After receiving a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the City of Rice will not include religious symbols on newsletters.
The city’s Spring 2014 newsletter included a cross image next to the notice that the city’s offices would be closed on Memorial Day. “Including a Christian cross with the announcement of the Memorial Day closing excludes any non-Christian or non-believing veterans. It perpetuates the myth that there are no ‘atheists in foxholes’ and that the only veterans worth memorializing are Christians,” wrote FFRF Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert.
An attorney for the city wrote Markert on Dec. 2, reporting that the city would be careful about the use of religious symbols in the future.