Openly Secular Day is celebrated on Tuesday, Nov. 15, this year. The Freedom From Religion Foundation is proud to put its unique stamp on the commemoration.
The mission of Openly Secular Day is to eliminate discrimination and increase acceptance by getting secular people to be open about their beliefs. FFRF has an Out of the Closet Campaign as its artistic contribution.
For the past five years, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has had an active online campaign that invites nonbelievers everywhere to “come out of the closet, to declare and share your nonbelief.” FFRF ,the largest atheist/agnostic association in the United States, debuted the “Out of the Closet” personalized public relations campaign in the fall of 2011 featuring real nonbelievers, their views and their faces on bus signs and billboards.
“Although we can’t put everyone on a real billboard, every nonbeliever can participate in this unique ‘cyberboard’ campaign,” explains FFRF Co-President Dan Barker.
FFRF’s interactive site exhorts nonbelievers to “help dispel myths, educate and promote reason by adding your voice, face and message to FFRF’s friendly neighborhood freethinker campaign.”
The elegantly simple interactive application lets any nonbeliever upload their photo, coin a phrase about their nonbelief, identify themselves and choose from a dropdown list a label that most closely describes their philosophical position on religion. Choices include “atheist, agnostic, skeptic, infidel, humanist, secularist” or even the tongue-in-cheek “Pastafarian.” Once the submitted “cyberboard” gets FFRF’s stamp of approval, the personalized virtual billboard is posted at FFRF’s website and the image used by the participant on social media.
“The main goal of FFRF’s Out of the Closet campaign — real and virtual — is to make a difference in how atheists and agnostics are perceived by our society,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Although the nonreligious are almost one-fourth of the U.S. population, many Americans have never knowingly met a nonbeliever. Now, more than ever, we need to make ourselves be known publicly.”
So, on the occasion of Openly Secular Day, sign up for FFRF’s billboard campaign. And check out events nationwide to celebrate the day, including a memorable gathering at the UW Madison campus that features Julia Sweeney, Hemant Mehta and FFRF’s own Rebecca Markert. Note: the event is in the Social Sciences room: 5208.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., has been working since 1978 to keep religion and government separate.
