For Release: October 6, 2008 Contact: Anne Singer, 202-271-4679 ?Secular Values Voters? Take the Movement Online, Buy Secular Swag Secular Coalition for America?s Election Website Offers News Updates, Online Polls, Organizing Tips and Voter Videos Washington, DC ? Are hurricanes really the wrath of God? Should theology inform health care policy? These are among the questions asked by American voters in YouTube videos solicited by the Secular Coalition for America and posted at its destination website for ?Secular Values Voters? this campaign season. The website, www.election08.secular.org, is where voters concerned with the role of religion in politics and policy are going this election year to learn about the issues and make their voices heard. It is also where any one can go to buy T-shirts, buttons and yard signs with the ?Secular Values Voter? message. The website also features a news blog on religion in the presidential and vice presidential campaigns, backgrounders on the four candidates from the two major parties, questions any candidate for public office should be asked, and tips for organizing secular voters on the ground. More than a thousand people voted in the Secular Coalition?s first online poll asking which issue is most important to them. The winning issue was religion in public education (science and sexuality education curricula), with efforts to legislate a ?Christian Nation? coming in second, and theology interfering with scientific research third. The current poll asks what they?d most like to hear discussed in presidential debates, and right now, voters are saying they most want to hear the candidates discuss their views on the teaching of Creationism in public schools. The Secular Coalition is putting out a new call for YouTube videos to add to those already posted at www.election08.secular.org, in which voters ask the candidates questions about the relationship between faith and governance. ?Secular Values Voters,? a term coined by the Secular Coalition for America, names an already growing constituency of Americans who share the common sense belief that policy should be free from theology and politics should be separate from religion. The values to which they are committed are here: http://election08.secular.org/node/27. ***** The Secular Coalition for America represents nine national coalition partners who share the view that a secular government offers the best guarantee for freedom of thought and belief for all Americans. It works to protect the civil rights of nontheistic Americans, and lobbies the U.S. Congress on issues of concern to its constituents. The Coalition?s website is www.secular.org .








I wonder if American Atheists will ever officially join the Secular Coalition. I think it would be nice, although voting isn’t very helpful. The Secular Coalition still does good things.
Joe Zamecki
Austin, Texas