Even when Christians do a good deed for their community, atheists complain.
The city council in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma is in the middle of a growth spurt and needed high ground to build a one-million gallon water tower.
But the property they needed was owned by the First Baptist Church. So they made a deal with Pastor Nick Garland and the congregation.
The church donated the land and the easements for the tower and in return the church got to put their name on the tower for all driving by to see.
Pastor Garland says his congregation is very generous and wants to be good citizens as well as good Christian folks representing the kingdom of God.
But the arrangement in Oklahoma didn’t sit well with a gaggle of atheists, agnostics and free-thinkers from Wisconsin.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation fired off a sinister letter to the city – warning that the inclusion of the church’s name on the water tower violates federal law.
The atheists attorney Andrew Seidel, accused the city of promoting the Baptist religion.
The good people of Broken Arrow were unmoved. The city’s attorney, Beth Anne Wilkening, politely told the Freedom From Religion Foundation that the church’s name is going to stay on the water tower.
She told KOTV the arrangement “wasn’t intended to endorse any sort of religion; it was simply to recognize them for the land contribution. It was a contract.”
Meanwhile Pastor Garland now gets to claim “the largest baptistery in the state.” That probably won’t sit well with the atheists in Wisconsin.