Members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation have yet again installed a freethinking banner in a Connecticut park.
Jerry Bloom, with the help of John Levin, has put up an FFRF sign in Huntington Park in the city of Shelton. Two years ago, the city refused to allow Bloom to place the same banner in another park to counter a religious display because city officials offensively claimed the banner’s nonreligious message would be “offensive to many.” FFRF filed a lawsuit with Bloom as plaintiff and victoriously settled the case earlier this year, with the settlement ensuring that FFRF and Bloom receive access to city parks.
The banner carries FFRF’s message, coined by FFRF’s principal founder Anne Nicol Gaylor. It was composed as an equal-time challenge, following divisiveness over religious displays in governmental places. It reads:
At this season of the Winter Solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.
“We’d prefer that government property be free of religious or irreligious messages,” says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “But if religious displays are allowed, there must be ‘room at the inn’ for irreverence and freethought.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a nontheistic organization with 30,000 nonreligious members all over the country, including 300-plus in Connecticut.
