Today marks the opening of the Secular Majority project. Secular Majority is ‘an independent, non-partisan, grassroots network of organizers, activists, and voters with the mission of identifying, supporting, and aiding in the election of qualified candidates committed to secular government and civic equality for Secular Americans’. The time has come to have an independent grassroots group who’s goal is to let secular voters know which candidates support their values.
Group Will Survey, Endorse Office-Seekers Based on Platform of Scientific, Secular Values
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Mary Ellen SikesCHARLOTTESVILLE, VA — Candidates have a new constituency to court in the 2014 election season: voters who’ve had it with religion in politics. In at least eight states, the new Secular Majority will be distributing a questionnaire to identify and endorse federal and state candidates who support a secular approach to public education, reproductive rights, marriage equality, science, and a host of other topics related to the separation of church and state.
Independent, non-partisan, and staffed by volunteers, the Secular Majority is operational in Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas. A Michigan team is currently organizing and additional states will be added as volunteers step forward, with the goal of reaching all fifty states.
In a 2012 study of voters by the Pew Forum for Religion and Public Life, the largest response group was made up of those turned off by religion in politics — an unprecedented finding. Also from Pew, the generation known as the Millennials (adults from 18 to 33) is the most liberal and least religious of any in the past.
“Secularism is clearly trending,” said Secular Majority founder and president Mary Ellen Sikes. “Americans of all faiths and none are fed up with elected officials imposing their religious beliefs on the people they’re supposed to be representing. In 2014 we shouldn’t need to lobby our legislators to let us use birth control or marry the person we love. Religiously neutral government makes it possible for Americans to live their lives in harmony with their own beliefs and values — that’s the American dream, and we’re working to elect candidates who agree with us about that.”
The Secular Majority is an independent, non-partisan, grassroots network of organizers, activists, and voters with the mission of identifying, supporting, and aiding in the election of qualified candidates committed to secular government and civic equality for Secular Americans. For more information, or to contact a State Director, visit www.SecularMajority.us.
Full disclosure – I am the assistant director for Ohio. I am pleased and excited to join this needed project.
Some of the blog posts specific to Ohio that I might post here or on my other blogs will be posted on Secular Majority first.
One of my first posts deals with the religiousness of the two major candidates for Ohio Governor.
Please check out the project and if you would like to be involved, let us know.
