FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 5, 2013
Media Contact: Justin Vacula, justinvacula [at] gmail.com
Local secularists to protest Public Square Rosary Crusade
Wilkes-Barre – The NEPA Freethought Society — a community group of atheists, agnostics, and secularists throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania — will be staging a protest of the October 12, 2013 Public Square Rosary Crusade at the Our Lady of Fatima Grotto on North Street in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania brandishing a banner reading “Nothing Fails Like Prayer” which was previously displayed on Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square in May of 2013.
Justin Vacula — co-organizer and spokesperson of the NEPA Freethought Society — will be attending and organizing this protest with intentions to civilly and peacefully engage attending Catholics and passerby in order to educate on matters of secularism, atheism, and separation of church and state.
“Contrary to what Catholics attending this event may believe,” Vacula said, “praying to God for help will not benefit politicians nor fix the problems facing our nation. Members of Wilkes-Barre’s city council who begin their meetings with inappropriate and potentially illegal government-led prayer unsuccessfully continue to resort to divine intervention while crime, poverty, unemployment, and other problems continue to plague the residents of Wilkes-Barre and Luzerne County. Prayer won’t help us. Real-world action will. We need less, not more, religious involvement in government.”
Local secularists are welcome to join Vacula and members of the NEPA Freethought Society on the sidewalk outside the Our Lady of Fatima Grotto on October 12, 2013 at 11:30AM. Interested parties may RSVP on the NEPA Freethought Society’s website. Religious individuals throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania — especially including those attending the event — are welcome to engage in conversation as 1 Peter 3:15 suggests, “If anyone asks the reason for your faith, prepare a defense but do so with gentleness and respect.”
More information about the NEPA Freethought Society may be found at www.nepafreethought.org.
Vacula’s website may be found at www.justinvacula.com.
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