After receiving just one complaint from a resident, the City of Colorado Springs in Colorado told a church that it had to remove the word “Jesus” from its advertisements.
The Charis Christian Center has been running its “Jesus is Lord” ads for three years on transit benches all over the city.
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“I asked them why we could no longer use the name of Jesus. They said it’s because, ‘If you use the name of Jesus, we must allow hate messaging,'” Perdue said.
Later, the city transit office backtracked, saying the ads will be subjected to a review for the time being instead of banning them outright.
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The division is now making a “careful review of both the advertising and Transit’s current advertising policy in relation to the requirements of the 1st Amendment’s Establishment Clause.”
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In a Facebook post, Perdue said the issue is not about not allowing the church to advertise but to bar them from advertising “Jesus.”
He said it’s an attack on the First Amendment rights, freedoms enjoyed by U.S. citizens and “on all who call on the name of Jesus: […]”
