Posted on 12/25/2011 1:55:50 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Thousands of Texans, including the state attorney general and the governor, have sent a clear message to Wisconsin atheists who enjoy intimidating small towns into removing nativity scenes.
At least 5,000 showed up at a rally supporting Henderson County officials who have refused to comply with the group’s demand that they remove a nativity scene from the Athens, Texas, courthouse lawn.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said that if the Wisconsin atheists sue as threatened, his office would come to the county’s defense.
Texas’ governor, Rick Perry, also said he would fight to support the county, noted the San Antonio Express-News.
The governor’s office “strongly supports the right of Henderson County to display a Christmas Nativity scene on public property,” said Lucy Nashed, deputy press secretary for Perry’s office. “We have fought the Freedom from Religion Foundation before and won. Our founding principles give citizens freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. Faith and freedom helped build this nation, and faith cannot and should not be removed from public life.”
Last summer, the Wisconsin atheists attempted to block Perry from organizing a prayer rally at Reliant Stadium in Houston. That complaint filed in July alleging that Perry’s “initiation, organization, promotion and participation as governor in a prayer rally” violated the First Amendment was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Gray Miller.
Last week the group put up a banner next to the Henderson County nativity scene reading, according to the Express-News: “At the season of the Winter Solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”
A local pastor, Nathan Lorick, praised law enforcement officials for removing it and said the banner insulted believers and demeaned religion, whereas a nativity scene, menorah or other religious displays do not demean people of faith, instead remind the world of inspiring events in history.
Lorick noted that the Wisconsin atheists are notorious for attacking small towns that “do not have the means to defend themselves legally” and seeking as much publicity as possible.
The group filed a similar complaint in Ellwood City, Pa., last month. In order to avoid a costly legal battle, the borough council voted to move the display off the municipal building grounds, where it had been erected annually for about a half-century.
Surveying the crowd of 5,000 on the courthouse supporting county officials, Lorick told Fox News, “We are humbled at the turnout of the crowd. We believe that God led us to do this and so we knew He was up to something great. This message is resonating in the hearts of people all over the country. This was a real statement to the nation that Christians are tired of the persecution and suppression. We want all to know that we are ready to contend for the faith.”
“Our message to the atheists is don’t mess with Texas and our nativity scenes or the Ten Commandments,” said Texas State Attorney General Greg Abbott told Fox News & Commentary. “I want the Freedom From Religion Foundation to know that our office has a history of defending religious displays in this state.”
He said the organization is trying to “bully local governmental bodies” and he said he wanted to make sure Henderson County knows “there is a person, a lawyer and an organization in this state that has their back, that has the law, that has the muscle and firepower to go toe-to-toe with these organizations that come from out of state trying to bully governmental bodies.”
“I do hope that people across the nation will take note and know that they too can stand up and speak up,” Lorick said. “All I can tell you is that my eyes have been opened to a large number of people who want to see us fight for our faith.”
The LINK above to the article in the San Antonio paper is informative -- which includes quotes from protest letters sent to FFRF and given to the paper (which willingly reprinted them) that are off-color. I'm sure those kind of letters represent only a very small percentage of what that group received but....you know how it goes.
Put up a Nativity scene, and dare some one to mess with it. Don’t let the 1% push you around, ever. If they don’t like it tell them they are free to move to somewhere where other people share their views.
If atheists don’t believe....so what. Like John Adams said in a letter to his wife....”That’s their problem”.
All these groups: the ACLU, athiests, etc, were always paper tigers.
It’s only now we’re coming to realize it.
The strength has always been with the American people, TEA partiers and Christians.
You just had to be pushed enough.
I am not a religious person, but these in your face atheists disgust me. They are a bunch of attention wh**es that need to find a different hobby. They are no better than Barry and his cronies IMO.
Who funds these bastards?
We have needed to fight back for a long time. This, plus a phony “President” who denigrates Christianity, a religion he claims to a believer in . . . publicize every attempt by government officials and atheist losers and take the fight straight to them.
BTW MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone . . .including the atheist jerks
Agreed..These people seem to be very insecure about their beliefs.
Everyone has their own beliefs. I am comfortable with mine so it does not bother me the least if someone puts up symbols of their belief (even Mo)..
