http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-09-18-atheists_x.htm

Posted 9/18/2005 9:25 PM
Non-believers raising voice in capital
By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON
[photo--see link]
Lori Lipman Brown visits the memorial to Thomas Jefferson, hero to
atheists for advocating separation of church and state.

By Marie Poirer Marzi, USA TODAY

Lori Lipman Brown starts Monday as executive director of the Secular
Coalition for America. Her two goals: keep religion out of government and
win respect for a stigmatized minority.

The magnitude of those challenges is, well, biblical. Think Daniel
entering the lion's den, or David taking on Goliath.

Christian conservatives wield enormous clout here through a network of
advocacy groups and relationships with politicians from President Bush on
down. Atheists, humanists and freethinkers, as Brown's constituents call
themselves, are usually ignored .

Is she scared? "Nah," says Brown, 47, an atheist with a Jewish background.
"It feels good to be the first."

Brown likens atheists today to gays in the 1970s: people just coming out
of the closet to fight for acceptance. "There's been so much rhetoric in
the past decade about how important religion is to being a good person,"
she says, that "it's been scary" for people to say they don't believe in
God. She vows to "use the A-word and not cringe."

In a recent Pew Research Center poll, 11% said they do not believe in God
but do believe in a "universal spirit" or "higher power"; 3% said they do
not believe in God or a spirit or power. In a separate question, 1% said
they are atheists (those who believe there is no God), 2% said they are
agnostics (those unsure whether there is a God), and 11% said they have no
religious preference.

The no-preference category includes people "who may not be ready to
declare themselves atheists or agnostics," Pew Director Andrew Kohut says.

Herb Silverman, president of the Secular Coalition for America, counts
them as non--believers
Brown plans to work for non-believers in three ways:

As part of broad coalitions fighting policies rooted in religious
beliefs, such as limits on stem cell research and access to emergency
contraception.

In alliances with groups opposed to policies they believe breach the wall
between church and state, such as giving taxpayer money to "faith-based"
service programs.

On causes Brown concedes are hard for politicians and the public to
swallow, such as eliminating references to God from the U.S. oath of
citizenship. She plans to stay out of the Pledge of Allegiance controversy
for now because "the courts are on our side." Last week, a federal judge
reaffirmed an earlier ruling that teacher-led recitation of the Pledge's
phrase "under God" in public schools is an unconstitutional government
endorsement of religion.

Gary Bauer, a Christian conservative and former presidential candidate who
now lobbies against gay marriage and for conservative values, says
atheists' timing couldn't be worse, given Hurricane Katrina. "We're right
in the middle of a horrible event when people are turning to God," he
says. "They're going to find it very hard to get people to vote for the
sort of things they're in favor of."

Brown says she doesn't expect immediate success on tough issues but, as
the only advocate for non--believers in Washington, it's her job to raise
them.

"We want to get people thinking about what they do that excludes us," she
says. "The things that ... perpetuate the idea that we are outsiders
A lawyer and teacher, Brown is used to controversy. As a Nevada state
senator from 1992 to 1994, she fought for gun control, gay rights and
abortion rights. She says she received threats and hate messages and
calls.

Five humanist and atheist groups formed the Secular Coalition for America
after the Sept. 11 attacks, unsettled by talk linking God and patriotism.
"That was a major impetus to try to raise our profile," said Duncan Crary,
a spokesman for one coalition member, the Institute for Humanist Studies
in Albany, N.Y.

The institute had a lobbyist, Tim Gordinier, at the New York Legislature
but nobody at Congress. "The cultural wars are going to be fought in
Washington, D.C.," Gordinier says. "This is where we're going to have our
skirmishes."

The first-year budget for the coalition office here, including Brown's
salary and a six-month stipend for a legislative assistant, is $100,000.
That's minuscule for a Washington lobbying office.

Brown, who taught college-level constitutional law as well as high school
English, is taking a pay cut. "It's important to do the work, even if
you're not a high-paid lobbyist," she says. "At least there'll be an
atheist voice in the mix."