In a move that truly demonstrates just how intolerant and out of touch many secularists are with the real world, atheists from Wisconsin are targeting the community of Hobbs, New Mexico.
What action by Hobbs has raised the ire of the lefty organization, Freedom from Religion Foundation? This group, which is supposed to be composed of freethinkers — as well as atheists, agnostics and others who are focused on stripping any signs of Christianity from being on display in public — became angry because the city allowed gospel songs to be performed during a program honoring the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Following a Martin Luther King, Jr program and march held at the city’s Booker T. Washington Elementary School on January 15, Christopher Line, a legal fellow with the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, penned a letter to the city of Hobbs. The letter applauded the city’s celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr as part of its effort to promote unity throughout the community. However, surprisingly, Line admonished the event’s planners for also including elements that the Freedom from Religion Foundation deemed questionable. These included elements such as religious messages and gospel music that was sung during the program.
According to the letter sent by Line to the city’s officials, Hobbs’ leaders are not allowed to prestige to religion or fuel its credibility during city events. Line charged city officials with doing so when they included religious messages during the event honoring the slain civil rights leader. The Freedom from Religion Foundation noted that the organization was contacted by a resident who was concerned upon the discovery that several of the celebration’s elements included references to Jesus and God. In addition, the program included a gospel choir that performed religious music. The letter even contained language that seemed to eerily mimic a cease and desist command with Line urging Hobbs to refrain from using any messages or music that could be deemed as religious at official city events.
Perhaps Line and the other people who make up the Freedom from Religion Foundation should do their homework next time prior to dashing off an accusatory letter to a city that was only seeking to honor a great civil rights leader and provide a platform of unity.
Long before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights leader, he was a renowned minister within the Baptist faith. His powerful oratory skills and deep passion for Christ and the Savior’s teachings made the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a popular speaker of the gospel who was widely known in the South. As the man himself would repeatedly make clear, he was a profoundly religious individual who typically incorporated these messages during his speaking events.
First Liberty Institute is one of the most prominent law firms focused on religious liberty and freedom in the United States. The law firm pointed out the intolerant views that laced the letter written by Line. As Michael Berry, an attorney for First Liberty Institute noted, the letter from the Freedom from Religion Foundation represents a grossly intolerant view. This is a sharp contrast from the idea that most people would have of freedom — including that of religion — that would likely arise when someone hears the name of the organization.
As Berry noted, there has never been a court in the United States that declared a parade and program about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr to be an unconstitutional event based on the presence of religious language that is similar in nature to that spoken by the leaders of the civil rights movement and a gospel choir.
What the Freedom From Religion has demonstrated is not only a vicious intolerance for all people of faith, but also painful ignorance for American history. The civil rights movement of which Martin Luther King, Jr. was perhaps the most influential member was laced with religious themes – powerful messages of hope that helped its followers through the era’s darkest moments. It only makes sense to keep this spirit in our hearts when we commemorate a man like him.
~ 1776 Christian
