Can a Republican be an atheist?

Of course.

Can a long-time operative in the Republican party be an effective executive director of a national atheist/ secularist organization?

That’s a different question.

And can a long-time operative in the Republican party be an effective executive director of a national atheist/ secularist organization… when they respond to serious questions about whether their values are in alignment with the atheist community by evading, spinning, telling flat-out falsehoods, and generally treating with contempt the very community they were hired to represent?

That’s a very different question indeed.

When I first heard that the Secular Coalition for America had named a long-time Republican political operative, Edwina Rogers, as their new Executive Director, my first reaction was extreme skepticism. To put it mildly. Actually, my first reaction was the top of my head blowing off. But then I thought, “Calm down. Maybe this is one of those ‘only Nixon can go to China’ things. Maybe a Republican could be uniquely effective at pitching secularism to Congress, and to America. The people who hired her aren’t idiots. This is worth considering. Keep an open mind.”

But I did have some serious questions about her. I knew that other people in the community had serious questions about her — many of them the same questions I was having. And the materials I’d read about her seemed somewhat dodgy, not addressing any of these questions in any serious way. Ditto the interview she did with Hemant Mehta at Friendly Atheist. So when I was given the opportunity to interview Rogers and ask her these questions, I took it.

And I have come to the conclusion that this is a disaster.

Atheists are becoming a force to be reckoned with. They are a powerful ally when inspired to take action — and a powerful opponent when they’re treated like dirt.

Why would any organization or social change movement want to ally itself with a community that’s energetic, excited about activism, highly motivated, increasingly visible, good at fundraising, good at getting into the news, increasingly populated by young people, and with a proven track record of mobilizing online in massive numbers on a moment’s notice?

If you need to ask that — maybe you shouldn’t be in political activism.

And if you don’t need to ask that — if reading that paragraph is making you clutch your chest and drool like a baby — maybe you should be paying attention to the atheist movement.

The so-called “new atheist” movement is definitely not so new. Atheists have been around for decades, and they’ve been organizing for decades. But something new, something big, has been happening in atheism in the last few years — atheism has become much more visible, more vocal, more activist, better organized, and more readily mobilized — especially online, but increasingly in the flesh as well. The recent Reason Rally in Washington, DC brought an estimated 20,000 attendees to the National Mall on March 24 — and that was in the rain. Twenty thousand atheists trucked in from around the country, indeed from around the world, and stood in the rain, all day: to mingle, network, listen to speakers and musicians and comedians, check out organizations, schmooze, celebrate, and show the world the face of happy, diverse, energetic, organized atheism.

Atheists are becoming a force to be reckoned with. Atheists are gaining clout. Atheists are becoming a powerful ally when we’re inspired to take action — and a powerful opponent when we get treated like dirt.

Thus begins my latest piece for AlterNet, Why Atheists Have Become a Kick-Ass Movement You Want on Your Side. To read more, read the rest of the piece. (Which has also been reprinted in Salon.) Enjoy!

Matt Dillahunty weighs in on the hiring of longtime Republican operative Edwina Rogers as Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for America.

What the community needs is someone we can rally behind, someone who inspires people to participate in the process, someone who we have confidence in, and someone who is a passionate representative of the issues we value. It’s possible that Edwina could have been that person, with the right introduction, but it’s going to be virtually impossible for her to achieve that, after having been unceremoniously dumped in the laps of people who don’t know her and don’t trust her. Quite frankly, what I’ve seen and heard from her doesn’t fill me with confidence in either Edwina or the SCA.

Go read the entire piece.

You might also want to read the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Edwina Rogers on Reddit.

Other worthwhile pieces on this topic:
Secular Coalition For… The Right Wing GOP?, Al Stefanelli
Attempting the Impossible?, Almost Diamonds
What I would like to hear from Edwina Rogers, Ashley F. Miller
Controversy comes with the new Secular Coalition for America Executive Director, BlagHag
So far so not good, Butterflies and Wheels
That interview, Butterflies and Wheels
A Republican to Head the Secular Coalition for America?, Camels With Hammers
Edwina Rogers vs. Michael J. Fox, Camels With Hammers
The Pros and Cons of Hiring A Republican to Represent Secularists, Camels With Hammers
Despicable Right-Wing Political Hack New Director of the Secular Coalition for America, Comradde PhysioProffe
Edwina Rogers: the unanswered questions, The Crommunist Manifesto
Can a Republican Lobbyist Represent Secular Americans?, Daylight Atheism
The SCA’s New Leader, Dispatches from the Culture Wars
The Atheist Lobby’s New Executive Director is a Female Republican Strategist Who Used to Work for George W. Bush, Friendly Atheist (interview with Hemant Mehta)
Cautiously Pessimistic: Greta Christina’s Interview with Edwina Rogers, Friendly Atheist (guest post by Amanda)
Who is going to be our spokesperson on Capitol Hill?, Pharyngula
Good questions, ____________ answers, Pharyngula
Introducing Edwina Rogers (updated slightly), The X Blog
Edwina Rogers and the Secular Coalition of America, The X Blog

Here, as promised, is a transcript of my interview with Roy Speckhardt, SCA Board Member and Executive Director of the American Humanist Association, about the process behind the hiring of longtime Republican operative Edwina Rogers as Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for America.

