Judge Denies Attempt to Block 'Day of Faith'
News4Jax reports:
Mayor John Peyton, Sheriff John Rutherford and the City Council are sponsors of the Day of Faith event and have invited the city's faith-based community to participate in a rally to "take back our neighborhoods" in the wake of a dozens of murders so far this year. "This is all about inclusion. I don't think there'll be anything at this event that's offensive," Peyton said on the morning show Saturday.
Mayor John Peyton must not understand the Constitution if he thinks that "offense" is the legal standard at issue here. It doesn't matter whether anyone is "offended" or not; what matters is whether the city and city officials have the authority to promote religion in this matter. The answer is they don't: religion is a private matter which must be promoted by individuals or private organizations, like churches. If a group of churches want to get together and host such an event on public property, they should — and it would be unconstitutional to stop them.
That's not what's happening, though. What's happening in Jacksonville, Florida, is that Mayor John Peyton, Sheriff John Rutherford, and the City Council are promoting religion in order to solve social problems:
Peyton said that changing lives through prayer and connecting with children to help keep them on the right path is the goal of the event. "It's my responsibility as mayor to (do) everything I can to try and reverse a trend that is unacceptable -- that is, there've been too many murders in this city," Peyton said.
Actually, it's John Peyton's responsibility to do everything legal to reverse negative social trends — everything legal. It's not legal for government officials to promote religion as a solution to social problems. It's not legal for government officials to tell people that they can or should change their lives by praying to some particular god. If John Peyton can stay within the law in order to do his job, then he shouldn't have that job in the first place. If John Peyton cannot come up with any better solutions to problems in his city than to encourage prayer, then I honestly don't think he's fit to be mayor.
[A]ttorney Lisa Lovingood of American Atheists Inc.] said this isn't about atheists or God -- it's about the law. She said her local client is a church-going man who feels strongly that the city should not be organizing a religious event.
"I think that the city is motivated by positive, good purposes, but they cannot legally encroach and put religion into what they are attempting to do with this rally tomorrow," she said.
Pay close attention to the fact that it's a churchgoer who initiated the lawsuit, not an atheist. The lawyer is from American Atheists and it seems unusual for a religious theist to hire a lawyer from American Atheists, but perhaps Lovingood was the only lawyer available who would take the case on short notice. I'm not sure, though, that the reason ultimately matters — and I doubt that the fact that the lawyer is an atheist is a good enough reason for the headline of this story to read Judge Denies Atheists' Motion To Block 'Day Of Faith'.
This gives the impression that it's a battle between atheists and theists — or atheists in Christians to be more exact — when the reality is that both atheist and theists are standing on the side of separating church and state. As Lovingood explains, government resources can't legally be used to promote religion like this. I hope that the plaintiff does choose to pursue legal action afterwards in order to ensure that it doesn't happen again.
Separation of Church & State:
- Separation of Church and State 101
- Secularism 101
- What is the Separation of Church and State?
- Religion's Place in the Public Square
- Myths About Church/State Separation
Christian & Religious Privilege:
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