Attack of the Theocrats!: How the Religious Right Harms Us All—and What We Can Do About It (30 page)

Schuller, Robert,
81

Scopes Trial,
16
,
120

Secular Coalition for America,
13
,
19–20
,
108–109
,
120–133
,
148–153

Secular Decade Plan,
121–132

Secular Student Alliance,
153

secularism,
10
,
40
,
66
,
118
,
122
,
123
,
124
,
129
,
133
,
137

Seinfeld
,
65

selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs),
143

separation of church and state, see
church and state

sex education,
47–48
,
137

sexual assault,
57

sexual inequality,
36
,
66
,
67–68
,
105

sexuality,
70–71
,
73–74

Shakespeare, William,
146

sharia law,
92–93

Sharlet, Jeff,
90
,
95
,
101

Shaw, George Bernard,
69
,
77

Shimkus, John,
104

Shuler, Heath,
104

Silicon Valley,
138

Silverman, David,
148
,
151

Silverman, Herb,
20
,
129

Simonds, Robert,
40

Sinema, Kyrsten,
128

Skype,
136

slaves,
99

Smith, Lamar,
104

Society for Humanistic Judaism,
151

Soderbergh, Steven,
109

sodomy,
67

Somalia,
9

Soros, George,
88
,
109

Speckhardt, Roy,
151

St. Augustine,
39

Stalin, Joseph,
115

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady,
36
,
131–132

Star Trek
,
65

Stark, Pete,
12
,
108
,
127

stem cell research, embryonic,
48–49
,
92
,
94
,
103–104
,
106
,
135

Stewart, Jon,
109

Stupak-Pitts Amendment,
94

Support Our Scouts Act,
51

Sweden,
136–139

Sweden: Up North, Down to Earth
,
136

Switzerland,
136

Tea Party,
10
,
93
,
133
,
138–139

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF),
58

Ten Commandments,
92
,
106

Ten Guiding Principles of a Secular America,
134

Tennessee,
25

Tennyson, Lord Alfred,
146

terrorists,
98

Texas Board of Education,
13
,
34
,
54

Thatcher, Margaret,
71

The Family
(book),
90

The Family,
79–80
,
90
,
98
,
101
,
104

The Odd Couple
,
143

Tillman, Pat,
43

Time
magazine,
128
,
142

Title IX,
66

Toomey, Pat,
104

Torpy, Jason,
44
,
152

torture,
25
,
39

Tripoli treaty,
35

Trudeau, Pierre,
17

Turkey,
13

Twain, Mark,
36
,
132
,
151

Twilight Zone
,
65

Twitter,
125
,
132

U.S. Armed Forces,
43

U.S. Capitol Visitor Center,
96

U.S. Constitution

central principles,
19–20
,
50

and marriage,
53

and proposed amendment on gay marriage,
105

and public service,
39
,
43

and religious discrimination,
39
,
49
,
60–61

and religious liberties,
139

and science,
88

and separation of church and state,
9
,
10
,
13
,
30–31
,
42
,
64

U.S. Supreme Court

and faith-healing,
61

overturning miscegenation laws,
52

Uganda,
140

Undaunted Courage
,
133

Unitarian Universalists,
151

Unitarians,
108
,
150

United Nations’ Human Development Report,
137

United States Patent and Trademark Office,
136

USA Today
,
142

van Gogh, Vincent,
144
,
146

Vandenburg, Arthur,
107

Vedder, Eddie,
109

Vietnam War,
108

Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom,
31
,
35

Vitter, David,
70
,
96
,
105

Voltaire,
125

Volvo,
136
,
138

voucher programs,
50
,
92

Walberg, Tim,
28
,
105

Warren, Rick,
26–27
,
84
,
129

Washington (state),
55

Washington, George,
35
,
78

waterboarding,
25

We the People Act,
100

Webster, Dan,
105

Welch, Carolyn,
149

West, Allen,
106

Westmoreland, Lynn,
106

Whedon, Joss,
109

White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives,
49

White, Amiyah,
11
,
24
,
140–141

White, E.B.,
145

Whitman, Walt,
19
,
36
,
69
,
125
,
127
,
148

Wicker, Roger,
106

Will, George,
55
,
135

Wine, Sherwin,
151

Witte, John,
26

Wolf, Warren,
152

Wolfe, Tom,
109

Women’s health,
45

Woodhull, Victoria,
69

World Economic Forum,
137

Wozniak, Steve,
109

zoning laws,
53

Zuckerberg, Mark,
88

Zuckerman, Phil,
137–138

Sean Faircloth served five terms in the Maine Legislature on both the judiciary and appropriations committees. In his last term, he was elected Majority Whip by his caucus colleagues.

Faircloth had the idea for the Maine Discovery Museum and led the four-year project from conception to completion in 2001. Of the twenty-five children’s museums in New England, the Maine Discovery Museum was then the second-largest children’s museum outside Boston.

An accomplished legislator, Faircloth successfully spearheaded over thirty laws, including the so-called deadbeat-dad child-support law that saved Maine taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and became a model for federal law. Faircloth had numerous legislative successes in children’s issues and justice-system reform.

Faircloth has spoken around the United States about the Constitution, children’s policy, obesity policy, and sex-crime law. He chaired a commission on sex-crime-law reform that led to substantive improvement in that area of law. He also chaired a commission on early childhood, as well as a commission regarding the citizen-initiative process.

Faircloth graduated from the University of Notre Dame and has a law degree from the University of California Hastings College of the Law. He served as a state assistant attorney general and as a lobbyist for the Maine State Bar Association.

In 2009 Faircloth became executive director of the Secular Coalition for America, advocating for separation of church and state and for greater acceptance of nontheist viewpoints in American life. As executive director of Secular Coalition for America, he conceived of and drafted the Secular Decade plan, and worked with the Coalition’s board and staff and many others to continually improve this plan, which offers a specific strategy for returning America to its secular roots.

In 2011 Faircloth took his success with the Secular Decade plan to the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, where he serves as director of strategy and policy. Faircloth continues to help the member groups of the Secular Coalition, but he also works with all secular groups far and wide to strategize, plan, and frame policy issues. Faircloth speaks widely about the Constitution, the separation of church and state, American public policy, and secular strategy.