No word on whether using incandescent lighting instead of neon would have maintained the monument's secular status -- honoring the founder of Houston's Star of hope programs for the poor

A Bible must be removed from a 50-year-old monument in front of the Harris County civil courthouse because a district judge changed it from a secular to a religious use in violation of the Constitution, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

"Its recent history would force an objective observer to conclude that it is a religious symbol of a particular faith located on public grounds," a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 decision.

Except, of course, that its history is clearly secular, according to the opinion in question.

Although secular in purpose when it was erected in front of the old civil courthouse in 1956, former state District Judge John Devine and his court reporter, Karen Friend, changed the character of the monument when they refurbished it in 1995, the majority said in a 24-page opinion.

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Jolly, writing for the majority, said that the original purpose of honoring Mosher was secular, but that purpose was changed in 1995 when Devine and Friend placed a neon light inside the monument to outline the Bible.

Devine had campaigned on a platform of putting Christianity back into government and had Christian ministers lead prayers at the rededication ceremony for the monument, the opinion said.

Oh, and for those concerned about this rather unobtrusive display and its annual cost to the taxpayyer, evidence presented in the cas showed that the cost to the county is a whopping $93.16 per year.

Posted by: Greg at 10:30 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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