Rex Parris or T-Rex Parris?
Rex Parris, the mayor of a small town in California, wants the people of his city to
validate a Christian stance in the April municipal election, in which a ballot measure endorses prayers at city meetings, specifically with permission to invoke a specific deity, including Jesus.
While I am not wholly convinced by the principle of the Separation of Church and State, the first amendment to the Constitution states that:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…
Various court rulings have established that this clause should be interpreted as “government should not prefer one religion to another, or religion to irreligion” regardless of the level of the government. The mayor’s proposal amounts to an official establishment of religion at the city level.
Parris claims:
My vision of it is not a vision of exclusion. It’s a vision of attraction. I understand for so long it had an exclusionary feel to it. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. We should remove the exclusionary aspect.
Declaring a Christian city clearly excludes anybody who is not a Christian. Just like Saudi Arabia is an “Islamic state” and the efforts to convert India into a Hindu state, Mayor Parris’ declarations will not attract anyone who is a Christian.
If Parris wants to build a community that rejects atheism, his ballot measure should affirm the belief of the people in God and the invocation of God, rather than any specific deity. That would be a “vision of attraction.”
