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A Year in Jail for Not Believing in God? How Kentucky is Persecuting Atheists
In
Kentucky, a homeland security law requires the state’s citizens to
acknowledge the security provided by the Almighty God--or risk 12 months
in prison.
November 21, 2012 |
In
Kentucky, a homeland security law requires the state’s citizens to
acknowledge the security provided by the Almighty God--or risk 12 months
in prison.
The law and its sponsor, state representative Tom Riner, have been
the subject of controversy since the law first surfaced in 2006, yet the
Kentucky state Supreme Court has refused to review its
constitutionality, despite clearly violating the First Amendment’s
separation of church and state.
"This is one of the most egregiously and breathtakingly
unconstitutional actions by a state legislature that I've ever seen,"
said Edwin Kagin, the legal director of American Atheists', a national
organization focused defending the civil rights of atheists. American
Atheists’ launched a lawsuit against the law in 2008, which won at the
Circuit Court level, but was then overturned by the state Court of
Appeals.
The law states, "The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot
be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God as set forth in the
public speeches and proclamations of American Presidents, including
Abraham Lincoln's historic March 30, 1863, presidential proclamation
urging Americans to pray and fast during one of the most dangerous hours
in American history, and the text of President John F. Kennedy's
November 22, 1963, national security speech which concluded: "For as was
written long ago: 'Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh
but in vain.'"
The law requires that plaques celebrating the power of the Almighty
God be installed outside the state Homeland Security building--and
carries a criminal penalty of up to 12 months in jail if one fails to
comply. The plaque’s inscription begins with the assertion, “The safety
and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance
upon Almighty God.”
Tom Riner, a Baptist minister and the long-time Democratic state representative, sponsored the law.
“The church-state divide is not a line I see,” Riner told
The New York Times shortly
after the law was first challenged in court. “What I do see is an
attempt to separate America from its history of perceiving itself as a
nation under God.”
A practicing Baptist minister, Riner is solely devoted to his
faith--even when that directly conflicts with his job as state
representative. He has often been at the center of unconstitutional and
expensive controversies throughout his 26 years in office. In the last
ten years, for example, the state has spent more than $160,000 in string
of losing court cases against the American Civil Liberties Union over
the state’s decision to display the Ten Commandments in public
buildings, legislation that Riner sponsored.
Although the Kentucky courts have yet to strike down the law, some judges have been explicit about its unconstitutionality.
"Kentucky's law is a legislative finding, avowed as factual, that
the Commonwealth is not safe absent reliance on Almighty God. Further,
(the law) places a duty upon the executive director to publicize the
assertion while stressing to the public that dependence upon Almighty
God is vital, or necessary, in assuring the safety of the commonwealth,”
wrote Judge Ann O'Malley Shake in Court of Appeals’ dissenting
opinion.
This rational was in the minority, however, as the Court of Appeals
reversed the lower courts’ decision that the law was unconstitutional.
Last week, American Atheists submitted a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to review the law.
Riner, meanwhile, continues to abuse the state representative’s office, turning it into a pulpit for his God-fearing message.
"The safety and security of the state cannot be achieved apart from recognizing our dependence upon God," Riner recently t
old Fox News.
"We believe dependence on God is essential. ... What the founding
fathers stated and what every president has stated, is their reliance
and recognition of Almighty God, that's what we're doing," he said.
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