[wordup] More on town banishing Satan ...

[Adam Shand]

Via: Simon Horsburgh <simon.horsburgh at stonebow.otago.ac.nz>

I know I sent a story on this before to you, but the previous story didn't place 
it in the context of Sept 11.  Instead, they approached it as an attempt to 
stop satan influencing the town's youth.

An interesting comment that someone else made in regards to this story and 
the thinking that led to the proclaimation is that the Taliban (how the hell do 
you spell that anyways????) would probably whole-heartedly back the 
proclaimation... A Morrissette moment.

From: http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/01/29/town.satan/index.html

Florida town casts out Satan

INGLIS, Florida (CNN) --If he's thinking of visiting Florida's west coast, Satan 
might want to steer clear of Inglis.

The mayor of this small fishing village in Florida has declared the Prince of 
Darkness persona non grata -- in essence, telling him to go to the devil.

"Satan, ruler of darkness, giver of evil, destroyer of what is good and just, is 
not now, nor ever again will be, a part of this town of Inglis," Mayor Carolyn 
Risher says in a proclamation, which was issued on official town stationery.

Risher said the events of September 11 inspired her to pursue the 
proclamation, which the Town Commission supports.

"It gave me the inspiration that these people need to be ready if something 
like this was to happen to the town of Inglis. We need to be ready to meet our 
maker," she said Tuesday on CNN's "American Morning."

She said there are people in Inglis who needed to repent.

"If our churches band together and pray, our nation and our town can be a 
godly nation and a godly town," she said.

The American Civil Liberties Union says the proclamation clearly violates the 
separation of church and state.

"This is the most extreme intrusion into religion by a public official that I have 
ever seen in my 27 years as a director of the ACLU," said Howard Simon, 
executive director of the ACLU of Florida.

But the town's attorney says that even though the proclamation is on town 
letterhead, it's not an official municipal statement.

Whatever the case, many residents who attended a town meeting Monday 
voiced support for the proclamation.

"Because we refused to stand up for God, we have let Satan take over," one 
woman said.

But some residents expressed reservations about the proclamation.

"I just think that when she put it on town letterhead, that she crossed the 
line," resident Polly Bowser told CNN. "There is an ordinance in our town that 
says that you do not use town letterhead for personal opinion, and that's 
exactly what she did."

-- CNN's Gary Tuchman contributed to this story.