Romans 8:31 — “If God be with us, who can be against us?” Judges 1:19 — Apparently, anybody with chariots of iron. And a copy of the U.S. Constitution. Just be prepared to be called an “antichrist” and a “hater,” if you do so in Madison County, Georgia.
The monument pictured above was installed in front of a public high school football stadium in Madison in August, and has since drawn national attention. Not for the fact that it’s ugly, but for the aforementioned verse from Romans on the top, and another one from Philippians reading “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
The monument as donated by North Georgia Monuments and All Sports Consulting and Construction. But apparently, nobody “consulted” the Constitution’s requirement for the separation of church and state…because almost immediately, letters from atheist groups began flooding the school board.
The board met in a two-hour closed session on Tuesday night, in the high school cafeteria, preceded by several public speakers. Hundreds of people were in attendance, most of them (including the school board itself) morally in support of the monument. But, the tide of the Constitution was against the Confederacy.
School Board attorney Cory Kirby said in the “teachable moments” segment of the meeting that they had three options: do nothing, modify the monument, or remove it. He concluded rightly that they had no legal recourse in the matter — the school, being publicly funded, could not advance or prohibit the practice of any religion over another. “This is the framework the school must use,” he said.
Public speaker Anna Martin said that, Supreme court be damned, the First Amendment did not provide for a wall of separation between church and state, and that
“We do not have to bend to the power of these groups.”
Her husband Jesse Martin was a little more pointed on the matter:
“We cannot let them take advantage of our rights as a Christian nation. This is the South, the Bible belt of the world.”
Somebody should probably tell Jesse that “The South” isn’t “The Nation.” It’s OK guys; we tried and failed. Let’s move on…to Theresa Gordon’s take:
“We are not here as haters, we are here to love all. It seems as if these (atheist) groups are here as haters, willing to spend millions to remove God from (our society), which means they are antichrists by definition – they must have hatred in their hearts to fight so hard to remove Him from this small object that was placed for others to enjoy.”
But, the time had come, and the vote was cast, with all the reluctance of a moving mountain, to remove or cover up the Bible quotes on the monument.
Almost immediately, 150 to 200 people got up and left in disgust. The remainder asked Reverend Tim Creek of Ila Baptist Church to lead them in prayer. He led 16 other ministers at the podium to lead the crowd in prayer.
But, hey…we won’t begrudge them that. Even if said prayer was held in a public high school cafeteria. Baby steps.
The monument is scheduled to be modified either by covering up or removing the sayings around the top edge; probably the former, since it’ll likely be cheaper. Thus, the founders of this Great Christian Nation rolled in their graves.
You can watch the video below:
source: Washington Times
