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National Secular Movement Update
Newsletter and Call
Call Every Thursday from 12PM - 12:30PM (ET)
Phone Number: 559-726-1300 Code: 199568
January 17, 2013
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
As Washington prepares for the second inauguration of President Obama on Sunday, the city is awash with patriotic paraphernalia, bleachers along the parade route and plenty of other preparations. An estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people are expected to attend.
The Secular Coalition has four upcoming meetings with the offices of representatives and senators in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, we are watching several bills closely. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) has again introduced his bill (H.R. 301) to create a Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia. We have used this bill as a Congressional Scorecard vote in the past.
Finally, we are hard at work planning the Lobby Day and Secular Summit and our first Senate Briefing, which will be focused on tax-related issues. If you haven't already registered for Lobby Day, register now to secure the early bird rate!
Table of Contents:
I. White House and Congressional Update
II. Secular Events and Calendar
III. Secular Movement in the News
IV. Legislative and Regulatory Update
V. Judicial
VI. SCA State Chapters
VII. Policy and Research Documents
VIII. Secular Coalition Expansion
IX. SCA Member and Associated Organization Announcements
X. Movement Charity Updates and Activities
Please join our movement today! Follow this link to the SCA sign-up page.
I. White House and Congressional Update
- House of Representatives: The House will be in session next Monday, January 21. They recessed early this week after voting on two bills to increase federal aid to areas affected by Hurricane Sandy last fall.
- Senate: The Senate will remain out of session until Tuesday, January 22.
- White House: On Wednesday, the President outlined his recommendations for curbing gun violence through legislation and executive orders. The President will be inaugurated in a small ceremony on Sunday, January 20 as required by the Constitution. The public inauguration will take place on Monday, January 21. An estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people are expected to attend.
- UN: It is has been a quiet week on the UN front, but I can report that on Jan. 28, the NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief will host an event featuring several speakers who will explore the proposed new "Universal Code on Holy Sites." The Code seeks to provide a mechanism to monitor and protect holy sites, and to promote peace between people and communities from diverse ethnic, religious, and other backgrounds. The Center for Inquiry does not yet have a position on this measure. I will report back after the event. In related international news, a broad coalition of secular and Christian groups scored an underreported victory this week when the UK government announced it would remove the word "insulting" from the Public Order Act. The Act currently reads: "A person is guilty of an offense if he uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour." The push for change came after several high-profile cases, for example a 16-year-old who got in trouble for holding up in public a poster that said "Scientology is a dangerous cult." Score one for freedom of speech.
Upcoming Meetings
- Rep. Todd Young (R-IN), January 17 at 10:00am
- Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN), January 24 at 3:30pm
- Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), January 29 at 10:00am
- Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)--time TBD
If you are interested in attending one of these meetings, please contact chris@secular.org. For UN-related questions or remarks for these meetings can email mdedora@centerforinquiry.net. More information on the Committee and all its events can be found at http://unforb.wordpress.com/ (Thank you to Michael DeDora for this update, mdedora@centerforinquiry.net, 646.706.6080). Otherwise, contact Edwina Rogers, Executive Director, Edwina Rogers, at Edwina@secular.org or by phone at 202-299-101 ext. 207 or cell: 202-674-7800.
II. Secular Events and Calendar
The National Secular Calendar is on the Secular Coalition Website Homepage. The calendar includes major secular events, state chapter calls, Secular Coalition speeches, and national secular calls. If you have an event to add, or questions, please e-mail nathan@secular.org
Upcoming Conferences and Events
- March 28, 2013 - 8:00 am: American Atheists National Convention, Austin, Texas
- April 12-14 - Society for Humanistic Judaism's HuJews Teen and College Conclave, in Michigan.
- April 24-26 - SCA's Lobby Day and Secular Summit, Washington, DC
- April 27, 2013 - "Why Tolerate Religion? A Center for Inquiry Symposium"
- May 4, 2013 - 9:00 am: Freethought Alliance Conference, Anaheim, California
- May 17-19 2013- Women in Secularism Conference, Washington, DC
- May 30, 2013 - 9:00 am: American Humanist Association Annual Conference, San Diego, California
- June 19, 2013 - 3:00 pm - Unitarian Universalists General Assembly, Louisville, Kentucky
- June 21, 2013 - Secular Student Alliance 2013 Las Vegas Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada
- July 12, 2013- Secular Student Alliance 2013, Columbus Ohio
Anything to add? Contact Nathan Cox at nathan@secular.org. Please let us know if you'd like to attend one of these meetings: If you are interested, please contact Chris Lombardi at chris@secular.org for anything legislation-related.
III. Secular Movement In the News
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more news!
Secular Coalition in the News
Other News, Blog Posts, Press Releases
Future Events
Are there any upcoming issues or events that the movement needs to coordinate press around?
- February 8-10 - Evolution Sunday
- February 12 - Darwin Day
- March 29- April 6 - Atheist Week (Facebook)
- April 24-26 - SCA's Lobby Day and Summit
- May 2 - National Day of Reason
IV. Legislative and Regulatory Update
Federal
Legislative and Regulatory Update Calls
We will have a Legislative and Regulatory Update call on Tuesday, January 22 at 2pm ET. Current donors will receive an invitation; if you are interested in participating in these calls, please donate today!
Contact Chris Lombardi, Government Relations Manager for the SCA, with additional suggestions or information at chris@secular.org.
V. Judicial
- NY High School Teacher Sues Over Order To Remove Religious Materials From Classroom. A Cheektowaga, New York, high school science teacher has filed a federal lawsuit against her school district complaining that she was required to refrain from promoting religion in her communications with students and remove all personal non-curricular items of a religious nature from her classroom, including her posters containing religious messages, a drawing depicting 3 crosses, sticky notes she placed on her desk displaying Biblical quotations, and the Bible Study Club’s prayer request box. The suit claims these actions violate the Free Speech, Establishment and Equal Protection Clauses.
