Mayor Karl Zuber of Avon Lake, Ohio appears not to have gotten the memo on the separation of church and state a bit late. Zuber had a sign put up in front of the city hall reading “Remember Christ is in Christmas.” He then received a series of calls from the city attorney, city council members, and an advocacy group asking him to remember the separation of church and state is in the Constitution.
Zuber waited until after Christmas to change the sign. He then removed all of the words except “Remember.”
Zuber appears a slow learned. He objected to the group’s call for the sign’s removal, stating “[t]hey just want any type of religion out of government. I thought it would be a good Christmas message. I think the government was founded on Christian principles, and I’m a firm believer in those principles.” He stressed that in his view the Constitution only prevents the establishment of a religion. The only problem is that the Supreme Court disagrees with that view.
For the full story, click here.
When life gives you lemons, where the Hell is that Kurtzman?
Patty C:
U 2.
merry bliss moose, mespo…
http://travelblog.bcaa.com/wp-content/moose.jpg
Let’s not blow this out of proportion. Basically stupid mayor inserts his personal religious beliefs publicly over City Hall. What is heartening is that the citizenry, the city attorney and members of council all promptly objected and forced the sign down. The Mayor stands isolated and painted as a religious extremist, defiant of the law, and acting contrary to the wishes of reasonable persons in local government. He may have a few supporters at his church on Sunday. This is a sea change from just a few months ago when such an act would have been condoned by the neo-con punditry, justified re-convening the Congress al la Terry Shiavo, and would have been mentioned in a Presidential Press Briefing. All in all the matter was handled properly, and I await the law suit enjoining this behavior in the future. For that inevitability we may all thank Mayor Karl Zuber, zealot and man of “principles.”
Rick Warren’s latest is that people who object to things like this are, “christophobes”. It is arrogant for either Warrren and Zuber to say their narrow version of christianity equals christianity. One version of christianity would put a sign up saying: remember the poor, the hungry and the downtrodden.
I just do not understand people like this. His sign would be a fine sign to put up in his lawn, on a billboard or at his church. It shows arrogance and complete disregard for the law to put it on public property.
yankee
>I’m sure an activist like this mayor would have no problem amending >the constitution to correct that.
Or finding one of those “activist” judges willing to “legislate from the bench”.
Jack B,
If the US Constitution was intended to outline a government founded on “Christian Principles”, it’s a miserable failure as a legal document. There is no mention of God, The Bible, The Ten Commandments or Jesus.
I’m sure an activist like this mayor would have no problem amending the constitution to correct that.
Quoth the Zuber:
This argument shows up quite often in the Letters to the Editor in my local paper. My response is always the same:
If the US Constitution was intended to outline a government founded on “Christian Principles”, it’s a miserable failure as a legal document. There is no mention of God, The Bible, The Ten Commandments or Jesus.
On the other hand, if the Constitution was meant to be the foundation for a secular, pluralistic republic, it’s a damned fine document.
CORRECTION:”ignoring the rest of the statement that prohibits the free exercise of religion” should read “ignoring the rest of the statement that prohibits interfering with the free exercise of religion”.
Like most zealots he focuses on the idea of not establishing a government religion. He doesn’t pay attention to the prohibition against interfering with the free exercise of religion. Thus showing “Christianity” as the official religion of his office, hence the local Government, he’s also restricting the free worship of other religions on his turf. Now if he had a collage of exhibits, like one for Hindu’s, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Atheists, etc, he’d still be in trouble for the ones he forgot but at least he’d be trying to be inclusive. But here he’s just saying “Christianity is our religion in this town” and that speaks against the establishment and the free exercise clause of the First Amendment very clearly.
What I found interesting in this story was Mayor Zuber’s attempts at interpreting the Constitution. He used a common argument used by neocon trolls when arguing against the separation of church and state.
He uses the tired argument that the 1st Amendment only prohibits the government establishment of religion, ignoring the rest of the statement that prohibits the free exercise of religion, which of course the establishment of a “government authorized religion” would do. He ignores the Danbury letters and the Supreme Courts interpretation of the Amendment and the Danbury Letter, and worse, it’s like this “Mayor” has never heard of the 14th Amendment!
But even more wacky, he then goes on to argue how Christianity is the “state religion”, thus defeating his own tired argument about the limitations of the first Amendment. lol
Would it be too much to ask that prior to being elected to public office candidates be required to actually read the Constitution and perhaps take a quiz or two on it?
This is the kind of public servant that the last 8 years of the Bush Administration hath wrought. The separation of church and state has been bruised and battered by the Bush administration and devotees of its radical views on including religion in the government and politics. Can anyone in Ohio spell the word, Taliban?