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AFA JournalRELIGION/ANTI-CHRISTIANJudge OKs Controversial ‘In God We Trust' PosterAFA Journal, February 2001 Edition For a lot of people across the country, Rita Cline was probably something of a hero for hanging a copy of the nation's motto on the wall of her county treasurer's office--even in the face of intense pressure. Now a federal judge's ruling ensures that, while she may be a hero, Cline does not have to be a martyr. U.S. District Judge Sam A. Crow dismissed a lawsuit filed against Cline by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), after she placed a copy of AFA's "In God We Trust" poster in her Shawnee County (Kansas) office. The ACLU was representing two Topeka women, Mary Lou Schmidt and Darlene Stearns, who wanted the poster removed, claiming that it was "offensive" to them. Even though the words appear on U.S. currency and were officially adopted as the nation's motto in 1956, the ACLU said Cline could not hang the poster on state property because it promoted her religious beliefs. When the ardent 49-year-old Christian woman refused to cave in to the demands, the ACLU took her to court. "There is no doubt that Rita Cline put that poster up to promote her religious beliefs," Dick Kurtenbach, executive director of the ACLU's office in Kansas City, said before the trial. "She is a government official and it is on government property. There is no doubt why she put it up there." In an interview with AFR's Today's Issues, Cline said the ACLU even objected to the source of the poster. "They told me I didn't have any business putting something up that comes from a religious organization" like AFA, she said. Cline told a local paper that, too often, the ACLU intimidated people, and that she had decided she would not be a "wimp." Fortunately, Crow saw no problem with the poster either. According to The Capital-Journal (Topeka, Kansas), the judge dismissed the case, calling the lawsuit "patently frivolous without any basis in the law." With regard to the ACLU's demand for an injunction, Crow said in the decision, "An order prohibiting defendant from referring to her personal religious beliefs may raise its own novel issues of constitutionality to the extent it would constitute a prior restraint on defendant's free speech." Schmidt, who is a pagan, also complained in the lawsuit that after she protested the poster to Cline, the treasurer responded with a letter criticizing paganism. In his ruling, Crow rejected this complaint as well, saying, "Plaintiffs appear to believe that they are free to contact a public official to voice their own religious or anti-religious views, but that the public official's response to them cannot include religious content without violating the plaintiff's free speech rights." As determined as Cline was to stand her ground, she told AFR that she was not necessarily looking for a court battle. In fact, after the ACLU first threatened a legal challenge, Cline said she wrote a letter inviting all concerned to her house for dinner. "When they threatened me with a suit, I said, ‘Look, we don't need to be talking about these issues in a courtroom, let's talk about them in a dining room.'" She said the ACLU and the plaintiffs declined the invitation. That was unfortunate. "As it turned out, they probably should have taken me up on the invitation," she said, since the judge ordered the plaintiffs to pay Cline's court costs and legal fees. Still appreciative for the victory in the courtroom, Cline said that was not uppermost in her heart. "The real victory will be won when the plaintiffs and most importantly the ACLU change their hearts" and come to Christ. The ‘poster battle' in Florida Kansas is not the only place where "In God We Trust" has been appearing on the walls of government offices. In Florida, the Christian Coalition of Collier County has availed itself of the AFA posters in an effort to distribute as many as they can. The organization approached the Board of Commissioners about a project to place the "In God We Trust" proclamations in every government building in the county. Christian Coalition Chairman Jerry Rutherford said the board "enthusiastically approved" the project, and more than 50 framed copies of the posters have been placed, with another 50 being prepared. In a letter to supporters, Rutherford said, "These plaques will serve as a reminder that our forefathers died to give us the freedoms we now enjoy." |
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