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Sep 22, 2009 9:45 pm US/Central
Separation Of Church And State Heating Up In NRH
By Melissa Newton
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
There are new developments in the effort to stop prayer at North Richland Hills City Council meetings. CBS 11 News first reported on the story back in August after a national atheist organization sent a letter to the city, demanding the council stop all religious invocations.
Now the man at the center of the controversy is speaking exclusively to CBS 11.
In North Richland Hills an opening prayer is a routine practice at city council meetings. But from that prayer a controversy has sprouted.
"It started back in July when I won 'Yard of the Month'," said the NRH resident. The homeowner is an atheist and asked CBS 11 News not to identify him.
The man says he fears retaliation against his family. "My family is religious, very religious, I am the only non-believer in this household," he explained.
The man was invited to a council meeting to receive the award for his yard, but decided not to go when learned the meeting opened with a prayer. "They said I could remain seated during the invocation or go outside," he said.
But that didn't make the atheist resident comfortable. "[It] made me feel like a second class citizen, ostracized, not part of the community. And I considered it more or less Christian bullying."
The man contacted the Freedom from Religion Foundation and the group asked the council to stop praying at meetings.
In response, the city attorney said North Richland Hills has no plans to change its practice at this time. Now, the Dallas Fort Worth Coalition of Reason is also stepping in. That group is busy organizing a protest to take place before next week's NRH city council meeting.
"It's not a belief thing, it's a matter of separation of church and state," explained Terry McDonald, the coordinator of the Dallas Fort Worth Coalition of Reason. "It's a cause this resident say extends beyond atheism."
The atheist NRH resident says there are others who may agree with him. "There are freethinkers, humanists, other believes, other non-beliefs that we have in our wide diversity in our population that it would be offensive to as well."
The Coalition of Reason NRH protest is scheduled to take place next Monday at 6pm, in front of city hall.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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