Edwina Rogers

We mentioned at the end of last episode, ‘100‘, that we were going to be delving into the hiring of Edwina Rogers, a Republican lobbyist, as the Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for America (SCA).   The SCA is the premier advocacy and lobbying organization for secular concepts in Washington, DC.    We’ve spoken with and about the SCA with its former Executive Director, Sean Faircloth in our ‘…and Finally, Politics‘ episode.

Edwina Rogers is, no doubt, a controversial choice for the SCA, as there are many in the Atheism Visibility Movement who see the GOP and conservatives as the prime opponent to our movement.  Anecdotally, we can say that there was a lot of concern in our social media feeds, and we share some of that concern, especially in light of recent interviews with Rogers.

We would like to talk about Edwina Rogers about our concerns, and we’ve extended an invitation to talk with us this week on our show, prerecorded or live.   But first, we find it necessary to discuss what concerns we don’t have about Edwina Rogers:

Her Conservatism

As we’ve pointed out several times on Ask an Atheist, there’s very little that atheism or skepticism says about politics.   While disbelief in gods says something very clear about creationism in schools, enforced prayer, and (as we’ve seen) LGBT equality, it does not say anything clearly about health care, military spending, or fiscal policy in general.

The appointment of a conservative atheist to the Secular Coalition for America speaks a very clear message about non-partisanship in the clear, concise, and unbroken separation of Church and State.   Every American of any political or religious affiliation, from the Lutheran Church to the Constitution Party, is protected by this wall regardless of what they think about it.  A conservative Executive Director of an organization nominally regarded as liberal makes that message clear.

While we believe there are difficulties in being a social conservative and an atheist in the context of modern American conservatism, we know that there are large areas of the conservative movement where atheists are quite welcome.   Conservative atheists have every right to sit at the table as their more liberal peers.

Her Apparent Newness to Atheism and Secularism

A subtext of the criticism facing Edwina Rogers is her newcomer appearance.    While there are places where we believe this may be a problem, her recent arrival on the atheism stage is not, in itself, a drawback.

The Atheism Visibility Movement by its very nature is made up of newcomers.   While many of us are not new to the concept of atheism, the movement and social activity we enjoy is very recent.   Edwina may have a lot to learn about the American atheist context and our movement, but if she wants to use her skills to further the cause of a distinctly secular government, that is no drawback.

Just within Ask an Atheist, Becky has only been an atheist for three years.  While Sam and Mike have been atheists for most of their lives, they only became active themselves fairly recently; Sam in 2006 (as he often points out), and Mike in 2009 with the express purpose of beginning a project which became Ask an Atheist.

Outside of our show, are Jerry DeWitt or Theresa Macbain poor choices for their work, even though together they’ve been atheists for a cumulative total of one year, four months?   Is Rich Lyons a poor choice for his work, even thought he is a recent atheist?  Unlike many religions, we’re under no commitment to treat new atheists as if they have nothing to bring to the table.

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Edwina Rogers could be a powerful choice for the helm Secular Coalition for America, but we can’t ignore the hurdles in her way.  Some of these hurdles are only apparent because of her controversial selection, but we feel they must be addressed.  We must also again stress that we have contacted Edwina Rogers and the SCA for an interview or a statement, and we look forward to the discussion.

In our next post we’ll look at Rogers’ statements about the GOP which are at odds with GOP documentation.

Ask an Atheist hosts reflect on producing 100 episodes, with feedback from listeners and some news recaps and updates.

I still haven’t quite grasped that in two years’ time, we’ve interviewed everyone from Sean Faircloth to Greta Christina to James Randi; we’ve done a live presentation of our show for the Northwest Freethought Conference in April, and we put on a event to make fun of an apocalyptic lunatic that got us international media attention.

But there’s something about triple digits that feels different. Not even the original Star Trek series made it to 100 episodes. Neither did Arrested Development. Or Cop Rock.

While my brain knows that we get regular listenership on six continents, I still find it a bit shocking when I meet someone who listens to us. I’m humbled and flattered that you like our weird little radio show enough to help keep us on the air for nearly two years.

When SCAN public access television went bust, and Sam and I — in the words of the great Peter Venkman — decided to go into business for ourselves, we weren’t sure the show would survive. The obstacles of fundraising looked insurmountable, but all of you proved us wrong multiple times.

Over the last couple of weeks, Sam and I have been asking you what our show has meant to you. We’d like to know if we’ve ever changed your mind, helped set you in your ways, made you laugh, pissed you off, made you see something in a new light, or maybe just made you hurl your radio across the room.

