The Freedom From Religion Foundation has officially won a major lawsuit against the state of Texas. They actually won the case back in October, but additional challenges came up. The new decision marks an official end to the case… at least at this level.
To understand what’s going on, you have to know that the Texas State Capitol has an open forum for holiday displays. So here’s what FFRF put up in December of 2015 to counter a Nativity scene in the same space.
That would be a secular Nativity with the part of Jesus played by the Bill of Rights, flanked by Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and the Statue of Liberty.
Just to reiterate: This was an open forum. FFRF applied for the space, just like everyone else, and they were given a green light.
That is, until December 22, 2015, when Governor Greg Abbott ordered the whole thing to be removed.
In a letter to John Sneed, the Executive Director of the State Preservation Board, Abbott explained his opposition:
First, far from promoting morals and the general welfare, the exhibit deliberately mocks Christians and Christianity. The Biblical scene of the newly born Jesus Christ lying in a manger in Bethlehem lies at the very heart of the Christian faith. Subjecting an image held sacred by millions of Texans to the Foundation’s tasteless sarcasm does nothing to promote morals and the general welfare. To the contrary, the Foundation’s spiteful message is intentionally designed to belittle and offend, which undermines rather than promotes any public purpose a display promoting the bill of rights might otherwise have had. The Board has allowed and should continue to allow diverse viewpoints to be expressed in Capitol displays. But it has no obligation to approve displays that purposefully mock the sincere religious beliefs of others.
Let’s point out a few facts:
There was no rule that a display had to promote morality or general welfare. Even if there was, you could make the argument that the birth of Christ is far worse than the Bill of Rights since Jesus represents a religion that says all non-believers will be tortured for eternity if they don’t accept His divinity. Hell, any religion that says you have to believe in God to be good is hardly a paragon of moral virtue.
But even more to Abbott’s point: How was this display offensive? It’s the Founding Fathers, the Statue of Liberty, and a Bill of Rights.
It was a loaded gun away from being a Republican’s wet dream.
Read the full story at The Friendly Atheist
