‘Reason’ station returns to Michigan city in response to ‘prayer’ station
- A ‘reason’ station has returned to Warren City Hall for the first time since the pandemic
- The station was created in response to a prayer station
- Warren’s city council opposed the station until an ACLU lawsuit pushed the city to allow it
A “reason” station in Warren has made a comeback for the first time since the pandemic.
The station, manned by resident Douglas Marshall, was first set up in 2014 in response to a prayer station located in Warren City Hall. Warren’s city council initially rejected Marshall’s proposal to offer information about atheism to passers-by on the grounds that atheism is not a religious belief and therefore not protected by the U.S. Constitution.
The city eventually agreed to make space for Marshall’s station after the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed suit on Marshall’s behalf in 2015, arguing that “expressions of religious belief and non-belief must be treated equally under the First Amendment.”
“The reason we are there is to take away the implied governmental endorsement of religion,” Marshall said.
Marshall, who considers himself a freethinker, opened his reason station to provide people coming into city hall with a different point of view. He passes out information about atheism and discusses his philosophical beliefs with people who stop to talk.
“Many of the people who stop, thank me for having a reason station and tell me that they are atheist,” Marshall said. “They’re pleased to see me there because they felt that they were all alone and isolated because of their nonbelief.”
The station, which closed up shop in 2020 during the pandemic, reopened Tuesday. Marshall, with the help of volunteers, now plans to man the table on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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“We don't go out and seek this fight,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national advocacy group that promotes the separation of church and state and supported Marshall in his fight with the city.
“We are doing it to counter what we consider to be constitutional violations when the government gets behind, usually Christianity, by allowing one display and not others.”
The prayer station in Warren City Hall is operated by volunteers from a local church group, who pass out religious literature and offer to pray with people passing by.
Representatives from the church did not respond to multiple requests for comment but the prayer station is open Monday and Friday afternoons, city officials confirmed.
The prayer station began during the summer of 2008 on a sidewalk outside in Warren. During that time, the country was at the start of the Great Recession. The following year, two of the Big Three automakers, General Motors and Chrysler — now Stellantis — filed for bankruptcy, putting thousands of Warren residents out of work.
Brad Smith, who started the Michigan Christian Chamber of Commerce about eight years ago, isn’t affiliated with the prayer station but said the religious volunteers who make it possible are doing important work.
“Whether people want to admit it or not, our nation was founded as a Christian nation,“ Smith said. ”The entire foundation of our Constitution is built on the idea that our rights are inalienable rights that come from God.”
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