Non-believers raising voice in capital

[kweerwolf]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-09-18-atheists_x.htm

WASHINGTON — Americans who don't believe in God have decided it's time they had a lobbyist in the nation's capital. Their new advocate describes herself as a "soft, fuzzy atheist."

Lori Lipman Brown starts Monday as executive director of the Secular Coalition for America. Her two goals: keep religion out of government and win respect for a stigmatized minority.

The magnitude of those challenges is, well, biblical. Think Daniel entering the lion's den, or David taking on Goliath.

Christian conservatives wield enormous clout here through a network of advocacy groups and relationships with politicians from President Bush on down. Atheists, humanists and freethinkers, as Brown's constituents call themselves, are usually ignored.

(web site for Secular Coalition of America: http://www.secular.org/)

[Zenlitened]

1. There was some discussion of this in LBN when the story ran:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1791982&mesg_id=1791982

I think it's a GREAT development... to have someone in DC, talking to legislators and their staffs, saying "let's cool it a bit with the god-talk, okay?"

The god-this-god-that stuff has become such a useless frame of reference, if merely through sheer overuse.

I like the approach Brown says she'll take, and how she's prioritized things:

Brown plans to work for non-believers in three ways:

• As part of broad coalitions fighting policies rooted in religious beliefs, such as limits on stem cell research and access to emergency contraception.

• In alliances with groups opposed to policies they believe breach the wall between church and state, such as giving taxpayer money to "faith-based" service programs.

• On causes Brown concedes are hard for politicians and the public to swallow, such as eliminating references to God from the U.S. oath of citizenship. She plans to stay out of the Pledge of Allegiance controversy for now because "the courts are on our side." Last week, a federal judge reaffirmed an earlier ruling that teacher-led recitation of the Pledge's phrase "under God" in public schools is an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion.

(from the USA Today article in the OP)