Despite the good intentions of some in spreading the Gospel. Sometimes it can go totally awry with proselytism in the pejorative sense. Case in point:
Sioux Falls officials could face a cloudy legal fight over a dispute about religious artwork that students painted on two city-owned snowplows despite a disclaimer that is being added to the plows.
City officials said the disclaimer would be attached to the 27 student-decorated snowplows to show the city isn’t endorsing a particular point of view, but the message doesn’t appear to be enough to satisfy the concerns of the artwork’s critics, the Argus Leader reported Sunday.
Students at Lutheran High School and Sioux Falls Lutheran School painted the plow blades as part of the city’s Paint the Plows program. One blade includes the words “Jesus Christ” and the other “Happy Birthday Jesus.”
The Siouxland Freethinkers complained, arguing the religious artwork on publicly owned vehicles violates the constitutional separation of church and state
… Two days later, Huether and city attorney David Pfeifle announced the disclaimer would be added to all the student-decorated plows.
Part of the disclaimer reads: “Any message or views expressed are not those of the city or endorsed by the city.”
I can feel for the poor atheist who thought at least snow plows were free from religious messages. The forced conversions due to atheists inadvertently seeing such a message on an intimidating machine is proselytism in the worst sense. This is just another sacred plow that must be eliminated. Hopefully the disclaimer will be large enough to prevent accidental conversions.
