CODESH To Streamline Name
After June 5, call us "The Council for Secular Humanism." CODESH's petition
to alter its corporate name was approved by the New York State Attorney General's office,
allowing the name to be changed from "The Council for Democratic and Secular
Humanism" to "The Council for Secular Humanism." The name change will
become effective June 5, projected mail date of the Summer issue of Free Inquiry.
It will be phased in over a period of months.
The name change was chosen and approved by the corporation's Board of Directors for two
reasons:
- "Democratic" was included in the name when the corporation was founded in 1980
in order to reduce American confusion between secular humanists and Marxist atheists. With
the fall of the Soviet Union, this distinction was felt to be no longer necessary.
- Because the original name was so lengthy, it was often necessary to shorten it to an
acronym - CODESH - that carried no meaning for people not familiar with
the organization. Few outside the secular humanist movement knew what a CODESH
was. In particular, when spokespeople appeared on television and radio, it did little to
strengthen the secular humanist position to have them identified as representatives of CODESH.
Wherever possible, the Council for Secular Humanism plans to avoid the
use of an acronym, and to use its new, shorter name at full length. It is hoped that this
will enhance the visibility of secular humanism as a cause and a lifestance, especially
when Free Inquiry writers and editors appear in the media.
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