Now, reacting to a mailing from The Brights (see it in the comments below), I'm also finally supporting the Secular Coalition for America, a group that's been around for four years or so.
Mission StatementThat sounds about right to me, and I can think of many less justified uses for a few bucks than to help support their lobbying.
The mission of the Secular Coalition for America is to increase the visibility and respectability of 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.
Position Statement
The Secular Coalition for America is committed to promoting reason and science as the most reliable methods for understanding the universe and improving the human condition. Informed by experience and inspired by compassion, we encourage the pursuit of knowledge, meaning, and responsible ethical codes without reference to supernatural forces. We affirm the secular form of government as a necessary condition for the interdependent rights of religious freedom and religious dissent. We come together as national freethought organizations to cooperate in areas of mutual interest and to support each other in our efforts to uphold separation between government and religion for the benefit of all within the nontheistic community. As resources allow, we will actively cooperate in projects that support our position, with priority given to political action initiatives and public relations opportunities.
Statement on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Tolerance
The Secular Coalition for America holds that freedom of conscience, including religious freedom, is a fundamental American value as evidenced by the fact that this is the first freedom protected in the Bill of Rights. Freedom of conscience is best guaranteed by protecting and strengthening the secular character of our government. Religious tolerance, a necessary product of this freedom, must be extended to people of all religions and to those without religious beliefs.
How about you? Please consider supporting the Secular Coalition for America.
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Subject: The Brights' Net BrightenOp
BrightenOp for American Brights, 2006 March 15
“Turn up the Brightness!”
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Infrequent "BrightenOps" give you an opportunity to take a timely action. The nature of any suggested action may be reactive or proactive, critical or complimentary. The BrightenOp supplies you the means to proceed if the invited action is something you think will further the aims of The Brights’ Net.
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ANNOUNCEMENT FROM BRIGHTS CENTRAL
A new Brights Action SIG is forming. A SIG is a Special INITIATIVE Group. As you are probably aware (we so often say so!), The Brights’ Network itself never speaks for the whole constituency of the Brights. Yet, there is often a good reason to assist those Brights who do wish to act in unison on a designated matter. Consequently, we are initiating the SIG concept for specific initiatives.
We invite your consideration and your participation in this first Action SIG (no cost, simply a method of showing support for a specific endeavor). Registering is easy.
SIG #1: BRIGHTS ACTION SCA
If you are an American citizen and a Bright, you can register into the “Brights Action SCA” subgroup of the Brights’ constituency.
SCA stands for the Secular Coalition for America. Its mission is: “To increase the visibility and respectability of 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.”
The Secular Coalition for America pursues its mission as a 501c4 advocacy organization. As such, it currently has a lobbyist on Capitol Hill. The Secular Coalition is not a membership organization, but the more people who lend vocal support to SCA via their organizations, the louder its advocacy voice will be.
This first-ever Brights Action SIG is being formed specifically to enable a portion of the Brights constituency to endorse the SCA’s mission statement. The new SIG will be added to SCA’s listing of endorsing organizations (see the list at http://www.secular.org/endorsing_orgs.html).
The Brights Action SIG consists of “that assemblage of Brights endorsing the above SCA mission statement.” You are supporting the Secular Coalition for America in name only. No dues or donations are required but would, of course, be welcomed by SCA (501c4 donations are not tax deductible). For more information, you can visit the SCA website at http://www.secular.org.
ACTION
To add your voice in support of the SCA’s mission, you simply type your email address into a box on The Brights’ Net website. Your name/email will not be given to SCA. All records are located on the Brights’ database. Click http://the-brights.net/action/subscribe and in 30 seconds you will be a part of the Brights Action SCA (SIG#1).
Bright Regards
Mynga Futrell and Paul Geisert, Co-Directors of The Brights’ Net
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