Justin has not indicated what step he may or may not take next but his fight for Wlikes-Barre and all of Pennsylvania continues,
"I will continue to pursue church/state separation issues and atheist activism in Northeastern Pennsylvania. While the climate is not very welcome, I will continue to take a stand. Hopefully — even though Wilkes-Barre officials will likely continue its government-led Judeo-Christian prayers at council meetings — Wilkes-Barre officials will improve."
He did however get a response to his right-to-know request.
A right-to-know request — inquiring about the National Day of Prayer banner and the Mental Health Month banner — I filed was recently fulfilled. As I suspected, different groups paid for display of the National Day of Prayer and Mental Health Month banners. Additionally, there were separate charges for banner display and Public Square rental. McCormick’s reasoning, then, is vacuous in light of these revelations. It overwhelmingly appears to be the case that because city officials or someone else making decisions intentionally gave religious viewpoints prominence over a non-religious message.
Sadly, government neutrality on matters of religion is not always the case in Wilkes-Barre. In addition to the unprominent placement of the ‘Nothing Fails Like Prayer’ banner, city council opens its meetings with government-led Judeo-Christian prayers and refuses to allow alternative messages and/or speakers from the public to provide invocations immediately following the Pledge of Allegiance (see more about the matter here including my recent secular invocation I was only able to provide during a public comment section).
Right-to-know requests answered | justinvacula.com
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