Covington County Commissioners rescinded a donation for the renovation of the Old Stanley School Community Center at its meeting Thursday morning. District 3 Commissioner Harold Elmore moved to rescind the donation, and District 4 Commissioner Carl Turman seconded. It passed without any dissenting vote. At its Oct. 8 meeting, Elmore had moved and got approval to donate $3,000 to the community center for use in purchasing supplies and materials for renovating the building located between Florala and Andalusia. Then, an atheist/agnostic group in Wisconsin got involved. The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the commission detailing why the donation was unconstitutional. “Funding a Baptist ministry violates this principle of neutrality, especially when the program is explicitly Christian and clearly meant to influence people to convert to Christianity,” they wrote. FFRF is asking the commission to rescind the grant and recover the $3,000 from the ministry. “ Well on Thursday, the group got their wish. For now. Elmore said after the meeting that he plans to reintroduce the donation at a future meeting because the money was not being used by the ministry. He said since the board that oversees the community center did not have an active bank account, his intentions were for the Covington Baptist Association to take the check, deposit and then give the board the funds to be used in the renovations. “Based on what our attorney told us, this was our best course of action,” he said. “I plan to give the community center the $3,000 at a future meeting.” At the Oct. 8 meeting, Elmore said one of the uses of the Old Stanley School Community Center is a non-denominational men’s ministry that meets on the third Thursday of each month. During that meeting, the ministry has a speaker and also offers attendees a free meal. None of the $3,000 would have been used that group for the event. Elmore also said any citizen of Covington County could use the facility, which oddly would mean if an atheist wanted to host a meeting, it would be allowed. The Wisconsin group is known for trolling the Internet, or being tipped off when any type of religions activity takes place at public meetings or other events. Their website touts recent “wins” theyve experienced halting prayers at football games, attacking school districts for any type of religious displays and recently went after a football coach, who is also a minister, for baptizing three of his players after football practice. Elmore did not say when he plans to reintroduce the donation, but said it will be soon. The Old School Men’s Ministry’s next free event will be on Thursday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. (Story courtesy of Jay Thomas and The Opp News)
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 20:18:50 +0000
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