Christian Flag Spotted in Mississippi Courthouse
A regular reader of this blog e-mailed me about a recent experience at the Rankin County Justice Court in Brandon, MS, that may interest you. He was there to contest a traffic ticket and observed something surprising in the courthouse. Alongside an American flag and a Mississippi flag was a Christian flag. A Christian flag prominently displayed in a state courthouse in 2008! Does anybody know if this is common around our state? I don't know why I am so surprised, but I am.Tags: Christian flag, Christian, church and state, Mississippi, Rankin County Justice Court, Brandon
13 comments:
Can someone from Brandon please inform the ACLU that their rights are being infringed upon?
I'd contact the FFRF also.
I don’t know about this specifically, but I grew up in Rankin County and it is, if I recall correctly, the most Republican county in MS. Almost nothing but fundies.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think that the first step would involve filing a written complaint with Rankin County. If they ignored the complaint, then alerting the MS ACLU and other groups as necessary would be warranted. I feel like the author of the initial complaint letter would probably have had to see the flag for him or herself.
I guess having lost the Ten Commandments stone idol, they'd sneak in something a little lighter in case they had to move it.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I find this worse than displaying one of the many versions of their commandments.
I contacted the FFRF. They need an actual photo of the flag. Anyone have a camera up there?
We need to find someone in the area who would be willing to get a picture.
I sincerely agree that writing a letter to the county is the first step. Not only is it the proper thing to do but the RR uses "chain of command" as a griping point. They accuse us of going straight to these organizations in order to persecute them on a larger scale.
According to Mapquest, I am at least 95 miles from Brandon. With the courthouse probably not being accessible on weekends, it is going to be quite awhile before I can take time off work to drive to Brandon to get a picture of the flag myself. I suppose I can go ahead and write a letter, although I'm not sure what they'll think about getting a complaint from someone in Hattiesburg who has never seen their flag.
One question that had been left out is the issue of photography possibly being banned in the courtroom.
If photography is banned down there, this could be a sneaky way to get around things for the RR: You aren't allowed to get proof it was there, and they can play a shell game if they suspect the ACLU is about to come calling.
I live in Brandon, and that flag is most certainly there. Also, the ten commandments ARE displayed, right inside the front doors of the police Dept.
I am probably an unlikely ally in your concern –unlikely because I am an evangelical Christian. I certainly agree with your concern that the Christian flag in the courthouse is inappropriate and a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution as it involves government endorsement of Christianity. That is no different than a mandated Christian prayer in schools, which violates personal freedom. Government should not discriminate either for or against religion. Having said that, I do believe that the same First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion. It is legal for my Christian values to influence my work, voting, etc. and it is wrong for anyone (atheists included) to suppress religious expression. The “separation clause” was designed to prevent a state-controlled religion only; it was not designed to prevent the outworking of religious belief in society.
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