Mission Pleads for Texas Bible Display; Judge Unmoved
by Mary Rettig
August 24, 2004
(AgapePress) - A federal judge has once again ordered a Bible in a monument outside the Harris County civil court building in Houston, Texas, to be removed.Judge Sim Lake, who ruled two weeks ago that the display violated the separation of Church and State, has now turned down an emergency request to let the Bible remain until the county has exhausted its appeals.
Star of Hope Mission, a ministry to the homeless, erected the monument near the courthouse in 1956 to memorialize William Mosher, a board member and philanthropist. It stood for years without controversy, until last year, when a real estate broker and attorney sued the county over it, complaining that the Bible display improperly promoted Christianity.
According to an Associated Press report, the county argued that the monument was created as an expression of free speech, with private funds donated to purchase the Bible, and therefore the county should not be held responsible for its contents. However, Judge Lake sided with the plaintiff and ordered Harris County to remove the monument.
Joshua Carden is the attorney for Star of Hope Mission, which is seeking to intervene in the case. He says there is a major problem with Judge Lake's ruling, because Star of Hope was not involved in the initial lawsuit or allowed to present evidence that the display does not belong to the county, but to the mission.
Feeling this new evidence needed to be considered, Carden says, "We asked the judge to reconsider his ruling, to allow Star of Hope to intervene and present the evidence." He points out that the mission was not only asserting that it owns the display, but that it would be willing to add a disclaimer saying the monument is theirs.
Also, the attorney adds, "They're willing to pay the electricity costs of lighting the monument, and basically in all other ways indicate that it's private property." By paying the bill for the lighting, he explains, Star of Hope removes the county from any association with the display. This allows the county and the mission to argue that, as a clearly private expression, the monument is protected by the First Amendment.
Although Judge Lake has now ruled twice against retaining the Mosher memorial, a new request has been submitted to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans in hopes of delaying the enforcement of his decision.
