Update: religious messages will remain on bus benches
UPDATE:
The City of Colorado Springs released the following statement Monday:
“The City of Colorado Springs is carefully reviewing the advertising policies of Mountain Metro Transit in light of the advertising by Pastor Lawson Perdue of the Charis Christian Center. The City takes First Amendment issues very seriously, and strives to fully comply with Constitutional Law. This commitment requires that advertisements and policies are regularly reviewed for content and legality. Mountain Metro Transit recognizes that it acted hastily in asking Pastor Perdue to change his messaging.The city attorney’s office is working diligently to ensure that the advertising policies comply with the law. During this review, no action will be taken and Mountain Metro Transit will continue Pastor Perdue’s advertisement as they currently app
ORIGINAL REPORT:
A battle is brewing between the City of Colorado Springs and a local church over what ads should be allowed on bus benches.
Currently, dozens of benches with the message, “Jesus Is Lord” are scattered across the city.
Pastor Lawson Perdue of Charis Christian Center is the one who started the campaign three years ago.
“We believe that Jesus is a very positive message of faith, and we want to share that around our community,” said Perdue.
Perdue’s ad agency called the city on Tuesday to renew the spots, but was told by Mountain Metro Mobility he could not, because if they allow his messages, they also had to allow hate speech.
“We were quite appalled with that,” he said.
City Public Works spokeswoman Vicki McCann told KRDO Newschannel 13 that the group is in the process of re-evaluating its advertising policy related to religious messages.
The reason for the re-evaluation of the policy is a complaint that came in about a month ago about a bus bench in town.
However, McCann couldn’t say if it was one of Charis’s benches or another.
Specifically, city attorneys are looking at a section of the first amendment called the “Establishment Clause”, which has to do with governments favoring one religion over another.
However, Perdue believes if everyone has the same right to advertise, there’s no violation.
“There’s a lot of messages in the city that I’m opposed to personally, but I don’t complain, because this is the United States of America,” he said.
The church was told it can still advertise on benches, and no ads will be taken down yet, but for now, no new benches containing language like “Jesus Is Lord” will be permitted.
Perdue says if needed, he will take the city to court to change that.
He added that a national group dedicated to preserving freedom of speech has already agreed to take the case.
McCann said there is currently no timeline for evaluating its policy or making a final decision on what’s allowed on the benches.