The Idiots can believe whatever they want to believe but what is their problem if other people think different??
Why do these people rant and rave and enrage themselves over Someone who does not exist? Why do they let an imaginary Friend to the ignorant and uneducated affect them so much?
Most likely they're like Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Robert Mugabe and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, tyrants who need an arch enemy they can point to and blame for all the ills of the world in order to elevate secular power and diminish the power of His word.
http://ffrf.org/about/year-in-review/
It looks like they are supported by “Freethinkers” membership dues, newspaper subscriptions and convention fees.
Not a big organization but they get a lot of free MSM coverage. Their protests and legal antics cost small towns a lot of money to fight back — often FFRF gets town governments to retreat because the citizens can’t afford to go to court. This is why they pick small towns to pull this stuff.
The courts will have two choices... Ever increasing court orders which are also ignored, or they can stop accepting these idiotic lawsuits and trying to twist legislative and constitutional intent to fit their rulings, something that is not only ever increasingly difficult, but truthfully is creating law from the bench, which is unconstitutional.
Absolutely - in order to make sense without being hypocrites they need to try to shut down all things fiction (movies/books/etc.). Else they can't rail on about mention of a God they say is fiction. I wonder if they also attack Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and all the roles the leftist actors in Hollywood play?
When your main argument is that something doesn't exist, your own relevance doesn't exist.
Besides, I don't see a nativity scene. What I see is an agricultural display on alternative uses for traditional, sustainable animal feeding devices and the joys of home birth.
That's my story
Obama invites coach from ‘all American Muslim’ to White House’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxMChrAoM7E
Under- and Un-reported Islamic infiltration of Obama’s White House:
WND, ConservativeByte, and other online sources have reported that a former FBI special agent in Washington, John Guandolo, says that Obama’s ties to agents for the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamics is even worse than originally thought.
The agent confirmed that at least three operatives of the Egypt-based Brotherhood – whose credo is “Jihad is our way and death in the cause of Allah is our dream” – have penetrated the Obama administration.
Rashad Hassan, who is Obama’s American ambassador to the 52-nation Organization of Islamic Conference. Before first joining the White House as a lawyer, Hussain regularly spoke to Brotherhood front groups and defended Brotherhood leaders like Sami al-Arian. Hussain at first denied defending the convicted terrorist, claiming he was misquoted, but then recanted after Politico.com produced a tape-recording of his remarks
Dalia Mogahed, who writes speeches for Obama. Obama originally appointed the hijab-wearing Mogahed to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. On a British television program, Islam Channel, Mogahed defended Shariah law, the barbaric Islamic legal code that treats women as second-class citizens.
Azizah al-Hibri. Obama this June appointed her to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. A Muslim professor, al-Hibri is also the granddaughter of a sheik, who claims the Saudi criminal justice system is more moral than the American one because it accepts blood money from murderers. Al-Hibri has made appearances at Islamic Society of North America conferences. The Justice Department says ISNA is a Brotherhood front and recently named the group an unindicted co-conspirator in a plot to provide material support to Hamas terrorists.
Guandolo identified several other Brotherhood-connected agents of influence – all of whom are just as politically savvy and moderate sounding – who have worked their way into government positions, including:
Arif Alikhan, who was assistant Homeland Security secretary for policy development and is now a distinguished visiting professor of homeland security and counterterrorism at the National Defense University.
Kareem Shora, Syrian born, who is Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s senior policy adviser.
Youssef Aboul-Enein, a Navy Commander, and
Jocelyne Cesari, a Muslim convert who previously worked with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, both of whom teach at colleges within the National Defense University.
Guandolo blames the advances Brotherhood figures on political correctness and lax vetting at government agencies.
Even at the FBI, he notes, an Iranian-born Muslim has taken over the agency’s weapons of mass destruction program.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE AT WND
READ THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH ABOUT OBAMA’S UPBRINING HERE
http://www.jeffhead.com/obama/obama-infiltrate.htm
Oh how embarrassing it must be for this group when it is pointed out to them that the Constitution says Freedom OF Religion and not FROM. I have heard of making a typo but to NAME you group from a typo is just very bad.
I applaud the AG for the State of Texas to take this stand. I hope other AGs elsewhere will too.
Bttt
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