHEIST/SKEPTIC COMMUNITY CENTER.
The home is Penn Jillette's former retreat, called The Slammer. The brightly colored house is architecturally unique. It has been featured on over a dozen television shows and it has won three local American Institute of Architects awards. It's set on 8.5 acres in Las Vegas 15 minutes from the strip.
With 7,500 square feet The Slammer has 7 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, movie theatre, steam room, hot tub, 25-yard lap pool, two kitchens, and comes decorated with artwork on loan from the Jillette family. It's the home of Vintage Nude Studios, and a fully operational recording studio.
The Slammer also features a giant courtyard for events of 200 people or more, with an amazing view of the desert and beautiful gardens!
WE ONLY HAVE UNTIL THE END OF THE YEAR TO RAISE FUNDS.
SO PLEASE HELP THE UNITED CHURCH OF BACON
MAKE THE SLAMMER ITS HOME!
That's okay with us! We're not opposed to you having a religion.
You don't have to live in Nepal to send disaster relief to Nepal. You don't have to be gay to support same-sex marriage. And you don't need to be a nonbeliever to recognize that atheists and skeptics are marginalized. Atheists just want to be treated with dignity and respect.
WE DON'T SEEK TO CONVERT ANYONE!
We just want to end discrimination and advocate for
SCIENCE AND RATIONAL THOUGHT!
Those are goals you can get behind whether you are religious or not!
We only have 2016 to plan and raise funds for the community center. If we fail, our property investors won't have a reason to rescue the place from developers. This opportunity will be gone.
That's why we need your urgent help, and your participation too. The best way for us to know how to serve you is to invite you to take part!
Each event the community center holds should pay for itself, but we'll also want to allow community groups to use the space in ways that don't bring in cash. We have renovations to make, cash flow to manage, and we'll be able to reach further with an endowment to cover overhead. Renovations will be performed with minimal change to the house, to better preserve this historic and architecturally important home.
WE'LL NEED TO:
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Purchase a stage, a sound system, and seating for performances and weddings
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Cover operational costs, including utilities, cleaning, and insurance
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Build parking areas, a new roof and make upgrades to the house
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Promote events, which will be critical to raising awareness, with photography and videography, through the website, social media, and directly to the press
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Fund live webcasting of targeted events to engage with the wider world
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Hire staff to manage the property, nurture donor relationships, partner with community groups, and organize events
Together we are going to change millions of lives for the better.
Stop the bulldozers. Help us build world's largest atheist community center!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
How will you spend the money?
If we raise $500,000, we will have the minimum funding to operate, make required improvements and repairs for 3-4 years. Additional funding over $500,000 will allow the United Church of Bacon to buy equity in the surrounding land from established investors, and further promote the community center. The United Church of Bacon will establish a seven to nine person board to control spending and management.
What will you do with the money if you cannot raise enough?
If we don't meet our goal to raise enough funds to keep The Slammer, the United Church of Bacon, after Indiegogo and start up costs are paid, plans to buy a less expensive property or donate the money to one or a few of our selected charities.
Is my donation really tax deductible?
Yes, the amount you donate minus the estimated value of the reward you receive (you can estimate it yourself) is tax deductible, if you live in the United States. The United Church of Bacon is a real, legal church, which makes it automatically tax exempt for donations. We are also applying to become a 501(c)3 charity as well. We will be completely transparent and give more to charity than the majority of churches.
When will I get my perk?
We'll rush all items out to donors as soon as the fundraiser ends. We are unpaid volunteers, but will work to get you your perk as soon as possible.
I donated to get a t-shirt , how will you know what size to send me?
We'll contact you by email to get your t-shirt size.
How can I contact you?
We'd love to hear from you! For questions email info@unitedchurchofbacon.org.
GALLERY OF PERKS
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION BRICKS
Depending on how many are sold, we will either be building an exterior wall of bricks or tiling walls within the Nevatican with personalized tiles. Once the fundraiser is completed, we will contact donors who've chosen this perk with details of our final plan and to finalize what you would like engraved on your free expression brick/tile.
BACON EBOOK OF LOGICAL QUOTES
P.H.D. IN BACONOLOGY
UNHOLY JILL-JET™ WATER
HOLY BOOK VOUCHER
LIMITED EDITION UNITED CHURCH OF BACON T-SHIRT
GET OUT OF HELL FREE CARD
PRAISE THE LARD!