The City of Zion is located on Lake Michigan, forty-two miles north of Chicago and five miles south of Wisconsin. The community was founded as a theocracy by the members of the Christian Catholic Church, which is a Protestant denomination.
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When Zion incorporated itself as an Illinois city ninety-nine years ago, the banner of the church was used as the center of the city seal.
The crown and scepter in the right quadrant is supposed to symbolize that Christ is the king of something, and the dove in the upper quadrant is supposed to represent a holy ghost.
This was the city seal when my friend and fellow atheist Clint Harris moved to Zion in 1987 to take a job in that community. When Clint purchased a municipal vehicle tax sticker for his car, he discovered that the city seal was on the vehicle sticker. Clint called me to complain that the government wanted him to display a Christian cross from the windshield of his car. He asked me if they could do that. I said, "No." He asked me if I could help him to bring his concern to city officials. I said, "Yes."
I went to the next City Council meeting and asked the mayor and city council to review the constitutionality of that requirement. They did, and decided that they would decline to change anything. Clint and I asked a neutral third party, a federal judge, to review that decision. The judge agreed with us and permanently enjoined the City of Zion from using that design as its seal, emblem and logo. Zion appealed that decision several times, but lost, so they removed the design from wherever it appeared on government property.
Recently, Zion began its centennial celebration. In conjunction with that event, Zion issued a commemorative booklet. On the first page of that booklet, Mayor W. Lane Harrison published a letter to the community. The letter stated, in pertinent part, "We must realize that without faith in God, we will fail."
Last week, I went to the Zion City Council meeting to request that the Mayor consider the provisions of Article One, Section Twenty, of the Illinois Constitution before making similar remarks in the future. 1:20 states, in pertinent part, "To promote individual dignity, communications that portray lack of virtue in, or that incite hatred or hostility toward, a person or group of persons by reason of or by reference to religious affiliation are condemned." I said that his statement is false, that such comments are defamatory towards atheists, and that the government should not be taking a position on whether or not someone will succeed or fail based on that person's theological opinions.
While making that statement, I couldn't help but notice that the old banner was prominently displayed in the city council chambers, right behind the mayor.
I asked the mayor to review the constitutionality of displaying the banner in the council chambers, in light of the federal court rulings from the early 1990's that seemed to clearly indicated that to do so is improper. I also asked that the City remove the old city flag from the "government" page of its web site.
That was on the evening of Tuesday, October 2nd. By Thursday morning, October 4th, the banner was gone from the council chambers, but as of today, the old city flag is still displayed within the Zion city web site.
I'll ask the Mayor, again, to delete the old flag from the web site. Mayor Harrison's day job is teaching the computers class at Central Junior High School in Zion, so it shouldn't be too difficult for him to figure out how to get the old flag removed from his city's web site.
Mayor Lane Harrison is actually a very nice person who means well. However, the major issue of the day in Zion is economic redevelopment of the business district, so I doubt that Lane will want a new battle about an old constitutional issue to divert the attention of the city from a much more important issue. Besides, such a battle might be just the thing to scare off would-be investors, who might not want to put their money into a community that values the religious fanaticism over economic development.
I'll let you know what happens.
Rob Sherman P. O. Box
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