Mayor Ray Nagin suggested Monday that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other storms were a sign that “God is mad at America” and at black communities, too, for tearing themselves apart with violence and political infighting. He also claimed that God wanted New Orleans to be a “chocolate” city again. Meanwhile a group of religious clergy have filed a complaint with the IRS against televangelist Rev. Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church in Columbus and the Rev. Russell Johnson of Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster improperly used their churches and affiliated entities for partisan politics.
Tag: church and state
On Thursday January 5th, the Columbus Dispatch printed my letter concerning the issue of the Nativity scene in Reynoldsburg, Ohio (a suburb of Columbus).
On the January 3rd “Late Show with David Letterman”, host David Letterman called Bill O’Reilly out on his Christmas sham. I missed it.
I am a regular viewer of the show but I refuse to watch any show that people like Bill O’Reilly host or appear on. I do that for my sanity and blood pressure. That is one reason I have not watched the Sunday morning talk shows for many years.
I should have watched this time. Letterman called O’Reilly out during his segment when O’Reilly brought up the “war” on Christmas. He once again used as “proof” an elementary school in Wisconsin that supposedly changed the lyrics of “Silent Night” for a holiday concert. He never mentioned that his “proof” had been debunked months ago.
Lucky for me, and for you, the website Media Matters has the transcript and a video clip of the exchange. It went something like this…..
See it on the next posting of Secular Left
In this last post of 2005, I wanted to review the struggles those of us who want to get the government out of the religion cheerleading business.
A 3 judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court ruled on Tuesday December 20th that a 10 Commandments display in Mercer County Kentucky was not unconstitutional.
The case brought by the ACLU, concerned the Commandments viewed alongside nine other documents, including the Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence at the Mercer County courthouse in Harrodsburg.
The court used the recent precedent of McCreary County, Ky., v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky that was decided by the US Supreme Court this past June.
The court used the common historical sham to justify the presence of the Decalogue and gave the ACLU some lumps for their involvement in the case.
In 2005, the mayor didn’t put up the Navtivity scene. He claimed that road work in front of city hall made it too difficult to keep the scene safe from damage. He intends to put it back up in 2006 along with symbols from other religions:
McPherson said he already has approved a symbol celebrating the winter solstice and another for the Hindu religion — a partman, part-eagle deity called Garuda who sometimes represents the sun.
Of course if he plans on including such symbols then he also needs one from Kwanzaa, Jain, Sikh, Witchcraft, magick, the occult, Sumerian, Zoroastrian, Baha’i, Islamic, Wicca, Neopaganism, Druid, Celtic, and on and on. If Mayor McPherson says no to any religious symbol then he is risking the city of Reynoldsburg to a law suit.
Just like in 2004, McPherson is ignoring the law and even the advice of his own City Attorney.