Florida Mayor Asks Atheist To Leave City Meeting After Refusing Pledge of Allegiance
A Florida atheist is reportedly criticizing his local government after he was kicked out of a city meeting for not standing for the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote a letter to the local Winter Garden City Commissioners demanding that they apologize after they allegedly forced a local atheist to leave the meeting when he refused to stand for the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance.
As The Friendly Atheist reports, the incident occurred recently at a Winter Garden City Commissioners meeting, when during the invocation, a local atheist refused to stand during the invocation. When he refused to do so, Mayor John Rees reportedly asked him to stand.
Then, during the Pledge of Allegiance, Mayor Rees demanded the atheist stand, and when he refused, he asked him to leave. The atheist was then reportedly escorted out by the local Police Chief George Brennan.
"[I'm] asking you to either stand or please be escorted out [as we do] the Pledge. It's just not fair to our troops and people overseas, sir," Rees reportedly told the atheist, who remains anonymous, according to The Friendly Atheist.
The police chief then reportedly asked the atheist attendee "What do you want to do? Do you want to stand or leave?" and when the man refused to stand, he was escorted out of the building.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has reportedly sent a letter to the local city government demanding that at the next city commissioner meeting, Rees clarify that Americans have the right to sit during invocations and the Pledge of Allegiance.
"To remedy the Pledge violation, at the next meeting, Mayor Rees ought to explain that citizens are within their rights to remain sitting for the Pledge and that it does not reflect a lack of patriotism […] [Police] Chief [George] Brennan should make a similar statement. Patriotism and religiosity are not one and the same," the demand letter reads.
