Bill Weir, a board member of the newly formed Minnesota chapter of the Secular Coalition for America, read the following mayoral proclamation while introducing David Niose at the First Unitarian Society on June 9. Mr. Niose is President of the national Secular Coalition for America.

 

Whereas. the City of Minneapolis has fostered the highest quality of life, including reasonable thought and behavior, through cooperative efforts by the public and private sectors; and

Whereas, educational, ministerial and psychological professionals have contributed substantially to great advances in acceptance, fairness, reason and participative equality; and

 

Whereas, The Secular Coalition for Minnesota is being formed in Minneapolis at this time as a chapter of the Secular Coalition for America; and

 

Whereas, The Secular Coalition for Minnesota will soon be in contact with legislative, administrative and judicial branches of government as well as school districts, cities, counties and other governmental organizations where its governmental advocacy is needed to uphold such reason;

Now, Therefore, I, R.T. Rybak, Mayor of the City of Minneapolis, do hereby proclaim June 8, 2013 as: Day of Celebrating Reason in The City of Minneapolis and commend to all the people of Minneapolis the opportunity to join in this effort to uphold reason that represents sound judgment in reaching conclusions and inferences and in planning and implementing action and respect for non-theistic and other secular persons to participate along with other residents in civic life.

The Secular Coalition for America is an advocacy organization which works to promote the interests of nontheistic Americans. It is an umbrella organization which works on behalf of a number of member organizations, including American Atheists, the American Humanist Association, the Atheist Alliance of America, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Secular Student Alliance. Its headquarters are in Washington DC, and a major part of its program involves lobbying the U.S. Congress.

Through a growing number of state chapters, the Coalition also works at the level of state government. A chapter in Minnesota has just been formed.

 

Major goals for the Coalition are to insure that health and safety are not compromised by religious beliefs, that children are free of religious education in public schools, and that religious beliefs are fully protected by antidiscrimination laws.

 

You can learn more about the Secular Coalition for America and the Minnesota chapter at secular.org.