(RNS) — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court against the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority for refusing to display ads for a religious group, claiming they violate the agency’s advertisement guidelines.
The ACLU said the agency’s advertisement policy discriminated against certain opinions and violated the First Amendment, according to the complaint filed Tuesday (Dec. 12).
“We don’t understand why there should be a ban on religious advertisements. Religion is, after all, a point of view about the world,” said Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel at ACLU.
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This summer, the religious nonprofit WallBuilders sought to display ads on the city’s buses. The campaign included four ads revisiting paintings of American history’s foundational moments, inviting the public to visit the WallBuilders website to learn more about their religious significance.
One ad showed Henry Brueckner’s painting of George Washington kneeling to pray at Valley Forge; a message in bold white letters at the bottom asked: “Christian? To find out about the faith of our founders, go to WallBuilders.com.” Another ad used the painting “Signing of the Constitution” by Howard Chandler Christy, adding a QR code to WallBuilders’ website at the bottom right corner and including the organization’s logo.
The WMATA claimed the ads violated resolutions No. 9 and No. 12 of its guidelines on commercial advertising. The two recommendations prohibit the display of ads that “influence members of the public regarding an issue on which there are varying opinions” and “promote or oppose any religion, religious practice or belief.”
Although the organization’s religious beliefs are clearly stated on its website, the ads didn’t express any religious views, claimed ACLU’s Spitzer.
The Texas-based nonprofit believes the Founding Fathers never intended to separate the church from the state and wanted to create a Christian nation. Its website presents the group as a “national pro-family organization” and offers to revisit the “moral, religious, and constitutional foundations” of American history.
David Barton, named one of the nation’s 25 most influential evangelicals in 2005 by Time magazine, founded the organization in 1989. Barton is the author of “The Jefferson Lies,” a book that purports to debunk myths about Thomas Jefferson. In the book’s abstract, the Founding Father is described as “a man who revered Jesus, a classical Renaissance man and a man whose pioneering stand for liberty and God-given inalienable rights fostered a better world for this nation and its posterity.”
