Pundits have long speculated that if local governments insist on mixing Christianity and politics — Bible classes in public schools, the Ten Commandments posted at courthouses, etc. — pretty soon other belief systems will want their own taxpayer-funded soapboxes. Buddhism, Islam and Wicca will demand equal time.
Mostly it was just a joke. But in Florida’s Bradford County, southwest of Jacksonville, the joke’s over. The county has agreed to let an organization called American Atheists erect a granite bench in a courtyard outside the county courthouse. The monument to atheism will share space with a Ten Commandments monument that was put there last year.
The Associated Press described the new monument: “The bench will include quotes from Thomas Jefferson as well as Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the founder of American Atheists. It also will include a list of Old Testament punishments for violating the Ten Commandments, including death and stoning.”
We’d guess the stuff about death and stoning will be included to try to convince people the Bible is too musty to be relevant today.
It’s worth noting that although both monuments will be on public land — that is, government property maintained with taxpayer dollars — both are privately funded. A Christian group paid for the Ten Commandments and the atheist group will pay for the granite bench.
So don’t be alarmed. Taxpayers aren’t subsidizing a memorial to atheism.
All in all, making room for the atheists’ bench seems a reasonable solution to a problem that arose when American Atheists sued over the Ten Commandments display. Keeping the Ten Commandments but denying space to the atheists would have sent a small-minded message: The government of Bradford County will accommodate only one set of beliefs on land that’s meant for everyone.
Now the county is accommodating a contrary set of beliefs, or unbeliefs. That’s what can happen when government mixes religion and politics.
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EDITORIAL: Atheism is getting benched
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