In a 5-0 vote last night, the Mission Viejo city council voted to display “In God We Trust” in their city council chambers, with the only dissenting voices coming from the community. The motion was introduced by Council member Gail Reavis, who was contacted by Bakersfield city council member Jacquie Sullivan, the same person responsible for contacting Cypress and Westminster’s councils on the topic.

A quick recap of resident response:

Edward Fern, Mission Viejo resident, spoke to the council on the topic of fairness, and whether the city was prepared for the time and effort of fighting potential lawsuits that might arise from placing the motto. Spencer Fern (Edward’s son) spoke on legal precedent to the council and on the history of the establishment clause.

Tom Moore of Mission Viejo questioned they city’s timing, as well as council member Reavis’s comparing of the city to the 29 others that have adopted the motto in recent years.

On the other side, Mayor Pro Tem Leroy Mills of Cypress discussed the pride he feels when he sees the motto, and the overwhelming results of a poll done by the Register in support of “In God We Trust” (not sure if he was referring to this poll or another - he certainly wasn’t referring to the one we ran).

When it was the council’s turn to talk, they had nothing but support for the issue, with comments ranging from “most early American documents referenced God” to “atheism is a religion”. In the end, Reavis implied that anyone with a problem with “In God We Trust” probably also has a problem with their money, since it’s got the same motto.

The council has advised staff to draw up some ideas for placement of the motto, and it will likely be installed by late April or early May.

If you’d like to view the video of the council meeting yourself, Mission Viejo has it available on their site, synchronized with the agenda. Use Internet Explorer, though, if you’re usually a Firefox person, so you can skip ahead.

Update: The Register’s story is now up here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Atheist, Church/State, In God We Trust, Liberal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.