After backlash from the community, the City Council of Haven, Kansas, reversed course on its previous decision to remove “In God We Trust” from the back of the city’s police vehicles.
Councilmember Sandra Williams originally introduced the motion to remove the decals from the back of police cars as well as a Bible verse from the city police Facebook page. That motion was unanimously passed by the council on May 2nd.
According to the city attorney, the driving force of the motion was to supposedly maintain the “separation of church and state.”
The City’s Mayor, Adam Wright, supported the city council’s motion to remove the decals because he reportedly “did not want the police department to be a forum for discussing God,” according to Fox News.
After the vote, however, Wright was inundated with emails from citizens of Haven displeased with the council’s decision to purge mention of God from the police department.
One resident, Mary Andresen, stated her hope that the backlash would cause the council and the mayor to see that their unilateral decision “didn’t go over well with the citizens they represent.”
Less than three weeks after the initial vote, public pressure caused the city council to schedule a re-vote, which took place on Monday. The meeting was held in a higher capacity building to accommodate the larger crowd which would attend.
The Haven city council, in a decision of 3-2, voted in favor of reversing their previous decision to remove the “In God We Trust” decals from the police cars.
“I firmly believe in separation of church and state. However, the people made clear what they wanted. And we went with it,” council member Mark Robinson told Fox News in response to Monday’s vote.
In a similar case last year, a North Carolina sheriff’s office was pressured to remove a Bible verse displayed on one of its walls, which read: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13).
Jody Greene, the county’s sheriff, responded by unequivocally declaring that he would not back down to the pressure to remove the verse.
“This is a political ploy,” he insisted. “Some want a person that they can control. Companies spend thousands of dollars on motivational classes, to come up with motivational slogans. My motivation comes from the greatest motivational speaker of all times, Jesus Christ.”
The “separation of church and state” has been often cited in such cases as justification for cracking down on the recognition and reverence of God. Those that use this argument conveniently omit the context showing the intent behind the original use of this phrase.
Jack Hibbs, the Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, in an interview addressed misconceptions about the “separation of church and state,” clarifying the history of the phrase.
“Let’s first talk about the separation between church and state. What does that mean? Well, first of all, going back to the original statement, where we get that from,” Hibbs began, “this comes out of a personal private letter that was written to Thomas Jefferson, who had then just become president. He had a very good friend in Danbury, Connecticut, who was a pastor of the church there.”
“That pastor had written that letter to Thomas Jefferson saying that, you’re in power, remember from where we came from, the motherland, the mother country England, there must always be of that protection of our ability to worship freely,” he described. “Jefferson is the one who said, I promise you, there’ll be a separation of church and state. The context was one of, the government will never get involved in what the church’s mission is.”
“If somebody right now thinks I’m making it up, all you have to do is look at the First Amendment,” he emphasized. “The First Amendment makes that crystal clear. The government was never to dictate or to initiate a state-run church. While at the same time, not inhibiting the worship of God or the gathering of those around a spiritual topic. It was meant to protect the church.”
In the Bible, we read that “the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
This is also reiterated through 1 Peter 2:7-8, which states that Jesus Christ to the Believer “is precious,” but to those who are “disobedient” He is a “stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”
Furthermore, 2 Timothy 3 describes that in the time prior to the return of Christ, “men of corrupt minds” will “resist the truth” and be “reprobate concerning the faith” (2 Timothy 3:8-9).
As our society becomes increasingly hostile to God, it is the responsibility of believers to be a restraining force against the progressive anti-God agendas advancing in our culture. The citizens of Haven, Kansas, did just that as they stood in opposition to their city council, making their voices heard in defense of the Biblical values America was founded upon.
