Posted by Hemant Mehta in How bad was the intersection of religion and politics in 2008?
The Secular Coalition for America put together a video reminding us of how marginalized the atheist viewpoint was this year.
They also include advice at the end on how we can (slowly but surely) fix this problem.
Check it out:
That’s hardly everything.
They didn’t even include the clip of the three Republican candidates raising their hands against Evolution.
But if the video is just a sampling, it shows how far non-religious have to go before we have a seat at America’s political roundtable .
Not all is bad news.
“Two-thirds of Americans think religion is losing its influence on U.S. life, a sharp jump from just three years ago when Americans were nearly evenly split on the question, according to a new Gallup Poll.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-12-26-faith-influence_N.htm
[...] more familiar “pet topic”: Religion and politics (via Friendly Atheist) These are some 2008 “lowlights” which, yes, feature my favorite [...]
There are a great deal of ways that all of us (atheist and theist secularists) can work to resolve this issue.
Getting involved in the political process is a very important one. Get active in the party organizations themselves and speak up when they are planning events, such as local state and national conventions. Just say “No” when they talk about having prayer invocations, and explain why.
Parties can only be changed from within, and if the parties are changed to me more secular, then the elected officials are more likely to accept changes to reduce the amount of public declarations of religion.
At least, that is my own approach. I am the Affirmative Action Officer for my local Democratic organization; as an atheist. No one objected to my election, so it can be done.
(It helps that the chair of our organization is also a secularist.)