{"id":244,"date":"2009-11-30T17:01:34","date_gmt":"2009-11-30T17:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/11\/capitol-visitor-center-is-abou.html"},"modified":"2009-11-30T17:01:34","modified_gmt":"2009-11-30T17:01:34","slug":"capitol-visitor-center-is-abou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/11\/capitol-visitor-center-is-abou.html","title":{"rendered":"Capitol Visitor Center Is About the History of Government, Not Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jay,<\/p>\n

It’s a shame the Freedom From Religion Foundation had to file this lawsuit at all. This should never have been an issue in the first place.<\/p>\n

The Capitol Visitor Center is a building dedicated to the history and importance of the Capitol Building and the legislature. This isn’t a historical church or a museum dedicated to religion or religious liberty, so why has this become some heated debate about the role of religion in our nation’s founding?<\/p>\n

It seems that certain Religious Right groups just want to use this building as another way to push their “Christian nation” propaganda.<\/p>\n


\nWhen the building first opened, these groups claimed it was
\na “godless pit,” and a shrine to secularism, despite the fact that the center does
\nreference<\/a> some religious history. The building includes a facsimile of a story
\nfrom a Virginia newspaper reporting on a sermon delivered in the Capitol in
\nJuly 1801. It also discusses the internal operations of the Capitol talks about
\ncongressional chaplains. It includes an illustration of Bishop John Thomas
\nClagget, Senate chaplain in 1800, and a photo of the Rev. Henry N. Couden, a
\nHouse chaplain, leading that chamber in prayer on Dec. 6, 1909. And a large
\nKing James Bible that was given to congressional stenographers by Sen. Huey P.
\nLong of Louisiana in 1934 is also on display.<\/p>\n

The phrase “In God We Trust” was also originally included on
\na wall in the building, but this wasn’t good enough. It had to be THE focus of
\ncenter, and the American Family Association lobbied<\/a> to get these words boldly
\ndisplayed in the main hall. <\/p>\n

Jay, there is no need for this. The focus of the
\nexhibits at the Capitol Visitor Center should not be on religion, but on
\nCongress and governance. Our government has never been based on religion, and
\nto emphasize this phrase is to represent inaccurate history. <\/p>\n

Besides, the Capitol Building should be a place all
\nAmericans welcome and comfortable. They’re coming to visit a place where laws
\nare made, not a religious shrine. <\/p>\n

To subscribe to “Lynn v. Sekulow” click <\/font>here<\/font><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/font> <\/font>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay, It’s a shame the Freedom From Religion Foundation had to file this lawsuit at all. This should never have been an issue in the first place. The Capitol Visitor Center is a building dedicated to the history and importance of the Capitol Building and the legislature. This isn’t a historical church or a museum…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[191],"tags":[263,289,290,288,51,67],"class_list":["post-244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-history","tag-capitol-visitor-center","tag-government-sponsored-religion","tag-history","tag-in-god-we-trust","tag-news","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nCapitol Visitor Center Is About the History of Government, Not Religion - Lynn v. Sekulow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/11\/capitol-visitor-center-is-abou.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Capitol Visitor Center Is About the History of Government, Not Religion - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jay, It’s a shame the Freedom From Religion Foundation had to file this lawsuit at all. This should never have been an issue in the first place. The Capitol Visitor Center is a building dedicated to the history and importance of the Capitol Building and the legislature. This isn’t a historical church or a museum…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/11\/capitol-visitor-center-is-abou.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-30T17:01:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rev. Barry W. Lynn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Capitol Visitor Center Is About the History of Government, Not Religion - Lynn v. Sekulow","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/11\/capitol-visitor-center-is-abou.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Capitol Visitor Center Is About the History of Government, Not Religion - Lynn v. Sekulow","og_description":"Jay, It’s a shame the Freedom From Religion Foundation had to file this lawsuit at all. This should never have been an issue in the first place. The Capitol Visitor Center is a building dedicated to the history and importance of the Capitol Building and the legislature. This isn’t a historical church or a museum…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/11\/capitol-visitor-center-is-abou.html","og_site_name":"Lynn v. Sekulow","article_published_time":"2009-11-30T17:01:34+00:00","author":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/11\/capitol-visitor-center-is-abou.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/11\/capitol-visitor-center-is-abou.html","name":"Capitol Visitor Center Is About the History of Government, Not Religion - Lynn v. Sekulow","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-11-30T17:01:34+00:00","dateModified":"2009-11-30T17:01:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/98ebaf547801cce8ce6fff4c27f51fc8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/11\/capitol-visitor-center-is-abou.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/11\/capitol-visitor-center-is-abou.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/11\/capitol-visitor-center-is-abou.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Capitol Visitor Center Is About the History of Government, Not Religion"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/","name":"Lynn v. Sekulow","description":"A debate blog about church, state, faith and politics with Jay Sekulow and Barry W. Lynn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/98ebaf547801cce8ce6fff4c27f51fc8","name":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","caption":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn"},"description":"Since 1992, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution's religious liberty provisions (www.au.org). In addition to his work as a long-time activist and lawyer in the civil liberties field, Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, offering him a unique perspective on church-state issues. An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}