First Vehicle in City Police Fleet has "In God We Trust" Logo Positioned on Area Below License Plate
By Connect-Bridgeport Staff on August 19, 2016
By Connect-Bridgeport Staff on August 19, 2016
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“”It amazes me that people continue to misunderstand this issue, or think that those who believe in the separation of church and state somehow “hate god”, or to use your term, are “godphobic.” Perhaps this is a good opportunity to inform you that many members of FFRF are actually Christian, and many Christians acknowledge that the separation of church and state is absolutely vital to ensure religious freedom, because when one religion is shown favoritism by the government, we ALL begin to lose our freedoms. (it’s also a good opportunity to point out that, while the term “separation of church and state” is not explicitly in the Constitution, it is in fact a term used repeatedly by our Founding Fathers, as well as many of our U.S. Supreme Court Justices, including conservative Christian ones). I was discussing a similar issue with a Christian friend of mine recently (concerning Christian crosses removed from police cars), and I used this analogy which hammered home the point, which she conceded: Imagine a person is a white supremacist. Their “freedom of speech” entitles them post racist stuff on their webpage, it allows them to join the KKK, and it allows them to put stickers on their car, or signs in their yard that say “White Power”. It might be disturbing, but perfectly legal. Now imagine that person is a county judge. Do they have the right to place a giant statue of Hitler on the courthouse lawn? Of course not. What if that person is a police officer? Do they have the right to place a sticker on their police car that says “White Pride!”. Of course they don’t. And now imagine that person is mayor. Can they put up a giant sign, on county property, and paid for public tax dollars that says “This is White People Country, and if you’re colored, you better pass on through!”? OF COURSE THEY CAN’T. But why not??? They have “freedom of speech”, don’t they? Well, yes AND no. That mayor, that judge, and that police officer have EVERY RIGHT to post ANY of those things on their OWN property, as long as they are paid for with their OWN money. But government property is not a platform for the promotion of a PERSONAL racial view. It’s the EXACT SAME with religion. Government property is not a platform for the promotion of a PERSONAL religious view either. The mayor, as well as all 9000 residents, have every right to place that EXACT sign on their OWN property. No letters will be written, no lawsuits will be filed. But using taxpayer dollars to promote one particular religious ideology is illegal. Period. Yes, it may just be a joke, and I understand people’s initial reaction is for the FFRF to “just chill and have a sense of humor.” But that is the exact problem. If you give an inch, many Christians will take a mile. That is the very nature of evangelism, to spread their religion, which is antithetical to religious freedom when they are using taxpayer funded resources to do so. This is not my opinion, this is a matter of 100+ years of judicial case law. The fact that only two of the residents complained is irrelevant. If only two black people lived in a town with 8998 white people, those 8998 white people couldn’t tell those black people to sit on the back of the bus, or else walk. Yet that seems to be the sentiment coming from so many “loving Christians”, spewing disgusting threats and vitriolic messages at those of use who want a neutral government: “if you don’t like it, don’t look at it!!”. Sounds eerily similar to “If you don’t like riding on the back of the bus, buy a bike!”. This is the EXACT reason our Founding Fathers created a Constitutional Republic. We may vote on our legislators in a democratic way, and they may vote on laws in a democratic way, but once those laws are written, they apply to everyone equally. The ‘mob majority’ cannot take away the rights of the nonreligious as long as most people are “okay with it”. Those nonreligious people pay taxes too, and they are entitled to live in a county where their mayor doesn’t use that money for the promotion of a religion they object to. It has nothing to do with being “offended”, it has to do with their Constitutional rights, and they shouldn’t have to just “sit down, shut up, and move to the back of the bus” because others are okay with it. Unfortunately, too many Christians in this country believe we are a Christian nation. They point to “In God we Trust”, not realizing that the US Supreme Court said themselves that this doesn’t promote religion, and is more akin to patriotism, labelling it “ceremonial deism” and nothing more. Not to mention, this wasn’t added until the 1950’s and is simply a result of the Red Scare of communism, and has nothing to with this nation’s founding. Many Christians also suggest our laws and Constitution are Biblically based, yet the Father of our Constitution wasn’t even Christian. In fact, MOST of our Founding Fathers completely rejected Christianity. They were Deists, who rejected manmade religion, and when they wrote the Constitution, they intentionally omitted all references to God, Jesus, Christianity and the Bible. And when they wrote the Bill of Rights, the very first thing they did was make it perfectly legal to disobey the First Commandment. In fact, the ENTIRE PREMISE of religious freedom is the legal right to ignore the First Commandment. Not very “Christian” is it? Now let me make it clear that I respect the fact that there was SOME Christian influence in our nation’s development. While many of the Founders were Deist, many were also Christian, and there is no denying that much of our culture has been dictated by Christian traditions (even if many of those Christian traditions, like Christmas, were originally pagan), but a cultural tradition is not necessarily codified in our laws. And our laws make it VERY clear that the government cannot endorse one religion over another. So ask yourself, if you truly believe in religious freedom, would you be okay with an atheist mayor using YOUR money to put up a sign on property YOU helped pay for that says “This is godless country!”. Or perhaps a Muslim mayor who used YOUR money to put up a sign that says “This is Allah’s Country!” My guess is that most of the residents of Hondo would lose their minds. So perhaps you shouldn’t be so quick to think this is about being perpetually offended, or so quick to use the ‘mob mentality’ to intimidate those people in the religious minority who are entitled, by the U.S. Constitution, to live in a country that does not promote a religious ideology at the taxpayer’s expense. I mean, isn’t that what conservative Christians are always clamoring about? Don’t they want the government to stay out of our lives and our decisions, including our religious decisions? So why do so many conservative Christians in this case believe it is okay for the government to show favoritism in religious matters? Could it be, perhaps, because the government, in this case, is favoring THEIR religion???””
Posted by Brien Doyle
Aug. 19, 2016 at 9:10 PM EST
I think this is wonderful!! It is what our country was founded on.
Posted by Melody Matheny
Aug. 19, 2016 at 11:32 AM EST
This needs removed and the rest of the fleet left alone, this is a clear violation of the 1st amendment.
Posted by Everett Ross
Aug. 19, 2016 at 1:33 AM EST
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