The small city of Glencoe, Alabama has been flying the Christian flag over the city’s police department since the 1990s, but after a complaint filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), the flag came down Monday, WBRC reports. The city’s mayor, Charles Gilchrist, told the station the City Council met to discuss the flag, which flew alongside the American and Alabama state flags on city grounds, and decided the city couldn’t afford a legal battle. The FFRF wrote to the city after receiving a complaint from a resident, the station reports. Gilchrist told the station the council was warned another city was sued over a similar issue and had to pay out $550,000 - a sum that would break the bank of the town of just over 5,000. It’s clear he wasn’t happy about it… “That would just about ruin us,” Gilchrist told WBRC in a phone interview. “That’s what they do, they pick on these smaller towns that can’t defend ourselves.”
I’ve no problem respecting a person’s right to their beliefs. The 1st Amendment being what it is, no one has the right to persecute someone because of what they believe. If that’s what this story was about, I’d be taking a much different tack. Despite what Mayor Gilchrist might think, Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) isn’t persecuting small-town Alabama. What FFRF is asking is that Glencoe respect the 1st Amendment’s Establishment Clause. Mayor Gilchrist may not be interested in hearing the truth, which is that America is NOT a Christian nation. Yes, some 80% of Americans may self-identify as Christian, but if you believe in the Constitution, as I suspect Mayor Gilchrist will claim, our system of governance is officially secular. Government cannot by law favor one religion over others. Flying a Christian flag (And what/who/which denomination is that supposed to represent?) over the city’s police department would seem to be something a reasonable person would construe as an endorsement of the majority religion.
The Founding Fathers were intelligent and savvy enough to recognize that the admixture of religion and politics is a recipe for tyranny. Would that Mayor Gilchrist possessed the wherewithal to recognize that truth. If you doubt me, just look at places like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Pakistan.
I’m going to proceed from the supposition that the good people of Glencoe harbor no ill will towards other religions. I may be mistaken in that assumption, but why not give them the benefit of the doubt? That said, the fact remains that ignorance of the Constitution and/or denial of the constitutional validity of the separation of Church and State is no defense. Government cannot endorse the majority religion (or any other faith tradition) over others. IF the flags of all religions (Do the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Jainism even have flags?) flew over the Glencoe police station, this conversation would be very different. I’m not certain a small town like Glencoe could find, much less afford, enough flagpoles to accommodate the flag of each and every faith. Which brings us full circle- Mayor Gilchrist may not like it, but part of his job is to uphold the Constitution. It’s the very same Constitution whose Establishment Clause prevents the government he represents from promoting the interests of one religion over others.
The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” This clause not only forbids the government from establishing an official religion, but also prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another. It also prohibits the government from unduly preferring religion over non-religion, or non-religion over religion.
It’s not complicated, onerous, or burdensome. It’s really very simple- government cannot establish an official religion…and what else could flying a Christian flag over a town’s police department be interpreted as?
There’s no requirement that Mayor Gilchrist like being forced to back down. What he doesn’t get to do is claim persecution, that FFRF chooses to “pick on these smaller towns that can’t defend ourselves.” Defending the Constitution and asking a government entity- whether small or large- to respect it isn’t “picking on” anyone. If government can’t find it within itself to respect the Constitution we expect it to uphold, we should be grateful for watchdogs like FFRF who keep government honest.
In their February 13 letter to the city, the FFRF points out flying the flag is a “blatant violation” of the Constitution’s Establishment Clause.
“The cross on the flag pole of Glencoe’s City Hall building unabashedly creates the perception of government endorsement of Christianity,” the letter reads. “The cross has an exclusionary effect making non-Christians and non-believing residents of Glencoe political outsiders.”….
“Reason will prevail,” FFRF co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor said in a statement Monday. “In this case, it was so patently obvious why a civil, secular government can’t endorse Christianity in this particular way.”
The role of government is to serve. Former Congressman Barney Frank once said that “Government is what we decide to do together.” This means that the role of government is first and foremost to be inclusive, not to make it clear by its actions or the symbols it displays that it favors a particular faith tradition. When government decides to step out the Constitution, it should- nay, must- be reigned in.
Y’all are free to be Christians…or follow what ever flavor of The Great Packer Fan in the Sky © gives your life meaning and purpose. You just don’t get to do it on the taxpayers’ dime.
Any questions?
