Atheist Groups Tackle a Football Statue

A Washington, D.C.-based secular organization – The American Humanist Association (AHA) – sent a letter to the Madison County School District in Danielsville, GA, on September 25, 2014, claiming that their high school football team’s ‘Red Raider’ stone monument (bearing religious statements, including Bible verses) is a violation of the 1st Amendment’s ‘establishment clause’ in the U.S. Constitution.

 

The AHA sent the Madison County School District a letter of complaint regarding the statue at the school district’s high school.  The letter stated:

 

“It is our understanding that sometime during this school year, the school district erected a large permanent sculpture entitled the ‘Red Raider’ monument, on school property, which includes prominent religious, and indeed, Christian biblical references.  Since it has been erected, the Madison High School football team has started a tradition of touching the sculpture before home games.”

 

David Niose, legal director of AHA, told The Christian Post that his organization learned about the statue “via email and social media” from “numerous people from the area.”  “We are waiting for a response,” added Niose, who sent the letter requesting a response within 2-weeks of its delivery.

 

Erected last month, the granite statue has multiple Bible verses listed on its frame and a tradition has already developed among the football team of touching the statue before going onto the field.  The statue, which also includes the high school initial and is topped with a sword within a stone a la Excalibur, was reportedly funded privately and given as a gift to the school.

 

The AHA is not the only atheist organization that has brought a complaint before Madison County regarding the granite statue.  The Madison, WI-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent a separate letter to the school district last month.  “If schools cannot display the Ten Commandments, which are themselves Bible quotes … schools cannot display other Bible quotes alone,” read the FFRF letter.  “In recognition of the district’s constitutional obligation to remain neutral toward religion, please remove the Bible quotes from the monument and any other religious messages posted on district property.”

 

In an interview with local media, Superintendent McCannon said that the school district had read the letters and was “investigating options available to it regarding the monument including, but not limited to, removal of the monument or modifying the monument in some manner.”

 

Why are the options only between remove or modify?  Why not consider – remain as is?

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel