by Hemant Mehta
Serah Blain, a lobbyist for the Secular Coalition of Arizona, gave a short talk for the University of Chicago Secular Alliance last week and they’ve put the video up online. The audio’s a little tough to hear but a transcript is at their website.
It’s good to know we have vocal activists like this working on our behalf:
(Thanks to Chana for the link!)
If you look up to Lori Lipman Brown and Sean Faircloth, the Secular Coalition for America is looking for their next Executive Director and you could be following in their footsteps:
The Executive Director will be the primary public face for the organization, be a central force in leading the organization, and cultivate relationships with current and prospective donors, member organizations, the media, and legislators. Additionally, the Executive Director must play an active role in nurturing the relationships between the member organizations, promoting cooperation and advancing the nontheistic movement as a whole. The Executive Director will work with and report directly to the Executive Oversight Committee of the Board of Directors, and set goals and priorities for other staff members based on the strategic plan of the organization.
All the details are here. You’d obviously have to live in (or move to) Washington, D.C., but if you want a job in the movement, this is definitely one of the more higher-profile ones.
What does an “atheist lobbyist” do? Amanda Knief is one of the few people who can answer that question from experience since she’s the Government Relations Manager for the Secular Coalition for America.
You may remember Amanda as the person who asked President Obama why he still permitted taxpayer-funded organizations to practice faith-based discrimination:
At the 2011 Secular Student Alliance conference, Amanda spoke about what she does and what all of us can do to make a difference in our local governments:
Memo to everyone who plans atheist conferences: Please put Amanda on your roster next time around.
Sean Faircloth, the Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for America, has resigned from his position.
He will be joining the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS) as their new Director of Strategy and Policy.
Dawkins explained it this way:
“[Faircloth] has a proven ability to strategize, organize, and energize — qualities essential to making secularism a successful social movement. Sean wrote the Secular Decade plan while Executive Director of Secular Coalition for America and led the early stages of its implementation. Now he will bring his skills to an even wider audience. I want him out speaking far and wide.”
…
“I have invited Sean Faircloth to join me in my book tour in the United States this September and October because, having read an advance copy of his book and written its Foreword, I know that its message is critically important and must reach a broad audience, particularly as we approach America’s 2012 elections. The trend toward theocratic thinking in the United States is a danger not only for America but for the entire world. Sean Faircloth’s ability to articulate this problem and offer specific solutions is why he will be such an an important new member of our team. As Director of Strategy and Policy at RDFRS he will work with secular groups of all stripes, including his contacts in the Secular Coalition for America, to strategize and organize.”
So, in addition to his new role, Faircloth will also be the “opening act” for Dawkins during his U.S. tour for The Magic of Reality.
This comes a few months before the release of Faircloth’s own book: Attack of the Theocrats! How the Religious Right Harms Us All — and What We Can Do About It.
Sean became the director of the SCA in early 2009, after a five-term run as a State Representative in Maine.
Herb Silverman, the chair of the SCA, put out this response:
On behalf of the Secular Coalition for America, I’d like to thank Sean Faircloth for all he has done in the past two years as Executive Director of our organization. He conceived of our plan for a secular decade, and started our growth toward fifty state secular coalitions.
Sean’s oratory skill, enthusiasm and ideas have inspired many who have attended his talks around the country. His vision and dynamic ideas are contained in his soon-to-be published book, Attack of the Theocrats: How the Religious Right Harms Us All—and What We Can Do About It. I’m confident the book will motivate all kinds of secular Americans to join our cause and become secular activists, as Sean has succeeding in doing with his speeches.
We are thrilled that Sean will be opening speaker for Richard Dawkins’ book tour later this month, and that Sean is now the Policy & Strategy Director of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. This will help make the relationship between our two organizations even closer as we cooperate and work together on behalf of all secular Americans.
Thanks, Sean, for all you have done, and for all you will continue to do for our movement.
With best wishes,
Herb Silverman
President, Secular Coalition for America
Sean adds:
I want to thank the Board of Directors of the Secular Coalition for America for the opportunity to work with them as their Executive Director for the past two years. It has been an honor to work with this organization and on this important cause. I am particularly proud of my work crafting the Secular Decade plan and moving it forward in all aspects, including the fifty state strategy. In my new position at the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science I will continue strategic planning, policy leadership, and public speaking efforts on behalf of secularism and I will continue to work with SCA and all secular groups, in the United States and abroad. I wish SCA the best and will continue to strive for our movement to take an optimistic and positive approach to secularism.
Best wishes,
Sean Faircloth
Stay tuned for more. I’ll update this post soon.
The Secular Coalition for Arizona is doing something so awesome, so unique, and so important, that I’m amazed it’s getting no publicity whatsoever. (Yet.)
They’re organizing trainings this fall… for atheists who want to run for public office.
Training will primarily be aimed at those interested in running for local and state level offices such as school board, city council, and state legislature. This training will focus on campaigning, messaging, and the nuts and bolts of effective leadership.
…
“We hope to inspire some secular candidates. The best way to combat the Religious Right is to elect people who will stand up for the separation of church and state and the rights of secular Americans,” said Matt Schoenley, Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for Arizona.
There is a $100 cost for the training, but it would be hard to find a more worthwhile activity for the Arizona affiliate of the Secular Coalition for America to hold. This is precisely what we need — encouragement and help for qualified atheists who want to run for local (and, later, perhaps statewide and national) elective offices.
Sean Faircloth, Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for America, has a book coming out in early 2012! It’s called Attack of the Theocrats! How the Religious Right Harms Us All — and What We Can Do About It. I’ve only seen the cover but I’m already excited — sorry for the blurry image but it’s the best one I could find:
The foreword is written by Richard Dawkins and a preview of the content can be found at Pitchstone Publishing’s website.
Obviously, more information on this book will be coming soon…
The Secular Coalition for America is looking for an intern this summer. Sounds like a fantastic opportunity for someone:
SCA is seeking a highly motivated undergraduate junior- or senior-level student with a demonstrated interest in being active in the nontheistic movement. The student must live and attend school more than 50 miles outside of the District of Columbia.
SCA is a 501(c)4 advocacy organization whose purpose is to amplify the diverse and growing voice of the nontheistic community in the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., our staff lobbies U.S. Congress about issues of special concern to our constituency and advocates for the separation of church and state.
…
The internship will provide activities and opportunities to learn about, assist with, and work with the four main areas of SCA’s office: lobbying and advocacy, grassroots and outreach, development and fundraising, and media relations and social media networking.
If you’re an atheist looking to get involved with politics in some way, this may be perfect for you. All the information can be found here and the application is just waiting to be filled out! The deadline is February 18th.
Only a few months after announcing the creation of the Secular Coalition for Arizona, the Secular Coalition for America is announcing its next state chapter:
“The Secular Coalition for Alabama is needed now to increase the visibility of secular people, promote fact-based education to prepare our children for a complex world, protect the civil rights of all Alabamians and maintain the separation of church and state,” said Charles Miller, an IT services management executive in Huntsville is the founding president of the state chapter.
…
“We are very excited to welcome the Secular Coalition for Alabama as our second state affiliate and a new means of amplifying the often forgotten voices of secular Alabamians in public debate,” said Sean Faircloth, executive director of the Secular Coalition for America. “It’s no secret that Alabama has often found itself in the national spotlight when dealing conflicts between church and state. We hope that this new organization will help advance the views of local nontheists on such issues, while also promoting and defending the secular values on which our nation was founded.”
The charter for the new group will be signed this Sunday.
Two states down, 48 to go… this is all proceeding much faster than I expected, and that’s good news. It’s also very exciting that these affiliates are being created in states where church/state separation is sorely needed.
Hopefully, the SCA will be able to handle a rapid growth because I’m sure more groups will be formed in the near future.
***Update***: A peaceful protest of the event will occur this Sunday, January 2nd, from 6:30a – 8:15a at Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place, NW. If you can come, please bring signs showing how you feel. Examples include:
Please email Amanda if you plan to attend.
…
Washington, D.C. Mayor-Elect Vincent Gray (a Democrat, if it matters to you) is having a prayer service as his first “official” event on January 2nd. It’s called “One City… Praying Together.”
That’s a nice way to begin a term as mayor: Raise a middle finger to all the non-theistic citizens in DC.
Gray could at least reach out to our community by inviting a Humanist Celebrant to the event to deliver a secular invocation.
The Secular Coalition for America suggested just that. But they were told there was no room for non-theists in the event.
“We would prefer that a government function such as an inauguration not be entwined with religion,” said Amanda Knief, a Humanist Celebrant and government relations manager for SCA. “However, we find it overtly discriminatory when we request to be part of an ecumenical service that is supposed to unite the entire city and are told there is no place for nontheists because the program is already set.”
The secular community in D.C. includes atheists, agnostics, humanists, secular Jews, and many other nontheists. “We have a rich community here in the metro area that is not being included in the mayor-elect’s inaugural events, and we think Mr. Gray should know about it,” Knief said.
Local groups are planning to protest the event if Gray continues to discriminate against non-theists.
For now, if you live in the area, you can send him an email letting him know what you think — the SCA has a sample form letter on their site.
Wow. Another story about an extremely generous atheist donor. That’s #3 this week!
A couple days ago, I mentioned a $15,000 matching offer from software entrepreneur Ron Verstappen to the Secular Student Alliance.
This comes right after Todd Stiefel‘s six-figure contribution to the American Humanist Association’s “Consider Humanism” campaign. (Which is on top of the Stiefel Freethought Foundation’s $50,000 gift to the Secular Student Alliance to promote high school atheist groups.)
Now, PalmPilot creator Jeff Hawkins and partner Janet Strauss have made a major $500,000 matching offer of their own to the Secular Coalition for America:
PalmPilot creator Jeff Hawkins has offered a $500,000 matching grant to Secular Coalition of America, whose mission is to preserve the separation of church and state.
“Our government was founded on the principles of separation of church and state,” Hawkins said in a statement Secular Coalition released this week along with the announcement of the grant.
…
“This challenge grant from Janet and Jeff will spark innovation in our movement, empowering Secular Coalition for America to vigorously execute “Our Secular Decade” strategic plan. We intend to create a secular coalition affiliate in every state, each advocating for the secular government as the Father of the Constitution, James Madison, intended,” said Sean Faircloth, executive director of the Secular Coalition for America.
“We’re excited about the first challenge grant and the opportunity to expand our lobbying and coalition-building efforts. This is a true leadership gift, one we hope will be followed by others,” said Herb Silverman, president of the Secular Coalition for America. “This challenge grant gives people an opportunity to double their contribution to our movement.”
If you’d like to contribute to the match, you can always make a donation here.
It’s nice to see atheists with means offering secular groups the opportunity to do really major things. I’m hopeful (and confident) that the SCA and SSA will have big things to show for these gifts in a couple years.
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