'Morphed' Monument Deemed Unconstitutional; Bible Must Go, Says Court
by Allie Martin
August 17, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A federal appeals court has ruled that a Bible must be banned from a historic monument in front of a government building in Houston, Texas.A three-judge federal panel of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has voted 2-1 to uphold a ruling that forced the removal of a Bible from a monument in front of Houston's Harris County courthouse. The monument originally was erected in 1956 to honor a Houston business man who was a donor to homeless programs. The Bible was removed in 1988 after an atheist complained, then returned to be part of a refurbished display in 1995 after a local judge, John Devine, campaigned to bring Christianity back into government.
In the court ruling this week, the majority said the monument was secular in purpose when it was erected, but that its character changed when it was refurbished. The monument, wrote Judge Grady Jolly, "at one time may have passed constitutional scrutiny [but] the reasonable observer would conclude that the monument ... had evolved into a predominately religious symbol."
Judge Jerry Smith, the dissenting justice, accused his judicial colleagues of exhibiting "an appalling hostility to any hint of religion in public spaces." Harris County Attorney Mike Stafford says the decision is likely to be appealed to the entire Fifth Circuit.
Brian Fahling, senior trial attorney with the American Family Association's Center for Law & Policy, says the three-judge panel determined that the judge behind the monument's refurbishment a decade ago had changed the meaning of the monument.
Brian Fahling | |
"You have a monument that the majority admitted had a secular purpose originally -- and on the basis of one public official, it has now morphed, if you will, into a religious symbol that is unconstitutional," notes Fahling. "It really is stunning, I think, how these courts are sniffing out a religious purpose wherever they can find one."Fahling continues, saying whether one uses the term "hostile" or not to describe the court's finding, it seems that the judiciary today attempts to "sniff out a Christian religious purpose." Sounding somewhat exasperated, the attorney states: "I mean, it's as though Christians can't participate in the civic and public life if they articulate any religious sentiments or thought."
The attorney agrees with the dissenting Fifth Circuit justice, describing the matter as "another troubling example ... of 'the systematic exclusion of religion from the public sphere.'"
The monument was built by the Star of Hope Mission, which feeds, clothes, and ministers to the homeless.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
