A Georgia courthouse has promised to take down a Christian flag after a complaint by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
A very obviously Christian flag with a cross on top has been prominently on display next to the judge’s bench in a Bryan County courtroom. The flag is a traditional evangelical Christian design, reportedly conceptualized by Protestants in the early 20th century. The white in the flag is said to represent the biblical notions of purity, the blue is supposed to stand for baptism in water and the red is meant to symbolize the sacrifice that Jesus made for humankind.
The religious significance of the cross and the flag is indisputable, and FFRF urged that the display be removed immediately.
“An overwhelming majority of federal courts agree that the Latin cross universally represents the Christian religion, and only the Christian religion,” FFRF Staff Attorney Elizabeth Cavell recently wrote to Rebecca Crowe, Bryan County clerk of courts. “And a majority of federal courts have held displays of Latin crosses on public property to be an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.”
Media reports indicate that court officials have promised to get rid of the display due to the attention generated by the FFRF letter. However, the display hasn’t been taken down yet, and FFRF will monitor the situation to make sure that it is.
“The United States is not a Christian nation, Georgia is not a Christian state and Bryan County is most certainly not a Christian county, yet this is the message this flag and the cross have sent. It’s a message of exclusion and intimidation to anyone who is non-Christian or who simply values our secular Constitution and equal justice under the law,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Imagine the outcry if a county judge put up an Islamic flag topped by a star and crescent! This is wrong for precisely the same reason. Government must be neutral about religion.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a nationwide nonprofit organization dedicated to the separation of state and church, with almost 24,000 nonreligious members across the country, including more than 400 in Georgia and an Atlanta-area chapter.
