The Liberty Counsel, the Southern Poverty Law Center-certified hate group which supports criminalizing gay sex and allowing discrimination due to “religious freedom,” recently sued the city of Boston, Massachusetts to force it to fly the Christian flag over city hall.
The group filed the lawsuit on behalf of Camp Constitution, a literal camp that wanted to fly the flag for an hour while throwing an “event with pastors encouraging racial reconciliation, freedom in the United States, and celebrating the link between Christianity and the United States, ending with the presentation of the Christian flag,” according to Fox News.
The city says it cannot fly non-secular flags over its hall of government, but the Liberty Counsel claims that’s just religious discrimination as the city has reportedly flown 284 other flags on its city hall flagpoles.
Interestingly, a federal court and appeals court previously ruled against Camp Constitution co-founder and director Hal Shurtleff in a similar case last year. But the Liberty Counsel thinks it has uncovered new information that’ll help persuade judges this time.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Part of their persuasive “proof” is the fact that the city has flown the Turkish flag, a banner which has an Islamic star and crescent on it, from city hall flagpoles 13 times since 2005. But there’s a huge difference here: The Turkish flag represents a nation, not solely a religion; the Christian flag solely represents a religion, not a nation.
The lawsuit also claims that Boston has flown the Vatican City flag on city hall’s flagpoles, but yet again that flag represents a religious nation, not a religion.
“Shurtleff said the city would have accepted [the Christian flag] if they had called it the Camp Constitution flag instead of the Christian flag,” according to Fox News, but that’s stupid. It’s not like the Christian flag is some unrecognizable banner that you can simply pass off as your dumb camp’s emblem.
This lawsuit is likely to fail, but it’s a good reminder of just how much taxpayer time and money the Liberty Counsel is willing to waste in order to play the persecuted minority despite 70 percent of all Americans identifying as Christian.
Cam
Except the Turkish flag is a national flag that HAPPENS to have that symbol on it. This flag specifically represents a region.
Right wing Republicans what Sharia Law in America.
GageRoberts1268
Except the Turkish flag is a national flag that….- Real truth But i am here not only to discuss this article but I AM LOOKING for NEW boyfriend. My whatsapp number is 17732425635 . Drop me a line nly if you are single and looking for love and pleasure..
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
As a community we need to hammer out there religion is a CHOICE. Being Gay is NOT A CHOICE….
My RIGHTS trump your BELIEFS!!
Nicolobo
Could we have just the slightest little bit of critical reasoning here? Who the hell decided that that flag is “the Christian flag?” As an Episcopalian, we have one. Other denominations have theirs. Roman Catholics tend to use the Vatican flag. All of us are Christians.
The truth is that just calling that flag “the Christian flag,” gets the religious extremists what they want. They want the world to see their extremist (and recently-invented) versión to be perceived as the only “real” “Christian.” Accepting their terminology, even when opposing them, gets them what they want.
rbernard
We can all learn from the wise reasoning our founding forefathers had intended when they drew a clear line separating secular government from religion – it is just too divisive.
Mat Staver is a religious fanatic who runs a law firm focused supporting conservative republicans’ intolerant religious agenda.
He files a lot of threatening lawsuits on behalf of religious conservatives, but fortunately for civil libertarians, the courts routinely do not rule for his clients.
Their theme this year is “Christianity is under attack”.
Their staged faux rage is about the City of Boston will not fly their version of a Christian flag, nor any other religious flag.
This is about deploying a tactic to rile up the religious right’s base to raise money to support Donald Trump and other conservative candidates during the election season.
Aires the Ram
To equate Mat Stater’s group with the 1/2 of the country who are Trump supports is dead wrong and you know it. Although I agree with the rest of your post, especially regarding separating church & state.
The whole thing is ridiculous, as the only flags that should fly over ANY city hall ANYWHERE in the United States are the American flag and that particular States flag. No religious flags, no gay pride flags, no nothing! US, and State flag only. But then what would everyone have to fight about??