- Suit Challenges NH Education Tax Credits. The ACLU has filed suit in New Hampshire state court challenging state’s newly enacted education tax credit program. Under the program, businesses receive a tax credit equal to 85% of the amount they donate to scholarship organizations that, in turn, fund private (including religious) elementary and secondary education. The suit alleges that the program violates New Hampshire Constitution, which provides that no one shall be compelled to support religious schools and no tax funds may be used for parochial schools. A federal suit challenging a similar Arizona program was rejected by the Supreme Court on standing grounds.
If you have any additions, questions or submissions for inclusion on the judicial section for next week, contact Bill Burgess, BBurgess@americanhumanist.org, 202-238-9088.
VI. SCA State Chapters
State Chapter Updates
- State Bills of Concern:
- Montana - HB 183 a covert creationism bill seeks to "teach the controversy" of evoluation in science classrooms, now introduced
- South Carolina - HB 3100/ SB 103 - 'South Carolina Public Proceedings First Amendment Protection Act' - "No locality, municipality, county, or other instrumentality of the State of South Carolina has the power to violate the First Amendment of the United States Constitution or Section 2, Article I of the Constitution of South Carolina, 1895 at any time, including during the course of its proceedings."
- Texas - HB 308- schools may display nativity scenes as a traditional winter display and does not relate to a religious belief
- Arkansas - HB 1017 - to adopt curriculum standards for an academic study of the bible
- Illinois HB 88- Provides a property tax exemption for parking areas owned by any religious institution
- New York AB 1112- Provides for the establishment of a voluntary chaplaincy program for the public schools
- Indiana SB 23 - School Prayer - Allows the governing body of a school corporation or the equivalent authority of a charter school to provide for the recitation of the Lord's Prayer at the beginning of each school day.
If you seen any bills that concern secualr issues in your state, please email Kelly@secular.org with the state and bill number in the subject line.
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Conference Calls
- The first dates of the 2013 call schedule are listed below! Many more soon to come. To join in, call in to 530-881-1400 and enter the participant code 978895 on your state’s scheduled date and time.
- If I have missed a major conflict with your state's call date and time, please let me know by emailing me at Kelly@secular.org
- Please spread the word about your state’s conference call now being on evenings and weekends!
- Call Schedule:
- Thursday, January 22nd
- Tuesday, January 29th
- North Carolina at 6pm ET
- New Jersey at 7pm ET
- Agendas for the calls will be posted to each state’s page on secular.org before the call and a replay of the call will be posted shortly after.
- We encourage everyone to “like” the Facebook pages of their state chapter, listed as “Secular Coalition for [State].
- Get the latest updates and sign up to receive emails about the chapter forming in your state on the state chapters page on our website.
Contact Kelly Damerow, our Research and Advocacy manager, at Kelly@secular.org or by phone 202-299-1091 ext. 204.
VII. Policy and Research Documents
Reminder: The Open Access on-line Research Library at the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society & Culture, Trinity College, Hartford, CT is available to everyone in the movement. Go to www.secularisminstitute.org. This is the academic website for ISSSC. From there you can access (top right) all the reports and materials on the American Religious Identification Survey series since 1990.
Contact Barry Kosmin, Director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society with any additions or suggestions for this list at barry.kosmin@trincoll.edu.
Powerpoints, brochures, scorecards, and other resources are now available on the website. These speeches will be free and available to everyone in the movement. The Secular Coalition is looking for helpful research papers, to link to from our website and to determine where additional research needs to be done. If you are aware of any, please send information to kelly@secular.org
VIII. Secular Coalition Expansion
- Coalition expansion drive underway! We are looking to add Endorsing and Allied organizations through additional website sign up opportunities and meetings. Please recommend any non-movement groups we should meet with to discuss common ground.
- We had 34 endorsing organizations in May of 2012; we now have over 100! Our newest endorsing organizations are:
- Atheists of Northern Indiana
- Humanist Association of Connecticut
IX. SCA Member and Associated Organization Announcements
The American Humanist Association distributed it's own new edition of the "Jefferson Bible" to incoming members of Congress. AHA's new version includes what its editors consider the best and the worst of the sacred texts of the world's religions -- the Hebrew Tanakh, the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, Buddhist Sutras and the Book of Mormon.
The Society for Humanistic Judaism called for a boycott of retailers selling assault rifles and high capacity magazines – people can sign the petition and find a list of retailers who have not removed such weapons from their online catalogues and shelves as well as a much shorter list of those who have.
SHJ is also encourages registration for HuJews Teen and College Conclave, April 12-14, in Michigan. And finally, SHJ is seeking a part-time Youth Program Associate. Find out more about the position here.
Want to share your organization's efforts with the SCA? Email updates, alerts, announcements or other items you'd like to share with the community to lauren@secular.org.
X. Movement Charity Updates and Activities:
Foundation Beyond Belief staff will be reaching out to other secular organizations in hopes of incorporating their charity efforts into this report, and to provide a year-end summary of non-theist charity giving. The LLS LTN initiative headed by Todd Stiefel and supported by many national secular organizations has made it extremely likely that non-theists will reach $1 million in organized charitable giving in 2012.
Please contact Noelle George at noelle@foundationbeyondbelief.org or Dale McGowan at dale@foundationbeyondbelief.org if you would like your group's charity effort to be included.
To sign up for newsletters, call announcements, and action alerts, please visit our website. Don't forget to like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.
Contact Executive Director, Edwina Rogers, at Edwina@secular.org or by phone at 202-299-101 ext. 207 or cell: 202-674-7800.
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