Facebook Page at Center of Atheist Complaint for Religious Content Returns to Posting Christian Messages
A Facebook page that an atheist group had successfully pressurred to remove Christian messages due to confusion over its relationship to a city government is now posting Christian messages again after some minor changes to the page.
The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation was initially successful in getting an Arkansas city to remove religious postings from the Dispatch Jonesboro Facebook page — a page overseen by a Jonesboro city employee — after it filed an official complaint citing that it was inapproprite for the page to indicate a preference for Christianity and religion. The page has since returned to posting Christian messages.
Jonesboro officials opted to remove several posts about the Bible and God after receiving a letter from the FFRF. However, after an investigation, the page was found not to be directly tied to the city government.
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Fritz Gisler, director of Communications for the City of Jonesboro, explained to The Christian Post that the page has a new name, "Presley Dispatch," in honor of its owner, and continues to post religious content.
"At the time of the posts, the presentation of the page strongly implied that it was operated and directed by the City Administration. This implication was quite obvious considering the amount of feedback we received regarding the removal of the posts, most of which blamed the Mayor and the City Administration for the removal," said Gisler.
"The Mayor requested Mr. Presley to remove the posts before we determined the page did not, in fact, belong to the city. As a city employee, Mr. Presley complied with the Mayor's request. Subsequently, we determined the page belongs to Mr. Presley personally, and he is free to post on that page what he chooses."
Harrold Perrin, the mayor of Jonesboro to whom the FFRF letter was directed, said in a recent statement that posts on the Facebook page about God and the Bible were deleted.
"At the time, I decided it was better to be cautious and remove the posts until we could look into this issue further," stated Perrin.
"When I took office I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the land. I am committed to ensuring that the City of Jonesboro in all its operations obey the law."
On July 31, FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliot sent a letter of complaint to Perrin about various posts on the Facebook page for the Jonesboro E-911 Dispatcher.
"The United States Supreme Court has ruled that government officials may not seek to advance or promote religion," wrote Elliot.
"It is inappropriate for Dispatch Jonesboro to indicate a preference for Christianity and religion by quoting the Christian bible, posting prayers, and sharing postings asking people to pray on the official dispatcher Facebook page."
Part of the confusion over the Facebook posts stemmed from the fact that there was, in addition to Presley's page, an actual government-sponsored page called Jonesboro E-911.
Gisler told CP that this Facebook page "was never in question. All the postings that were questioned were on the Dispatch Jonesboro page."
"The response was overwhelmingly negative to the removal of the posts. There was some positive response after the Mayor's statement. The entire issue seems to have lost the interest of the public at this time," added Gisler.
