MARION, Ind. — Some have questioned whether a religious verse painted on the city’s new fire truck is proper.
Fire Chief Steve Gorrell said department members considering slogans to go on the new truck settled on part of the 23rd Psalm: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”
“The firefighters wanted to put something on there to show the public how they represent themselves,” Gorrell told the Chronicle-Tribune for a story today.
The department chose the biblical passage over secular sayings such as, “While others are rushing out, we’re rushing in,” he said.
City Councilwoman Ann Secttor said the passage did not belong on a public vehicle.
“I don’t think any part of religion should be mixed with politics,” said Secttor, who is Jewish.
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8 comments
*sigh* The constitution says that the government can’t make any law respecting an establishment of religion, and it also says the government can’t supress free speech. So really the government should not be allowed to tell the firefighters to use a biblican verse, but it also shouldn’t be allowed to tell them not to.
Oh wait, I forgot, “Separation of Church and State” . . . where in the constitution is that again?
Good for the firemen! I would be very happy to see this verse on a firetruck. Freedom of religion has come to mean freedom FROM religion Surely the fireman have a right to decide what words they want to represent them. Or does freedom of speech include every kind of speech except religion? Obscene words on the truck would probably cause less criticism than a verse from the 23rd Psalm.
Didn’t mean to get carried away…and on Holy Thursday!
George W. Bush quoted the exact same lines of Psalm 23 on the evening of 9/11/2001 in his address to the nation…yet another reason that Psalm 23 is appropriate for the back of a fire engine, in light of all of the firemen who died in the World Trade Centers that day.
Mrs. Secctor ought to shut her big mouth then, because *she’s* mixing politics with religion more than anyone else–enough to get it into the papers.
And they say Christians take themselves too seriously.
Since when is a firetruck “politics”?
Since presumably it’s paid for by more than one genetic family, Cornelius.
If Ann Secttor would like to be a firefighter and put her life on the line each day, then she would have the right to have some input about the slogan.