HUDSONVILLE, Mich. (RNS) — The mayor of this small city in western Michigan said the City Commission will continue to “strive to serve God,” despite an atheist group’s demand that the phrase be removed from the city’s mission statement.

“We are not creating a church; we are not asking anybody to only accept what we have in that mission statement,” Mayor Don Van Doeselaar said Feb. 26.

The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, which asked the city to remove the phrase, said it might consider legal action.

It “is not the business of a city in our secular republic to ‘strive to serve God,’” the group wrote in a letter to the city earlier this month. “A city should have no religious beliefs.”

Van Doeselaar said he consulted with City Attorney Dick Wendt, who determined the city was within its rights. The mayor said he also talked by telephone with the six other commission members, and all agreed to keep the phrase.