The Secular Coalition for America is the national lobby representing the interests of atheists, humanists, agnostics, freethinkers and other nontheistic Americans.

American Atheists Joins Secular Coalition for America

June 16 - The nontheistic movement expanded its unified front this week as American Atheists joined the Secular Coalition for America. Their application to become a member was unanimously approved on Sunday June 14. Along with the recent addition of Camp Quest in January 2009, this brings the number of groups in the Secular Coalition to ten. Read more

White House Meeting Marks New Milestone for Nontheists

June 1, 2009 - The nontheist movement reached a new milestone when the Secular Coalition for America had its first individual meeting with White House officials last week. The discussion, held with White House Associate Director of Public Engagement Paul Monteiro, gave Secular Coalition representatives the opportunity to highlight what policy issues concern nontheists most. Specifics topics addressed were coercive religious proselytizing in the military, the faith-based initiatives, and employment discrimination. Read more

Secular Coalition Submits Stem Cell Comments to NIH

May 21, 2009 - Today, the Secular Coalition for America submitted comments to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the development of guidelines that would establish a framework for the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. For far too long decisions as to what types of research should receive federal funding have been captives of a religiously tinged political process rather than the subject of a well established process of scientific peer review. On March 9th, President Obama issued an Executive Order instructing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop these guidelines and on April 24th, their draft guidelines were available for public comment. To read the Secular Coalition’s comments, click here.

Secular Coalition Asks Senators to Oppose DC Voucher Program

On May 13th, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a hearing on whether to re-authorize the controversial D.C. voucher program known as the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. As members of the National Coalition for Public Education, the Secular Coalition for America has lobbied dozens of Senators to oppose the continuation of a program that requires American taxpayers to pay for the religious education of D.C. students. More

Secular Coalition quoted in four five national publications in May

The Secular Coalition for America has been getting quite a lot of media attention this month.

On the 28th, cbcnews.ca became the fifth mention with the publication of Neil Macdonald's op-ed, The rise of the non-believers. On May 14th, an article discussing a new study finding that "people of faith are better citizens" was picked up by USA Today. Ron Millar, the Acting Director of the Secular Coalition, strongly disagreed with the study's conclusions and is quoted in the article. Read it here.

On May 6th, Ron Millar pointed out the difficulty of achieving inclusiveness when government endorses religious activities in an article that ran in the Chicago Tribune. The Christian Science Monitor also asked the Secular Coalition to weigh in on the National Day of Prayer; their article is here.

Click here to watch the five-part interview Trina Hoaks conducted with Herb Silverman, President of the Secular Coalition for America. And as a WashingtonPost.com "On Faith" panelist, Herb Silverman posted these op-eds in May:
Neglect in the Name of Love
The Elephant in the Notre Dame Auditorium
Changing an Unchanging Church
National Day of Non-Prayer?

More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops

New York Times 2nd Most E-mailed Article Spotlights Secular Coalition for America

April 26 - Full article [offsite; may require registration]
"Local and national atheist organizations have flourished in recent years, fed by outrage over the Bush administration’s embrace of the religious right ... These groups, once rivals, are now pooling resources to lobby in Washington for separation of church and state [through the Secular Coalition for America]."

Related media
Atheist group has foothold in S. Carolina (UPI.com)
Are Atheists Becoming the Hot New Political Force? (Los Angeles Times)
More Americans than ever declare themselves atheists (The Equinox, student newspaper of Keene State College)

My Meeting With the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

A letter to our constituency from Acting Director Ron Millar

Apr. 27 - I am writing tell you about my meeting last week, along with other representatives of CARD (Coalition Against Religious Discrimination), with Joshua DuBois, the director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

I entered the meeting with very mixed emotions. Although I was glad that the Secular Coalition for America has the political connections to meet face-to-face with the person who runs President Obama's new faith-based office, I was saddened that this meeting was even taking place -- saddened that our new president has decided to continue the failed faith-based policies of his predecessor.

The meeting was an open and often lively discussion of our concerns -- and each of us clearly expressed our disappointment that the Obama administration had decided to continue Bush's faith-based program without first dealing with the critical constitutional and civil rights problems it presents: direct funding of houses of worship, religious discrimination in hiring, and entangling secular and sectarian program content. Read more

Obama Takes on "Christian Nation" Fiction, Secular Coalition Cheers

April 8 - The Secular Coalition for America heartily endorses the words spoken by President Barack Obama during a press conference in Turkey this week: "One of the great strengths of the United States is ... we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation; we consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values." Read more

Related media: WBAI's Wakeup Call in New York City interviews Coalition acting director Ron Millar [(.mp3) - approx. 14 mins. into the show]

Creationism and the Godless Boogeyman

Apr. 3, 2009 - The creationists on the Texas State Board of Education were only partially successful in their efforts to impose "teaching the controversy" of evolution on the state's science standards. They were, however, highly successful in demonstrating their religious bigotry. More

Rise of the Godless

The cover story of the March edition of National Journal magazine (.pdf) highlights the Secular Coalition for America. Accompanying the article is a Web video, Face of the 'Godless' Movement (offsite).

Related
C-SPAN's Washington Journal: Video interview with author Paul Starobin, National Journal, Staff Correspondent
Bergen Record: Freethinkers sense nation near cultural shift
OpEdNews.com: You Are Friends With an Atheist