The Freedom From Religion Foundation is increasing the reward offer regarding the recent vandalism of its banner in a Connecticut park.
A lifetime FFRF member from the area has generously proposed to augment by $1,000 the amount FFRF initially offered for information leading to arrest and conviction of the perpetrator(s) responsible for the desecration of its banner in Huntington Park in the city of Shelton a few days before Christmas. So, the reward money is now a grand total of $2,500.
Jerry Bloom, with the help of John Levin and Cary Shaw, had put up the FFRF banner in the park to counter a nativity scene. The sign carried FFRF's message, by FFRF's principal founder Anne Nicol Gaylor, composed as an equal-time challenge to religious displays in governmental places. It read:
At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail.
There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell.
There is only our natural world.
Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.
The banner was severely slashed. FFRF is hoping that the increased reward offer will be an incentive for individuals with knowledge of the misdeed to step forward.
"We're grateful that a member of ours has been so generous, but this shouldn't distract attention from the original crime," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "The vandalism proves that the government can't successfully make a public forum on religious views in December safe for dissenting ideas."
Gaylor again urged the city to shut down the "forum" for next December.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a nontheistic organization with 25,000 members all over the country, including 200-plus in Connecticut.