Mayor says it’s OK for city to “strive to serve God”

by TheBigRuski | February 26, 2008 at 07:57 pm

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The mayor of a Michigan community refuses to buckle under pressure from an atheist group’s demand to remove a reference to God in the city’s mission statement.

This from MLive.com:

HUDSONVILLE — The Hudsonville City Commission will continue to “strive to serve God,” despite a Wisconsin-based group’s demand that it remove the phrase from its mission statement, the mayor said today.

Mayor Don Van Doeselaar says the statement “strive to serve God” reflects the Hudsonville community.

“We are not creating a church; we are not asking anybody to only accept what we have in that mission statement,” Mayor Don Van Doeselaar said. “If there are those that disagree, we are fine with that. It’s a statement that reflects the community.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which asked the city to remove the phrase, said it might consider legal action.

“That I am not a member of any Christian church is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures; and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or of any denomination of Christians in particular….I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, or scoffer at, religion.” - Abraham Lincoln

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