"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus..."

Our new president hesitated for just a moment.

"...and nonbelievers."

In the first minutes of his presidency, Barack Obama acknowledged that there are Americans who do not believe in a higher being. He included them in "our patchwork heritage."

Sasha Bartolf, Legislative Associate at the Secular Coalition for America, will describe how the nation's first lobbying organization for nontheists is working to remove the theocratic yoke from our federal government.  The Coalition, representing an estimated 10-16% of the population -- humanists, atheists, agnostics and other nontheists in our society -- works to protect and restore our government's secular character, which has served to protect both theists and nontheists for over 200 years.