White House Meeting Marks New Milestone for Nontheists

[and-justice-for-all]

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....

http://www.secular.org/news/WhiteHouseMay09.html

[Kerrytravelers]

1. WOW! The 20% of us, a sizable minority, is being acknowledged for the first time.

Knock me over with a feather.

[Lochloosa]

15. But can you get married?

:shrug:

[Lance_Boyle]

2. Were they forced to use the service entrance?

Gawds forbid their presence be noticed by the invisible-skydaddy-fearing wackaloons to whom Obama seems intent on pandering - they might get the vapors, or the ill humours, or whatever "spiritual" nonsense it is their kind get.

[cali]

13. oh for fuck's sake. you've just taken unjustified whining to a new level

pathhetic.

[Greyskye]

3. More Recs than Posts...

Says something in and of itself, doesn't it? :shrug:

K&R

[solstice]

4. It really pisses me off that such signficant issues are palmed off on an "associate director".

Of course, there's no political reward in pandering to nontheists.

[ieoeja]

5. K&R

[mainegreen]

6. 'Secular Coalition' eh? Until a group with an avowedly Athiest name is invited...

I ain't breaking out the champagne.

[Lance_Boyle]

7. Words don't get much more non-theistic than "secular."

I fail to see the gripe here.

[and-justice-for-all]

8. Some people are just never happy...nt

[mainegreen]

10. That is a very tired argument here.

And not a very good one.

[mainegreen]

9. There is a WORLD of difference between secular and atheist.

They are not the same at all. Not even close.

Atheism isn't even a subset of the set of secular things.

[and-justice-for-all]

11. I kindly disagree with you...

Their advisory board members: http://www.secular.org/adv_board/
Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Wendy Kaminer, Michael Newdow, Salman Rushdie, Julia Sweeney

Then there are the Coalition members:
American Ethical Union° American Humanist Association° Atheist Alliance International° Camp Quest° Freedom From Religion Foundation° Institute for Humanist Studies° Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers° Secular Student Alliance° Society for Humanistic Judaism

Mission Statement

The mission of the Secular Coalition for America is to increase the visibility of and respect for nontheistic viewpoints in the United States, and to protect and strengthen the secular character of our government as the best guarantee of freedom for all.


So, I think your wrong in your assessment of secular.org

[mainegreen]

12. It's not about my position of secular.org.

They are a good organization. Secularity is a must in society.

However, let us be frank. Secular is NOT the same as atheist. Nontheistic is not the same as atheistic. I've heard Dawkins enough to know he thinks the same way. An atheistic organization was not invited to the white house. A secular one was.

I'm glad they were invited. Really. It's a step in the right direction.

But you know what? I'm an actively god-denying atheist. And frankly it pissed me off that the best our government can do is call us 'non-theists', chuck us in with other groups, while pleasingly secular, aren't frankly the same, and then suppress a shiver while they try to hope no one notices that they might have mentioned (horror) athiests.

I stand by my statement: I am not breaking out the champagne until an avowedly athiestic organisation is warmly invited over too.

[and-justice-for-all]

14. "Secular is NOT the same as atheist"

well Agnostic is not the same as Atheist either...But Secular is the club us Atheist belong too, as does anything that is not conformist to all that shit on the right.

"I am not breaking out the champagne until an avowedly athiestic organisation is warmly invited over too." Seeing that Secualr.org is the umbrella we are under, I can not complain...If Dawkins and Harris are part of the group, then I am with them.

[Lance_Boyle]

16. WTF do you think the "a" in "atheist" means?

Hint - it means "not" or "non." Hence atheistic = not theistic = secular. If you're not convinced, your argument is with Latin, not me.