http://is.gd/gc0npu
It will come as no surprise to readers of Canadian Atheist that I am an atheist, openly secular and very comfortable about telling anyone who asks, or doesn’t ask, about my secular/atheist identity. So I am naively surprised by the need for an Openly Secular Day.
Hemant Mehta at Friendly Atheist asks his readers,
Openly Secular Day is April 23: Can You Come Out to Just One Person?
The Openly Secular website asks people to take the “Tell One Person Pledge”:
I Pledge to Tell One Person that I am Openly Secular, or that I support secular persons.
I will engage in enlightening, constructive conversation about my identity so that I may be a role model of secularism to my community, dispel myths about the secular, and promote positive change for how secular persons are viewed and treated in society.
Openly Secular also has a message for those who are reluctant to be openly secular:
It can be hard to be open about your secular identity, and it’s okay not to be if you’re in a position where being open would be detrimental to your well being. However, there is no better way to combat the stigma of being secular than by being open about it. . . . By pledging to Tell One Person, you can help make the world more accepting for those who may not be able to be openly secular right now.
If you can, please tell one person that you are Openly Secular. If you are an atheist or secular, but you feel you can’t be open about your identity, then tell one person or many that you support secularists.
I’m not only Openly Secular – I may be the only person in Canada currently paid on a full time basis to be “secular”…I’d love to see that workforce doubled or even tripled in the near future!…and I’d also like to see the ranks of the Openly Secular community double and triple.
As with all “minority” groups, we need to talk openly to remove the indoctrinated fog of distrust and misinformation amongst the general public.