OK - Christian files lawsuit objecting to license plate displaying a Native American

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wfgodot

wfgodot

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Appeals court rules man can challenge Oklahoma 'rain god' plate . (Daily Oklahoman)
DENVER — An appeals court gave new life Tuesday to a lawsuit of a Bethany pastor who claims an American Indian image on Oklahoma's standard license plates violates his religious rights as a Christian.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 that a judge in Oklahoma City erred by throwing out the lawsuit of Keith Cressman, pastor of St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Bethany.

Cressman objects to the image of an American Indian shooting an arrow toward the sky to bring down rain.

He claims the image unconstitutionally contradicts his Christian beliefs by depicting Indian religious beliefs, and that he shouldn't have to display the image.
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the rest at the link above
 
Well, that's just plain silly. One would think a pastor would have more important battles from which to pick.
 
It's part of the whole ongoing "Waaaah, I'm discriminated against for my Christian beliefs!" phenomenon.

I've been baptized for, oh, 55 years now and I have NEVER been discriminated against because I'm a Christian.
 
I think 'Wahhhh' is a state too many people live in, these days. Maybe all this leisure time we have now leaves people with nothing better to do than fish about for frivolous things to be offended about.

For goodness' sake, I want to say to this man and people like him. Go grow some squash and green beans, make a quilt, read to some sick kids in the hospital... there ARE a million and more better things to do, and aa many better ways to be than permanently butthurt.
 
Ausgirl, that works both ways, doesn't it? What do you say to atheists who object to most every display of Christianity? They bend a nation to their will at every opportunity.

I agree there are way too many lawsuits filed.

Some day someone is going to object to rainbows. What then? :noooo:

:nevermind:
 
If you're going to jump up and down about this, then maybe to make everything fair, anything with any kind of religious connotation should be taken down (ie. the 10 commandments monument on the state's capitol stairs) and Christianity should stop being taught to children in schools. That way no religious person (or atheist for that matter) can feel 'offended' by having another's beliefs 'thrust down their throats'.

Not to mention, the plate doesn't really have anything religious on it, and honestly just looks like an Indian... which I would think would be something to be PROUD of having on your plates seeing as the state is a Native American state (so Google tells me).

In saying all of this, I'd like to point out that I'm religious, so my issue here is certainly not religion itself. In my life, I've NEVER been discriminated against because of my beliefs, nor would something as trivial as this offend me. I do have a problem with this idiot wasting time and money fighting a hypocritical battle in which one groups rights are prioritized over another's. Surely he has people he can actually go and help, seeing he's a pastor and that's actually his job.

It's people like this that give religion a bad name.
 
I'm of Christian faith and have nothing but respect for Nat. Amer. Indians. This pastor has too much time on his hands.
 
teedie2 said:
Ausgirl, that works both ways, doesn't it? What do you say to atheists who object to most every display of Christianity? They bend a nation to their will at every opportunity.

I agree there are way too many lawsuits filed.

Some day someone is going to object to rainbows. What then? :noooo:

:nevermind:
Click to expand...

Which nation? I don't know where you live but can you give examples of your accusations towards atheists?
 
teedie2, yes - it surely does work both ways.

My criticism was of overly nitpicky persons in general. The world is such a great big place, and life is short, was my point. And there's so many better things to do, and to think about.
 
I think we're all ignoring the real story here: where in the hell are the mental competency requirements to get a drivers license in Oklahoma?
 
Schuby said:
I think we're all ignoring the real story here: where in the hell are the mental competency requirements to get a drivers license in Oklahoma?
Click to expand...

I'm a person with disabilities and have an accessible tag myself, but I swan sometimes I think that a "disabled" tag is to warn folks that the vehicle's driver just doesn't have any good walking-around sense. Wonder if this pastor has one?
 
That seems crazy. I am an active Christian and I belong to and attend a Baptist church but also work at and go to Bible studies and small groups at a United Methodist Church. I don't see anything wrong with the license plate. The United Methodist Church where I am friends with the pastor recently had a Native American Sunday where they decorated with Native American things and paid respect to Native Americans (some of whom are in the congregation).
 
I wonder how offended the Indians in the area are about the presence of this pastor on what was, undoubtedly, once their land? :innocent:
 
The wicked part of me is truly hoping that pastor gets rained on every day for a solid year, now.
 
Gardenlady said:
I wonder how offended the Indians in the area are about the presence of this pastor on what was, undoubtedly, once their land? :innocent:
Click to expand...

I wonder how he feels about The Trail of Tears?

"He claims the image unconstitutionally contradicts his Christian beliefs by depicting Indian religious beliefs, and that he shouldn't have to display the image." http://newsok.com/appeals-court-rules-man-can-challenge-oklahoma-rain-god-plate/article/3844473

Perhaps the image on the license plate can be changed to depict the gangrenous, bloodied feet of the children and Elders as they walked through the snow on The Trail Of Tears?

At some point in time the genocide in this country has to stop! Has this 'minister' never heard of AIRFA?

1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG). Article 2 of this convention defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Dec. 9 1948, S. Exec. Doc. O, 81-1 (1949), 78 U.N.T.S. 277 (Bluebook rule 21.4.5 (a)(ii))

i.e. Boarding Schools,
 
why doesn't he get a personalized plate if he doesn't like the state-issued one?
 
It's easy to see this as frivolous, but it's not necessarily so. I venture to say that the pastor feels that since the plate is a depiction of a person who worships a rain god, which in Christianity is idol worship, it's not a "statement" he should be traveling around with. He apparently feels to do so is a manner of endorsement of idolatry. YMMV, but this doesn't make him a hypocrite: rather it is consistent with his faith. It doesn't mean he is anti Native; it just means he recognizes that he shouldn't be promoting something emphatically forbidden in Christianity. The first and foremost commandment states "I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before me." Sometimes Christians bend over so far backwards to be accommodating that we violate our God's precepts unintentionally. We are told in the Bible to avoid even the appearance of inconsistency.

He is not asking the state to change the plate - he is only asking that he not have to pay extra money to have a plate that does not advertise that which his faith forbids.

Schools no longer have prayer or Bible readings because atheists objected. In my area, Nativity sets have been forbidden on public property at Christmas, and this goes on all over the country. But this pastor is not asking for others to dance to his tune in that manner; he just wants to preserve the integrity of his message.
 
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