Secular Coalition for America
Encyclopedia
Sean Faircloth
Sean Faircloth is a Maine attorney and politician. He served five terms in the Maine Legislature. Faircloth served on the Judiciary and Appropriations Committee. In his final term, Faircloth was elected Majority Whip...
, a five-term Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
state legislator, served as Executive Director between 2009 and 2011. Between 2005 and 2009, it was directed by former Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
state senator Lori Lipman Brown
Lori Lipman Brown
Lori Lipman Brown has served as a state senator, lobbyist, lawyer, educator, and social worker supporter. Additionally, her political views have been secularist and civil libertarian and describes herself as an atheist humanist Jew. She served as a Nevada Senator from 1992 to 1994, advocating for...
, who became its first full-time lobbyist in September 2005 and is now Founding Director Emeritus.
The Secular Coalition works to increase visibility and respect for nontheistic viewpoints in the United States and to protect and strengthen the secular character of the U.S. government. The Coalition advocates complete separation of church and state
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
within American politics which they claim is clearly established in the U.S. Constitution under the First Amendment. They point out that freedom of conscience, which includes religious freedom, was of such importance that it was made the first of all freedoms protected in the Bill of Rights. The Coalition holds reason and science as its guiding tenets for public policy.
Mission
The mission of the Secular Coalition for America is to increase the visibility, amplify the diversity of, and respect for, the growing voice of the nontheistic community in the United States, and to protect and strengthen the secular character of government as the best guarantee of freedom for all.History
The Secular Coalition for America was founded in 2002 with a melding of four U.S. secular organizations: Atheist Alliance InternationalAtheist Alliance International
Atheist Alliance International is a global network of atheist organisations around the world. AAI was founded in 1991.AAI's vision is "to transform society into one that understands and respects atheism; that supports and respects a worldview based on the values of reason, empiricism and...
, the Institute for Humanist Studies
Institute for Humanist Studies
The Institute for Humanist Studies is a think tank, a Washington, DC based organization committed to providing information and other resources useful in the promoting of humanism and humanism centered solutions to pressing socio-political, cultural and economic issues...
, the Secular Student Alliance
Secular Student Alliance
The Secular Student Alliance , founded in May 2000, is an independent, democratically structured organization in the U.S. that aims to serve the needs of freethinking high school and college students. The Secular Student Alliance is based in Columbus, Ohio...
, and the Secular Web. In 2005 the American Humanist Association
American Humanist Association
The American Humanist Association is an educational organization in the United States that advances Humanism. "Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that...
became the Coalition's fifth member organization. The Society for Humanistic Judaism
Society for Humanistic Judaism
The Society for Humanistic Judaism, founded in 1969 by Rabbi Sherwin Wine embraces a human-centered philosophy that combines the celebration of Jewish culture and identity with an adherence to humanistic values and ideas....
and the Freedom From Religion Foundation
Freedom From Religion Foundation
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is an American freethought organization based in Madison, Wisconsin. Its purposes, as stated in its bylaws, are to promote the separation of church and state and to educate the public on matters relating to atheism, agnosticism and nontheism. The FFRF publishes...
joined the Coalition in January 2006, the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers in February 2007, and the American Ethical Union in April 2008. In 2009, Camp Quest
Camp Quest
Camp Quest, founded in 1996, is the first residential summer camp in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Norway specifically for the children of nontheistic or freethinking parents .-Purpose and identity:Camp...
joined in January and American Atheists
American Atheists
American Atheists is an organization in the United States dedicated to defending the civil liberties of atheists and advocating for the complete separation of church and state. It provides speakers for colleges, universities, clubs and the news media. It also publishes books and the monthly...
became a member in June. The Council for Secular Humanism
Council for Secular Humanism
The Council for Secular Humanism is a secular humanist organization headquartered in Amherst, New York. In 1980 CODESH issued A Secular Humanist Declaration, an argument for and statement of belief in Democratic Secular Humanism...
joined in January 2010.
