Sean Faircloth – former Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for America and current Director of Strategy and Policy for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science – has authored a book titled “Attack of the Theocrats!: How the Religious Right Harms Us All – and What We Can Do About It” detailing a vision of a secular America, a comprehensive strategy to re-secularize America, the harm of religious fundamentalism in law and much more. Faircloth comments specifically for this article.
Secularism, Faircloth notes, is an inclusive and positive perspective in which the government is completely neutral in regards to religion - a total separation of church and state. “The line of separation between church and state,” Faircloth says, “has been crossed multiple times and we need to get back to a total separation.”
A large amount of religious privileging and unjust faith exemptions are present in our laws, Faircloth notes, which should lead religious and non-religious persons to be concerned about issues ranging from religious sobriety programs receiving tax dollars, parsonage exemptions, vaccine exemptions, discrimination in the military, marriage discrimination and sex education. “Religious fundamentalism in law,” Faircloth says, “is an anathema to our founding principles.”
Faircloth notes, “There is no time in American history where we were closer to becoming a theocracy than we are today.” Faircloth mentions that the state of politics, particularly conservative politics, has drastically changed in a short time; Barry Goldwater, who is often referred to as the embodyment of a right-wing conservative politician, would not be able to be elected as president today because he hated the religious right, Faircloth notes.
Some secularists believe they can not be catalysts for change because the religious right has a tremendous amount of money and influence. Faircloth responds to this concern by noting that the religious right had very little influence in the past, but they have become what they are today because of a great deal of organizing and persuading. Secularists, Faircloth explains, are on the rise as far as demographics are concerned and while secularists might not mobilize as quickly as the religious right has mobilized, “secularism is on the way to a bright future.”
Faircloth says that a vision of total separation of church and state – not just a limited separation of church and state – is a very important idea to work toward. “We have the moral high ground,” Faircloth explains, “and we need to put the religious right on the defensive. It is time to take this secular movement to the next level and become an important social force in America.”
Faircloth's book, “Attack of the Theocrats!: How the Religious Right Harms Us All – and What We Can Do About It” is now available in a digital format for Kindle and Nook. Advance hardcover copies are available from the RichardDawkins.net online store.
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