It’s Inauguration Day in Washington. You may have heard that the ceremony was moved inside the Capitol because of the cold. It’s so cold I went by the Lincoln Memorial, and the chair was empty. It’s so cold that it feels like you're in Greenland. But that’s enough inauguration jokes. There’s really nothing humorous about what’s about to happen here.
If you go inside the Lincoln Memorial you can read Lincoln’s second inaugural address inscribed on the north wall. The Civil War was nearly won and the challenge of reuniting the country was at hand. Lincoln said, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, …let us strive on to finish the work we are in.”
President Trump will give his second inaugural address today. He has a lot of plans to finish the work he started in 2017, but they do not include malice toward none or charity for all. “I am your retribution,” he said in a campaign speech. Last month on TV, “Liz Cheney should go to jail.” To Dr. Phil recently, “Sometimes revenge can be justified.” That’s the malice. It sounds as though most of the charity will go to the rich through tax cuts and to January 6 participants who will be pardoned.
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Last week the Washington staff of the Secular Coalition member organizations met on our own and then together with staff for Congressmen Jared Huffman and Jamie Raskin, our leading House allies. We coordinated efforts on tracking and responding to the legislation already introduced and about to be introduced that would advance the Trump agenda.
Among the wave of executive orders we expect to see signed this week will be one establishing a commission to fight “anti-Christian bias” because that’s such a big problem. There are also bills we’d like to see passed in the new Congress that we are supporting. I think we have a good SCA team for all this.
Also last week the team signed off on an SCA letter to Senate leaders in opposition to the nomination of Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense. You can read why he’s a terrible candidate for that job in the letter here. We left aside the questions about Hegseth’s experience, priorities, and character and focused on his statements such as saying certain policies “turn off the young, patriotic, Christian men who have traditionally filled our ranks.” We noted that 900,000 of his potential employees didn’t call themselves Christian in a recent survey.
This week we will be opposing Russell Vought, President Trump’s nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget, at his confirmation hearing. This is a relatively obscure White House office that impacts spending and priorities in every federal agency. Vought was a leading contributor to Project 2025. There are many problems with Vought but we will focus on the article he wrote titled, “Is There Anything Actually Wrong With Christian Nationalism?” Because there is a lot wrong with it.
We’re here to fight the Christian nationalism in the new administration and the attacks on church-state separation large and small. I’ll let you know whenever you can help us.
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Your advocate,
Scott MacConomy
Director of Policy and Government Affairs
Secular Coalition for America
[email protected] |
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The Secular Coalition for America works every day to defend the separation of religion and government and to fight anti-democratic ideologies like Christian nationalism. Your support for this work is vital.
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