Coalition president Herb Silverman was a leading force behind the founding of the organization, which was designed as a framework for cooperation among secular groups in the United States. Silverman believed that nontheistic Americans could gradually gain the respect of politicians and society if they collaborated on issues and presented a unified force for activism.
Board of directors
The Secular Coalition for America Board of Directors is democratically structured. Each sponsoring member organization appoints one individual to serve as its representative director, who casts one vote on any matter considered by the Board. Officers may be associated with member organizations or may come from the wider freethoughtFreethought
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...
community. Current officers are Herb Silverman, president; David Niose, vice president; Ron Solomon, treasurer; August E. Brunsman IV, secretary.
Advisory board
Advisors to the Secular Coalition for America are Woody Kaplan, chair; Rob BostonRob Boston
Robert Boston has been Assistant Director of Communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Assistant Editor of Church & State magazine since 1987. Boston is an advocate of separation of church and state and has authored three books on the subject. He frequently...
; Daniel Dennett
Daniel Dennett
Daniel Clement Dennett is an American philosopher, writer and cognitive scientist whose research centers on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. He is currently the Co-director of...
; Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
; Bruce Flamm; Sam Harris
Sam Harris (author)
Sam Harris is an American author, and neuroscientist, as well as the co-founder and current CEO of Project Reason. He received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Stanford University, before receiving a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA...
; Jeff Hawkins
Jeff Hawkins
Jeffrey Hawkins is the founder of Palm Computing and Handspring...
; Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
; Susan Jacoby
Susan Jacoby
Susan Jacoby is an American author. Her 2008 book about American anti-intellectualism, The Age of American Unreason, was a New York Times best seller. She is an atheist and secularist. Jacoby graduated from Michigan State University in 1965...
; Wendy Kaminer
Wendy Kaminer
Wendy Kaminer is a lawyer and writer. She has written several books on contemporary social issues, including A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight From Equality, about the conflict between egalitarian and protectionist feminism; I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other...
; Michael Newdow
Michael Newdow
Michael Arthur Newdow is an American attorney and emergency medicine physician. He is best known for his efforts to have recitations of the current version of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools in the United States declared unconstitutional because of its inclusion of the phrase "under God"...
; Massimo Pigliucci
Massimo Pigliucci
Massimo Pigliucci is the chair of the Department of Philosophy at CUNY-Lehman College. He is also the editor in chief for the journal . He is known as an outspoken critic of creationism and advocate of science education.-Biography:...
; Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker
Steven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author...
; Salman Rushdie; Ellery Schempp
Ellery Schempp
Ellery Schempp is an accomplished physicist and is also famous for being the primary student involved in the landmark 1963 United States Supreme Court case of Abington School District v...
; Todd Stiefel; and Julia Sweeney
Julia Sweeney
Julia Anne Sweeney is an American actress, comedian and author best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for her autobiographical solo shows.-Personal life:...
.
Legislative focus
The Secular Coalition for America addresses issues arising out of the inappropriate incursion of religion into public policy, such as government funding of religious ministries (the "Faith Based InitiativeFaith Based Initiative
"Faith Based Initiative" is the 120th episode of The West Wing.-Plot:A Senator attaches a rider to the federal budget bill that would ban gay marriage, almost daring the President to veto it...
" or "charitable choice
Charitable choice
Charitable choice refers to direct United States government funding of religious organizations to provide social services.Created in 1996, charitable choice allows government officials to purchase services from religious providers using Temporary Assistance for Needy Families , Welfare-to-Work, and...
"); tuition vouchers for religious schools; federally funded abstinence-only sex education; limits to embryonic stem cell research; Constitutional marriage protection amendments; access to birth control
Birth control
Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
and emergency contraception
Emergency contraception
Emergency contraception , or emergency postcoital contraception, refers to birth control measures that, if taken after sexual intercourse, may prevent pregnancy.Forms of EC include:...
