DC-based advocacy group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State is celebrating its 60th anniversary.

Earlier this week, along with several other anti-theocracy bloggers, I had the opportunity to meet a lot of AU-affiliated folks. I found them a cordial and committed bunch that includes ministers, rabbis, and a smattering of heathens like yours truly (though relatively fewer of the latter than I might have expected), all committed to helping protect Thomas Jefferson's goal of unfettered freedom of belief.

At the end of our visit, they helped us schedule meetings at our respective Representatives' or Senators' offices, so we could discuss pending legislation, notably H.R. 1431, a slow-tracked and innocuous-sounding bill that is vaguely worded enough that it could extend way beyond its goal of clarifying the most commonly requested and most uncontroversial religious-expression rights potentially supported by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. As-is, it might bless, so to speak, employees whose actions break the Golden Rule — asserting their beliefs in a way that denies yours.

AU's goal is a re-written law that protects the rights of employees to (as practical) wear clothing and hair according to their religious customs and to take time off for religious observances.

Without modification, the law may also authorize troubling on-the-job religion-based practices, such as denying health care services that you don't believe in — or for people whose lifestyle you don't believe in.

So, I paid a visit to my Congressman's office and was met by a friendly, young congressional assistant who listened patiently to my concerns about the law, looked up its status, took notes, and gave me time to discuss other issues on my mind.

The odds are reasonable that the bill will just die in committee, so I'll never see how my Rep. will vote on it and whether he heard directly of my concerns.

But it got me thinking about how — and what — we shrill DFH bloggers should be communicating directly to our elected representatives. More on this in my next post....