Team "Spirit" in Georgia Crosses Church-State Divide

Recently, a football coach at Villa Rica High School in Villa Rica Georgia (a public high school), brought in a minister from First Baptist Villa Rica church to baptize himself and the members of his team on the school’s football field. The freedom from Religion Foundation filed a complaint with the school and the school is currently investigating:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/09/02/a-georgia-public-school-is-investigating-a-mass-baptism-on-its-football-field/]
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/carroll-schools-investigating-mass-baptism-at-foot/nnW2B/]
A video of the baptism was posted the First Baptist Villa Rica church’s YouTube channel, and linked to from the team’s Facebook page. Both have since been taken down. However, the Google cache of the Facebook page is still available (scroll down to the August 17 post):
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mctHJMjkm9kJ:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Villa-Rica-Touchdown-Club-VRTC/1709634189249162+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us]

I live in Georgia and this doesn’t surprise me one bit. Our local sheriff puts up a nativity display in front of the jail every Christmas, and he recently put “In God We Trust” decals on all the police cars. It just amazes them that anyone could possibly object to this stuff. And at the same time, they love to imagine that Christians are being “persecuted” in America.

An update on the “In God We Trust” stickers – apparently the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent our sheriff a letter asking that he remove the stickers, on the basis that they send a clear message of bias against “non-believers”. His response, as reported in the local newspaper, was pretty much along the lines that it wasn’t illegal, so they were going ahead with it. He seems to believe that everyone feels better knowing that the police all have faith in God (as if the only atheists living in the county must be criminals). As I said earlier, this attitude does not surprise me one bit.

An update on the "In God We Trust" stickers -- apparently the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent our sheriff a letter asking that he remove the stickers, on the basis that they send a clear message of bias against "non-believers". His response, as reported in the local newspaper, was pretty much along the lines that it wasn't illegal, so they were going ahead with it. He seems to believe that everyone feels better knowing that the police all have faith in God (as if the only atheists living in the county must be criminals). As I said earlier, this attitude does not surprise me one bit.
If you participate at all in this, I'd recommend saying hey, atheists don't care one way or the other. It's the Jews, Muslims, Hindi in our country that might take offense. And that'd be three gods against one! (taking only the #1 god from Hindu menagery).
An update on the "In God We Trust" stickers -- apparently the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent our sheriff a letter asking that he remove the stickers, on the basis that they send a clear message of bias against "non-believers". His response, as reported in the local newspaper, was pretty much along the lines that it wasn't illegal, so they were going ahead with it. He seems to believe that everyone feels better knowing that the police all have faith in God (as if the only atheists living in the county must be criminals). As I said earlier, this attitude does not surprise me one bit.
That is not correct. This is going to be tested in court and it may indeed turn out to be unconstitutional. If you listen to the FRF podcasts they are challenging a number of municipalities on this issue. Several have already conceded and removed the decals. Its at the very least a use of taxpayer money to promote a religious point of view.

As long as “In God We Trust” is the official motto of the United States, I don’t understand on what grounds it can be challenged. It was my understanding that these places voluntarily removed them because of the separation argument. Can you tell me more?

And the backlash begins… http://www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/Stickers-showing-support-for-Sheriffs-Office-329723631.html
It seems all it took was for the FFR Foundation to send the letter to get the Christians to circle the wagons. Now everybody is going to start putting these stickers on their cars. It’s funny how they never thought to do this before, but once they perceive a “threat”, they react to it. I just wonder how many of them are only doing it because they think that it annoys atheists? :slight_smile: