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Americans United for Separation of Church and State - Orange County |
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AU-OC 3337 S. Bristol, #251 Santa Ana, CA 92704 Download our Latest Newsletter Current Terror Alert Level
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2005 in ReviewThe Annual Address of the Chapter President, Stephanie CampbellNovember 19, 2005Our Inaugural Year. In November 2004 – and even several months prior to that – several of us met through different organizations and the talk always turned to politics. More and more often we talked about – with sort of disbelief – our concerns about how politics and religion were becoming intertwined. Although many of us were also active with other organizations that worked on religious liberty issues there wasn’t an active organization in Orange County focused only on religious liberty issues. Following the 2004 election we went through the process – and paperwork - of becoming an official chapter. We had a small steering committee from which we appointed our officers and we were off and running. In December we paid a visit to the most successful chapter in the country – the San Fernando Valley chapter – and met with Harry Schwartzbart. Harry provided us with ideas about how to get the chapter going and in January followed it up by meeting with our steering committee in Orange County. We were off and running – actually limping. We had to decide what our focus would be and what we would do – how we would talk to our members – what kind of events would we have. And we kept talking among ourselves trying to decide. Early 2005. While we were looking for our focus we did some tabling at the events of other organizations – Women For: Orange County was our first tabling event in March. And we quickly learned that there was a strong desire by a lot of people to address church/state separation issues. Right after that, 3 Steering Committee members went to an Americans United Training in San Francisco. We got to meet people from the national organization including Executive Director Barry Lynn and had a day of learning how to make a chapter work. After coming back from San Francisco, Ann Stern, our Treasurer, suggested that we have Dr. John Bush speak to the group – and so we put together our first speaker – which was one of our most successful events. Dr. Bush provided us with a discussion that covered the historical background of the conflict between evolution and its attackers, the strategies and institutions on both sides of the creationism/evolution conflict and what’s at stake. Dr. Bush was a turning point for us because it became clear that a focus on issues in the schools was where our chapter needed to go. We’ve had a couple of events that focused on creationism/evolution, most recently with Dr. Glenn Branch who is from the National Center for Science Education. But school issues aren’t just about teaching intelligent design. We’ve also covered sex education in the schools, tabled at Estancia High School, worked with students in public schools about issues that vary from the legality of distributing Christian education flyers to working in a school district to encourage the use of a broader spectrum of ministers during a lunch time Christian Club. Finally Underway. What else have we done? We’ve tried to put out a newsletter once every three months and we hope to have one out before the end of the year announcing our next speaker. We have a Yahoo! Group that we use to exchange information about activities in the community as well as our own meetings. We’ve given a lot of speeches to a lot of different groups about varying aspects of church/state separation issues. In fact we’ve averaged at least one speech a month and have covered topics such as “Judicial Nominations and First Amendment Freedoms”, “Are We a Christian Nation”, “The Rise of the Religious Right”. One very exciting event that occurred was a trip to Washington, D.C. in September to participate in Lobby Day with a coalition of groups working with Americans United. The purpose of Lobby Day was to influence Senators both on and off the Judiciary Committee on the John Roberts Supreme Court nomination. Partnering with Americans United was the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the National Women’s Law Center, People for the American Way, and the National Council of Jewish Women. The coalition provided lobbying tips and message points that they asked us to focus on. Just participating in the coalition was an educational experience. Meeting with key staff members on judicial issues from both Senators Boxer and Feinstein’s staff was a fascinating experience. Our chapter also started a Reading Group which became our Issues Group where we meet and discuss issues that pertain to church/state issues. We’ve covered end of life issues and the faith based initiative so far. Where are we going in 2006? We have ideas about speakers and possible joint events with other organizations to bring in more well known speakers. We’re going to be participating in a 3 debate cycle sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League on “The Intent of the Founding Fathers,” “Intelligent Design” and the “Faith Based Initiative.” I hope you will join us during 2006 – I’m sure it will be as active a year as 2005 has been. We are always looking for people to join us at our Steering Committee so bring your ideas and help us preserve separation of church and state. |
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