Additional Links Regarding Edwina Rogers

As I write this, Edwina Rogers of the Secular Coalition for America is doing an Ask Me Anything on Reddit, so feel free to post your questions there!

A couple of additional interesting links:

Ashley F. Miller writes the sample apology letter she wishes Rogers would send out:

My final big mistake is that I’ve been trying to focus exclusively on my positives without acknowledging my negatives and without engaging with them openly and honestly. This is a fault of being in politics, it makes you quite the bullshit artist. I should have known better in this community than to think I could dance around questions without being called on it. So let me say that you are right. You are right that I’ve worked for and support a party that disagrees, in majority but not in totality, with many of your goals. But I was working for causes that I cared very deeply about, and I will not apologize for doing that. And I will not abandon my party because other people have taken it in a direction I disagree with. It is better for all of us if we can bring the party back in line with the goals of the secular community and I really do think that is possible.

…

SCA Communications Director Lauren Youngblood believes we can and should try and reach out to the other side in a show of bipartisanship:

We do ourselves a disservice when we actively attempt to align ourselves with only one party. Of course, we may naturally gravitate toward one side or the other, but we must remember that most people are not single issue voters. That is to say that when they go into the voting booth, they are not voting solely on their beliefs on religion (or any one issue). They may be put off by the religious rhetoric of a particular candidate, but are more concerned about immigration policy, for instance, and vote for a religiously-affiliated candidate anyway.

It’s our job as a movement to make voters see the importance of voting based on secular issues. We should never give up on creating relationships and building coalitions where ever we can.

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TychaBrahe

I am a fiscal conservative. I could very easily vote Republican if it were still about being fiscally conservative. I would have voted for Eisenhower. However, I am an atheist woman with a uterus and many gay friends. So I vote Democrat.
The Godless Monster

And let’s not forget Barry Goldwater. If he was still alive he’d have a conniption fit over how his party has turned out.
micah

Jesus, no one is saying we shouldn’t reach out to the GOP. The criticism is regarding someone who has actively worked for the party who is advocating the opposite of most of what non believers advocate for. She then she lies saying that they haven’t and currently are not doing those things we oppose. And we’re expected to trust her to accurately represent us? This is what the SCA does not seem to get.
mikespeir

In other words, she should repent.
Joshua Zelinsky

Reading the reddit thread made me less worried. Her views there seemed to be more nuanced about the negatives of the Republican party.
Annie

I’ve been trying to read as much as I can about Edwina Rogers, and just came back from the Reddit discussion (thanks for the link). I wish she would stop talking like a politician. She got the job, she doesn’t need our vote, but it would be good if she had the support of the secular community. There are so many tactics that different atheists use to get their ideas across. There are many that use techniques that I don’t agree with, but if they do it with a passion for the greater good, they have my respect.

I guess that’s what I’m not seeing from Rogers yet… passion for the movement. I’m hoping it’s there and she’s just settling in. I’m hoping she’s new to really identifying as a non-theist and just getting her feet wet on what issues are universal to us all. I’m hoping she’ll use her skills and connections to advance secular issues in the US… and not just her own career.

Show us your passion, Edwina!
Jon

This lady seems like she is full of shit like S.E. Cupp.
Edward Starr

Lauren Youngblood: I have not alienated the Republican party. They have alienated me. I do not disaffiliate myself with Republicans. They often and regularly disaffiliate themselves with me. The community of non-believers is comprised, by and large of thinking, reasonable, and open-minded people who are remarkably tolerant of those who continue to relentlessly demonize us for what we think, what we believe, and who we are.
We have not suffered from any lack of fairness, willingness to try to understand the opinions of those whose perspectives differ from our own, or bi-partisanship. The leadership of the Republican party has. Frankly – it is they who reject us.
CatBallou

I call bullshit on the “I will not abandon my party” notion. A political party is not a family, or a friend, or anything toward which you might have a moral duty. A political party is defined by the values it espouses, and when those values no longer match yours, staying in it is hypocritical. Being “loyal” to a party with which you disagree will not change the party, it will only strengthen it.