As he rode his bike Sunday, longtime political prankster Chaz Stevens ruminated on a law that was irking him: A Texas statute requiring schools to post donated signs with the United States motto, “In God We Trust.” Texas legislators, Stevens thought, were trolling people who don’t believe in a Judeo-Christian God.
Now, Stevens wants to troll them back…
The South Florida activist had raised more than $14,000 as of Thursday evening to distribute “In God We Trust” signs to public schools across Texas. The catch? The phrase is in Arabic…
The Arabic text is meant to invoke Islam and some Christians’ discomfort with that faith, Stevens said. He’s hoping for even one school to hang up the poster — in his view, making a point about applying the controversial statute evenly to people of any religion or no religion.
But Stevens, a self-described “staunch atheist,” is also prepared to try to turn a loss into a win. If a school rejects his poster, he said, he plans to file a lawsuit and use the court case to challenge the statute itself.
Sock it to ’em, bro’!
A new Texas law requiring schools to display “In God We Trust” signs is getting attention in North Texas after an area school district rejected versions of the signs during a Monday school board meeting. https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article265088214.html
The Carroll school board declined to accept the donation of signs displaying the national motto, including one where the motto is written in Arabic and two others displaying the rainbow colors like the pride flag. During the meeting, board president Cameron Bryan said the district didn’t have to accept the signs because they had already accepted the donations during a previous meeting and they’re in the district’s administration building and all 11 schools. On Aug. 15, Grapevine-based Patriot Mobile, which describes itself as a conservative Christian cell phone company, donated signs to display at schools in the district. The group has invested thousands in supporting school board candidates in Carroll, Grapevine-Colleyville, Keller and Mansfield. “The statute does not contemplate requiring the district to display more than one copy at a time,” Bryan said. “Instead, the statute requires a durable poster or framed copy which limits displays to one poster or frame copy in an effort not to overwhelm schools with donations.”