How’s the war on Christmas going? If you’re a foot-soldier in this war, it’s always a good idea to mention the Puritans. They followed the Pilgrims into Massachusetts, making them some of the nation’s earliest “founders.” They crossed the Atlantic in little boats because they believed in the separation of church and state, which the King of England did not. The Puritans kept their religion very simple, and it did not include Christmas. In 1659 they approved the “Penalty for Keeping Christmas,” which imposed fines on those who feasted or refused to work on December 25th. So bring that up the next time someone complains about a war on Christmas. The Puritans started it in 1659.
You can also remind people that no one had a Christmas tree until German immigrants brought their tree tradition here with them. I’ve been to Mount Vernon at Christmas when they decorate it the way George Washington did it in 1799. No tree, just some evergreen branches. There is a record of George Washington bringing in a camel one December, a tradition that sadly did not catch on across the country, although they still do it every December at Mount Vernon. But I digress.
Congress is scheduled to adjourn next Thursday having accomplished almost nothing this year. So far no budget, no defense policy bill, really nothing of any significance. The Senate was finally able to approve over 400 promotions for senior Pentagon officials this week that Senator Tuberville held up starting last spring over a Pentagon policy unrelated to the 400 officials. Unfortunately that almost counts as an accomplishment. I wrote about Senator Tuberville here last spring over his comments essentially supporting Christian nationalists in the military. (“Well, they call them that. I call them Americans.)
We’re still working on the Do No Harm Act (clarifies for the courts how religious freedom is supposed to work), the Health Share Transparency Act, reforms to the religious visa immigration program, something in the defense bill I can’t even mention yet, and better monitoring and understanding of Christian nationalism by the Justice Department. These are the type of bills you try to get included in larger bills that easily get passed. We just don’t have as many of those these days.
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Next week we plan to have our Lobby Day registration page go live so please keep an eye out for that announcement. Join us on Capitol Hill March 5th to lobby for an issue that we haven’t quite picked out yet, but we will pick a good one. Last March we advocated for Supreme Court transparency and ethics before even the first embarrassing story about Clarence Thomas and rich guys came out so our standard for prescience is high. This time we have scheduled Lobby Day for the day after our annual meeting for the directors of the 20 Secular Coalition members so they can join the lobbying while they are in DC. You might find one of them in your state group!
If you already know you can’t make it to Lobby Day or you want to get a head start, take a look at our Advocacy Toolkit. You’ll find information on how to have successful meetings with federal, state, and local legislators, on finding government affairs resources, on getting to know your representatives, and more. A couple of lobbyist phrases you’ll want to know: “If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re on the menu.” And “Just because the circus left town doesn’t mean you don’t still have a monkey on your back.” Ok, I don’t exactly know what that second one means either but it definitely sounds good. Now you’re all set to get lobbying on secular issues or any issues.
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