NDR Media Coverage

Nonbelievers Hold Own Rally:
Protest Government Endorsement of Event

by Jennifer Gish

If it were up to Steven Neubauer, the steps of the state Capitol would be empty tomorrow.

There would not be a government-endorsed National Day of Prayer rally there, nor would there be the National Day of Reason counter-rally that his own Pennsylvania Nonbelievers Inc. plan for 1 p.m. on the same steps.

But as long as people gather at the Capitol to pray, Neubauer said, his group will come together to say that elected officials should not be encouraging it.

"It isn't up to the government to endorse these things," said Neubauer, an East Manchester Township resident and president of Pennsylvania Nonbelievers Inc., a 400-member group of atheists, agnostics and secular humanists.

The group meets in York and Harrisburg and produces its own hourlong program called "The Freethought Forum," which appears monthly on York Community Access Television.

Equal access: Congress established the National Day of Prayer in 1952, and in 1988 specified it be observed the first Thursday in May.

Gov. Ed Rendell has issued a proclamation noting tomorrow is a National Day of Prayer but has refused Neubauer's request to also recognize the National Day of Reason.

For a second year, Neubauer's group will conduct an hour-long rally to discuss the need for a greater separation between church and state and the power of human reason to overcome struggles.

Lancaster County musician Dave Holt will lead the group in singing "This Land is Your Land" and John Lennon's "Imagine." The group also will recite the pre-1954 version of the Pledge of Allegiance, which does not mention God.

Carl Silverman, a capital-area director for the Pennsylvania Nonbelievers, said he expects it to be a peaceful day.

"We don't have anything against the Christians," Silverman said. "As long as we have equal access, we don't have any problem with that."

Copyright 2004 MediaNews Group, Inc. and York Newspaper Company

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