The recording of the interview can be found in its entirety here. Here is the URL:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/files/2012/05/Interview-with-Roy-Speckhardt-05-08-12.mp3

The transcription was done by TooManyJens. (I am hugely grateful to her for doing this — this has been a ridiculously busy week, even without this particular dust-up.) In a few places there was enough noise or distortion that she couldn’t quite make out what was being said (due to time and scheduling considerations, I had to do the interview in a cafe), but otherwise, but otherwise, as far as I can tell, she has transcribed the interview verbatim. I haven’t had a chance to check the transcription over to make sure it’s 100% accurate, but the places I have checked look right to me. If anyone spots any transcription errors, please let me know, and I’ll correct them ASAP.

Some people have been asking about the process behind the hiring of longtime Republican operative Edwina Rogers as Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for America. I’ve gotten some answers about the search and hiring process, from Eliza Kashinsky, Chief of Staff at the SCA. Here’s what she said:

The search committee was:

Ron Solomon (Treasurer, SCA)

Herb Silverman (President, SCA)

Woody Kaplan (Chair, SCA Advisory Board)

August Brunsman (SCA Secretary and Executive Director of Secular Student Alliance)

Roy Speckhardt (SCA Board Member and Executive Director of American Humanist Association)

Amanda Metskas (SCA Board Member and Executive Director of Camp Quest)

Myself (as a non-voting staff representative)

The search committee, after completing the interview, reference checking, and vetting processes, made a unanimous recommendation to the Board. The Board (which consists of representatives of our 11 member organizations) was given a chance to talk to Edwina as well, and then voted unanimously to hire Edwina.

And I just finished a telephone interview with Roy Speckhardt, SCA Board Member and Executive Director of the American Humanist Association, about the hiring process. The recording of the interview can be found in its entirety here. Here is the URL:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/files/2012/05/Interview-with-Roy-Speckhardt-05-08-12.mp3

Again, my time is beyond impossible this week, and I just don’t have time to transcribe this interview. If anyone is up for the job, I would once again be hugely grateful. (It’s not quite as long as the Rogers interview, btw, and there’s less cross-talk, so it should be easier to transcribe.) And again, the first person to get me an accurate transcript of the interview will get a free copy of my new book, Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, in either e-book format (right away) or in print (when the print edition is published in June). If nobody can do do it, I’ll transcribe it myself as soon as I possibly can.

And once again: I’ll comment on the interview, and more generally on the selection of Rogers to this position, as soon as I possibly can. Thanks for your patience.

Here, as promised, is a transcript of my interview with Edwina Rogers, the new Executive Director for the Secular Coalition for America.

The recording of the interview can be found in its entirety here. Here is the URL:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/files/2012/05/Edwina-Rogers-interview.mp3

The transcription was done by Kate Donovan, who writes at Teen Skepchick and is the incoming president for the Northwestern SSA. (Many thanks to Donovan for doing this: I absolutely did not have time this week to do it myself.) She has eliminated filler words like “umm,” unless they were particularly long breaks — but as far as I can tell, she has otherwise transcribed the interview verbatim. I haven’t had a chance to check the transcription over to make sure it’s 100% accurate, but the places I have checked look right to me. If anyone spots any transcription errors, please let me know, and I’ll correct them ASAP.

UPDATE: The transcript of this interview is now available.

I’ve just finished a telephone interview with Edwina Rogers, the new Executive Director for the Secular Coalition for America.

The recording of the interview can be found in its entirety here. Here is the URL:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/files/2012/05/Edwina-Rogers-interview.mp3

I’m having a perfect storm of time issues right now. I have a deadline with AlterNet tomorrow morning, so I have to finish that today, and I’m scheduled to do recording on the audiobook of “Why Are You Atheists So Angry?” tomorrow. So I don’t have time to transcribe the interview in a timely manner. If anyone has time to transcribe the interview, I will be eternally grateful. In fact, the first person to get me an accurate transcript of the interview will get a free copy of my new book, Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, in either e-book format (right away) or in print (when the print edition is published in June). If nobody can do do it, I’ll transcribe it myself as soon as I possibly can.

And I’ll comment on the interview, and more generally on the selection of Rogers to this position, as soon as I possibly can. Thanks for your patience.