May at the SCA: New Executive Director and Announcement of 50 New State Chapters
May was another exciting month at the Secular Coalition for America. The month kicked off with a bang when we announced the selection of long-time Washington lobbyist Edwina Rogers as our new Executive Director.
It’s true we started the month big, but we ended it even bigger. Last week we announced dates for initial organizing calls for SCA chapters in 48 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. As you know, affiliate groups already exist Arizona and Alabama. This makes it official: by the end of the year, the SCA expects to have a presence in all 50 states – and a little bit beyond. Chapters will be rolled out through the summer in five phases. This week we will hold organizing calls in Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Virginia.News of the chapters is spreading fast, with supporters from around the country pitching in to get the chapters off the ground – and people are taking notice! News of the Virginia chapter made headlines all over the state, and one Kentucky minister has encouraged his followers to disrupt the Kentucky call, to thwart our progress. We take that as a sign we’re moving in the right direction!
And that’s not all: On the homepage of our website you’ll now find a detailed calendar with information on how to take part in our new weekly legislative calls! Finally, we welcomed Chris Lombardi to the team as our new Government Relations Manager.
We are also excited to begin this year's summer internship program this month, with two stellar undergraduates selected from a pool of impressive candidates.
As the SCA chapters around the country continue to be organized, we will keep you updated. Thank you for your continued support, without which none of this would be possible!
The House passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4310) which contained two amendments that claim to protect servicemembers’ and chaplains’ rights of conscience and prohibit the use of military facilities for gay marriages, even if those facilities are located in a state that recognizes gay marriage.
The Senate version of the legislation (S. 2467) was recently reported out of Committee but did not contain similar language. The Coalition will be meeting with Senate staff to ensure that such amendments are not considered when the full Senate debates the measure later this spring. Please contact your Senators and urge them to oppose the inclusion of these discriminatory amendments.
UPCOMING EVENTS
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| Please keep in mind that I am realistic enough to know that this is not the solution--but organizations such as this one is part of keeping the United States of America-the United States of America whose greatness has always come from diversity--from each and every divert cultural that came here to call America home and especially from the first ones to call this land home--even though they were the first to be totally disrespected and dishonored--to make matters worst, there are people who even today can justify the mistreatment and the broken treaties made with the Native American Forefathers, since some would say that they were merely--'Heathen' so any thing and every thing that happened to them was justified as if that attitude is a Christian Attitude | ||||||||
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