The Landscape of Secular Organizations (HFFC May meeting)

HFFC May meeting: The Landscape of Secular Organizations For the May 13rd HFFC meeting, John Levin presented “The Landscape of Secular Organizations. John, a Norwalk resident, is a secular activist who has been on the board of Secular Coalition for America since 2015, so he has been interested in this topic for a long time. The key questions John addressed are “Why have secular organizations?” and “Why are there so many?” The answers lie in the lack of acceptance for secular people, the increasing number of people who identify as secular, and the wide variety of backgrounds they come from. The earliest secular group started in 1876 groups and other groups followed, each drawing from their own heritage – Jewish, various Protestant sects, Catholic, and black. All support secular values; some narrow their focus on the separation of church and state. John introduced the organizations and several key activists. (I personally was very impressed with how Madalyn Murray O'Hair, of American Atheists, clearly defined the secular values that atheism embraces.) HFFC is a local chapter of American Humanists Association and is also a member of the broadly-focused CT Coalition of Reason. See John's presentation to learn about these and the other secular organizations. Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fydL15f05lRk95KuFiPQwyL6eVD7x62L/view?usp=sharing Amy Ewing