According to the Houston Chronicle:
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake ruled on Aug. 10 that displaying the Bible on county property represented an unconstitutional promotion of Christianity by the county and ordered it removed within 10 business days. Kay Staley, a real estate broker, sued the county last year alleging the 4-foot display offended non-Christians.
"This case has always been about religious tolerance," said Randall Kallinen, Staley's lawyer. "Will Harris County be equal, unbiased and fair in matters of religion or will it take government space and promote one religion only?" In his August opinion, Lake wrote that the display would cause a reasonable viewer to "conclude that the Bible display conveys the message that Christianity is favored or preferred by Harris County."
Donald Buzbee, an evangelist who also spent long hours maintaining a vigil near the display in August, said, "Anytime you remove the word of God, you've made a wrong decision. We need morality as a guideline for people to go by, and the Bible is what that is."
You have to love "defenders" of religious displays like Donald Buzbee — they give critics more ammunition than they can use in a dozen cases! Buzbee effectively demonstrates why these displays have to be removed: if the state is telling citizens that a particular religious scripture is the best or only source of morality, that effectively establishes one religion over all others or over no religion.
The state doesn't have the authority to tell citizens that one religion or one religious book is preferable — a display promoting the Bible is no more legal than a display denigrating the Bible. A display saying or implying that the Bible is the Word of God is no more legal than a display saying or implying that the Bible is not the Word of God.
What we have, then, is that the words and ideas of people like Donald Buzbee formulate an effective case against the legality of something like this Bible display. The display can only be defended if someone argues that it isn't meant as religious or to communicate any religious messages. A defense must argue that the Bible is there to say something about history generally, for example.
Read More: