What Is Your Secular COVID-19 Story?

I think I am a writer and a student of history. The other day in the mist of our self-quarantine, my 76 year old mother asked me if I was recording my experiences during this once in a lifetime pandemic (hopefully once in a lifetime). I hadn’t been actively doing it but she got me thinking about people’s stories. It was then I decided to collect as many of them as people would send me. I am most interested in the secular perspective and so that is the common thread I would like see.

Long after moments in history, such as the COVID-19 outbreak, recede into the ether of historical memories, people will want to know about how those who lived at that time experienced the event. The secular experience probably won’t be much different than a majority of the world population but the goal of The Secular COVIDStories Project is to collect and save for posterity the secular perspective on this tumultuous time in history.

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The Reason Rally Downplays The Reason For The Rally

logo for the 2016 Reason Rally

The Reason Rally is being held on Saturday. It will be a great opportunity for Nontheists need to show our growing numbers, on a public stage, as a counter to the religious privilege we have to deal with every day in our local, state, and national government. However in a big write up on the event at CNN, the organizers seemed to be diluting the chief idea behind the rally – celebrating our nontheism. It seems like they missed an opportunity to be more direct in, I guess, a futile effort to change the minds of people who hate us anyway.

I support the rally 100% and even donated to it even if I couldn’t attend myself. I love the idea of the rally and the reasons behind it. 

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Openly Secular: A Needed Project With A Vague Name

Logo for the Openly Secular project

I’ve been part of the non-religious community for 20 years and one thing is constant, we have many different groups to support us and it seems new ones show up regularly. Case in point is ‘Openly Secular’, a ‘new’ coalition of several large secular groups. Its mission of drawing attention to discrimination of non-religious people is needed but I’m disappointed in the fact that they named the group ‘Openly Secular’ instead of ‘Openly Non-religious’.

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New Secular Woman Group Debuts

image of Secular Woman logo

Normally I frown on creating new freethought groups because we tend to see new ones pop-up for no real reason but Secular Woman is a group our community needs to have. It will serve a group of non-religious people that tend to be under served or marginalize even within the freethought movement. I like their mission and value statements and the fact that even as a man I can join if I want to support their goals.

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Prayer protest in Columbus on May 4th

A friend of mine passed along the following note concerning the so-called National Day of Prayer. The info concerns a protest to held in Columbus on 5/4/2006. If you would like to participate feel free, if you want more info his contact info is at the end of the post.

On Thursday, May 4, 2006 – many Americans will be observing a National Day of Prayer. This is an annual event that is observed on the first Thursday of every May and has been endorsed by many goverenment officials from President Bush on down.

A National Day of Prayer rally is scheduled to be held (for the 16th year in a row) on the west (High St.) side of the Ohio Statehouse from 11:30am until 1pm.

I plan to be there with a sign and literature, protesting this terrible breach in the wall of separation between church and state.

I am doing this not as a member of any organization but as an American citizen who is fed up with the drift towards theocracy in this country.

I am also fed up with the way prayer, faith, and religion seem to be increasingly eclipsing reason and science.

If you share my concerns and would like to join me, please let me know. I plan on having some extra, professionally made signs available as well as flyers and hand-outs.

I’ve already cleared my plans with both Statehouse and Columbus officials and can share the rules and regulations that govern protests like this to anyone who might be interested.

My protest has to some extent been inspired by the National Day of Reason that the American Humanist Association and other groups have been promoting as an alternative to the National Day of Prayer. You can learn more about the thinking behind the Day of Reason by going here:

http://www.nationaldayofreason.org/

Why a National Day of Prayer is wrong

Americans United for Separation of Church and State thinks the National Day of Prayer is wrong

On another page

Official Day of Prayer web site

Day of Prayer rally at the Ohio Statehouse

Questions? Contact Dan Birtcher (614) 865-9146 hcco_djb@yahoo.com