GPLindsey

In reading the various posts on this forum, I've been struggling to come up in my mind with a clear list of what the secular "agenda" is exactly that we are supposed to be "active" about. Maintaining church-state separation is an obvious item. However, this struggle is basically about maintaining a constitutional protection that we (atheists, agnostics, non-christian religionists, etc.) already have-- the protection against one faith or denomination becoming the official religion of the U.S., or that its practices de facto become part of the law. But is there anything else in EXISTING laws or current commercial practices that atheists, agnostics, etc. need to get agitated about?

As an atheist, I am humbled by the fights that other Americans have gone through and are still going through. African Americans suffered through slavery, then a hundred years of officially sanctioned discrimination (separate but equal, poll taxes, etc.), and continuing racism and resistence to their equal rights. Women couldn't vote until 1920, were routinely denied job opportunities in companies that didn't hire women or promotions, and had to fight a mountain of laws over the years that were biased towards men. Now, of course, gays have been front and center in the news recently about state laws specifically targeting their activities, and opposition to their desire for gay marriages to be recognized in the law. There is even talk of a constitutional amendment to stop recognition of gay marriages.

I look back on all this and I think, what do I have to bitch about? My right to be an atheist is protected under the Constitution and our laws. No one can ask me about my religious beliefs at my work (I work in the gov't however, so there is likely more senstivity about not violating EEO on that--I can't speak to what goes on in a small town bank where the lone atheist is surrounding by evangelical co-workers). Church leaders and others denounce atheism all the time in the public square, but they are practicing both their freedom of religion and their freedom of speech, which I support. Yes, there are annoyances like "In God We Trust" on my money and "Under God" in the pledge, but I'm comforted with the thought that such things are having zero effect IMO at making the USA a more pious nation. Also, how are these irritants as a rallying call to secular activism, when compared to African-Americans being made to sit at the back of a city bus, or gay sex acts between consenting adults being a state crime?

I have some ideas on what secular activism should entail and why it is needed, but I would like to here from others first. What should Secular Activism be active about? What are the top ten items on our agenda?

PopeInTheWoods

I can't come up with a Top Ten, but I think my Top Two are big enough to keep people busy for quite some time.

You pegged the first one as obvious: maintaining state/church separation. Religionists have been attempting to entangle their beliefs with government functions pretty much since day one, and have been succeeding much too frequently. It's more than an "annoyance" when faith-based "science" is taught alongside or in place of the critical-thinking variety. Such actions weaken the educational level, and eventually the scientific competiveness, of the American populace. And fighting such actions costs time, money, and effort that could be used to otherwise improve society.

The second would (almost perversely) be to "play down" the image of atheists, making atheism seem unremarkable and commonplace. Show that atheists are at least as normal, productive, friendly members of society as everyone else. The long-term goal would be that a political candidate's atheism (or Catholicism, Calvinism, Islam, Hinduism, etc.) would be as relevant in a campaign as his/her shoe size, favorite composer, or most-ordered Chinese food.

Andy