I have a question about past articles where someone took a city park (or similar facility) to task for discrimination based purely on religious reasons.
As a ministry of over 45 years in a community, 10 months ago we started a Community Worship Night once a month. Over 100 people pack our facility once a month to worship Jesus together. So we thought, "Wouldn't it be fun to just do this in the City Park at the band shell that was built for musical and special events."
So we inquired and paid the fee for reserving the facility for Aug 18, 2018, all day long. When we stopped in at the city office whose staff manage the digital sign in the park announcing the community events, we were told that because our night is religious we were not allowed to have it added to the list displayed on the digital sign for all to read.
It would seem to me that this is a classic case of discrimination purely because we had the word "Worship" in our name. We made a poster entitled "Worship in the Park," and listed it as a free event for everyone in the community featuring Wilderness Worship, which is the name of our ministry team. They clearly said the only reason for not allowing our event on the scrolling digital announcement list is because it is religious.
Do you have contacts of organizations who help small towns be reminded of our freedom of religion and freedom of speech – freedoms in this country? If so, I would be interested in visiting with them with the intent of hopefully bringing a little enlightenment to them for future events.
It seems to me that if we are allowed to do a community event in the community/city park, then we should surely be allowed to have our event listed same as any other event. I just want to give a gentle reminder of the free country we live in and urge government to stop the whittling away of our freedoms of speech and religion. Thanks.
Randy Klawitter