It’s only fair that since we’re asking you, that I should share with you what this show has meant to me.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve never felt represented well in the media. I can’t count the number of times that I’ve seen a channel like CNN put together a roundtable discussion about religion or UFOs or alternative medicine and then populated that discussion only with people with differing degrees of the same position. I became tired of seeing multiple theists, conspiracy nuts or woo merchants fighting over the meres inches of difference between one person’s opinion and another’s.

One of the final straws for me was when CNN held a group discussion on the subject of the New Atheist resurgence of the last decade, without the inclusion of even a single atheist.

I was infuriated to hear two theists having the gall to pretend like it’s religious people who are the real victims of the culture war they started. As we’ve said more than once on our show and on this blog, it’s truly amazing to see people misrepresent themselves as victims of persecution because they’re not allowed to put their stamp of religious ownership on everything in our society.

And even more frustrating when I get to see these people vomit their bumper sticker phrases and outright lies without response or rebuttal. It’s the classic religious privilege answer. “We own this society and we let you live here without killing you or jailing you. So you should thank us for your second-class citizenship , shut up, and stop whining about it.”

And the saddest part is that the closest thing I can find in this discussion to a proxy for my viewpoint is a moderate theist, who agrees with them about atheists being mean aggressors attacking this Christian nation and shared the same dismissive attitude about anti-atheist discrimination.

That panel discussion cemented one thought in my mind. If I couldn’t rely on the media to represent my views in these sorts of discussions, then I would have to become the media myself.

Aside from “Ask an Atheist” giving me a platform to inject my own take on religion, skepticism and church/state separation, it’s also given us the opportunity to shine a light on plenty of other people like Sean Faircloth, Rob Boston, Mandisa Thomas, Greta Christina, Jerry DeWitt, and Teresa MacBain, who would have completely changed the tone of that CNN panel and whose constant media exclusion should anger us all.

For me, “Ask an Atheist” is just one part of a many-pronged response to the exclusion of our opinions and our voices from the mainstream media. I see our show as just another of a growing and vibrant Atheist Visibility Movement that has included billboards, bus ads, bestselling books and a 20,000 person Reason Rally.

We’re making ourselves heard, and I like to believe that “Ask an Atheist” is helping that movement built momentum.

We’d like to hear from you. What impact has our show had on you? Do we give you some relief from a week dominated by religious opinion? Do we make you throw your radio against the wall? We want your thoughts, your experiences and your stories — both positive and negative.

Please click the big, red shiny “Ask a Question” button on the front page of our website and have your say!

If you’re in the Gresham/Portland/Vancouver, WA area and would like to hang out with us, drop us a line in email or on Facebook.   Chances are we’ll be at the McMenamin’s Edgefield, as the conference is taking place there.

Sunday after the show, we’ll be back in Tacoma, and we’ll be bowling!   Join us at Tower Lanes, 6263 6th Ave in Tacoma.   There is food, there is drinks, there is mini-golf, there is bowling, and unlike a lot of our post-show get togethers, this one is all ages!

We’re getting together with our community organization friends the Humanists of Washington, the Auburn Freethought Society, and Tacoma Atheists!

And hey, let us know you’re coming this time!   You can sign up at Meetup, or on Facebook.   These days, our events are much better attended than the Internet suggests.   I blame the reptoids.

Someone put two and two together and asked an alarming, if not inappropriate question:

I will miss [your] show very much.Concerned on the Book of Face

Becky responded well (She uses LOL un-ironically, that’s how I can tell),  but a picture can speak a thousand words, so I have one for you:

Post Show from A Hospital Bed

Ha ha, no.

Ask an Atheist is fine.   I’m not– or at least wasn’t.    I’m doing better now.   Why?   No vibrations, no crystals, the real deal.   Modern medicine, damnit.

We’ll get the episode up as soon as we can, though there were some technical glitches this week that we don’t normally see (of course, during the one week the data jerk isn’t around) so the audio quality might not be to our usual standards.   But we’re working on that, of course.

Meanwhile, Season 8 continues, and promises to be jam packed with some awesome stuff.   Please, stay tuned!

Thank You: to Kyle, Mike and Becky for putting on an excellent show, which you will hear soon, Mike is working hard to make that happen.  Also thanks to the Ask an Atheist Rogue’s Gallery for still getting together in Tacoma to keep the word out and have a round.   And a BIG thank you to Eileen for helping me get through the medical crap now.

I assume, based upon the locked doors, that they felt all atheists must be thieves. The idea that I would sneak up in the night, back up to the doors of the church and make off with all the valuables inside is absolutely reprehensible. If I wanted to ‘rob them blind,’ I had more opportunity while I served within the church as their pastor.