; the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
Religious Freedom Restoration Act
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, Pub. L. No. 103-141, 107 Stat. 1488 , codified at through , is a 1993 United States federal law aimed at preventing laws that substantially burden a person's free exercise of their religion. The bill was introduced by Howard McKeon of California and...
, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act
Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act
The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act , , codified as et seq., is a United States federal law that prohibits the imposition of burdens on the ability of prisoners to worship as they please, as well as giving churches and other religious institutions a way to avoid burdensome...
; and the Pledge Protection Act
Pledge Protection Act
The Pledge Protection Act is a bill in the United States Congress that seeks to deprive all Federal courts, including the Supreme Court, of jurisdiction to hear constitutional challenges to the Pledge of Allegiance or its recitation. The bill was first introduced in response to a constitutional...
as well as other court-stripping measures.
The Coalition is particularly active in challenging discrimination against nontheists by government sponsored organizations like the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
. Similarly, it works to protect service members from proselytism
Proselytism
Proselytizing is the act of attempting to convert people to another opinion and, particularly, another religion. The word proselytize is derived ultimately from the Greek language prefix προσ- and the verb ἔρχομαι in the form of προσήλυτος...
by military chaplain
Military chaplain
A military chaplain is a chaplain who ministers to soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and other members of the military. In many countries, chaplains also minister to the family members of military personnel, to civilian noncombatants working for military organizations and to civilians within the...
s.
The Coalition also welcomes and works in cooperation with religious groups regardless of affiliation when there is common ground on issues and when they share beliefs of freedom of conscience and separation of church and state. The Secular Coalition for America espouses religious tolerance to people of all religions and those without.
Elected official contest
In 2007 the Secular Coalition for America pledged a $1,000 reward to the person identifying the highest level elected official to openly acknowledge no supernaturalSupernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
beliefs. The "Find an Atheist, Humanist, Freethinker Elected Official Contest" concluded with the announcement that Rep. Pete Stark
Pete Stark
Fortney Hillman "Pete" Stark, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1973. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Currently he is the 5th most senior Representative, as well as 6th most senior member of Congress overall...
(D-Calif.), a member of the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
since 1973, held the highest office of four public servants to acknowledge a secular world view
World view
A comprehensive world view is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the entirety of the individual or society's knowledge and point-of-view, including natural philosophy; fundamental, existential, and normative postulates; or themes, values, emotions, and...
to the Coalition after being nominated by a contestant. Stark is the first Congressional member to publicly self-identify with the freethought community.
Administration briefing
On February 26, 2010, the Secular Coalition for America, along with a unified delegation of members of the secular movement from across the country, met with representatives of the Obama administration for an official policy briefing—the first of its kind specifically for American nontheists. The group raised three particular areas of concern to secular Americans: military proselytizing and religious coercion, fixing the Faith-Based Initiatives program, and ending the exemptions granted to religious groups in laws governing child medical abuse and neglect.Congressional scorecard
The Secular Coalition for America publishes a Web-based Congressional scorecard rating U.S. Representatives and Senators on their roll call votes and legislative sponsorship.Ten-year Plan
The Secular Coalition for America unveiled in February 2010 a decade-long strategy to raise its influence and that of its member organizations in a document known as Our Secular Decade. The eight-point plan, which focused on increased networking of secular Americans, improved outreach and education efforts, and an expansion of the group's issue base, was approved by the Board of Directors in January 2010.External links
- Website of the Secular Coalition for America
- Non-believers raising voice in capital, article by Jill Lawrence, USA TodayUSA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, September 18, 2005 - CBS News: Atheists Have a Lobbyist, Too, article by Joel Roberts, CBS NewsCBS NewsCBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
, October 25, 2005 - Godless Pride, article by Art Levine, Mother JonesMother Jones (magazine)Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
, December 2005 - Atheists Challenge the Religious Right, article by Jane Lampman, Christian Science Monitor, January 4, 2007
- In America, Nonbelievers Find Strength in Numbers, article by Jacqueline L. Salmon, The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, September 15, 2007 - Obama aides to meet with atheists on White House grounds, McClatchy News, February 25, 2010