Letter: Religious Liberty and Christian Nationalism

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To the Editor:

For those of you who were able to stand with us on Jan. 6, in witness against the rising tide of Christian Nationalism (Christianity as the one state religion) and in favor of freedom of religion and voting rights for all, we extend a huge thank you for doing so.

The threats are real. The danger to religious freedom is growing.

At a Texas rally, Michael Flynn, a Trump ally, vigorously advocated: "If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion, one nation under God, and one religion under God."

Speakers like Byron Fox, an evangelist touring with an organization called Faith Wins, sees the church as a battleship, that Christians are the persecuted ones, instilling fear of the Bible being outlawed, urging all Christians to be soldiers for Christ.

Other speakers at national conferences and rallies are adherents of the Seven Mountains Dominionism, an ideology that calls explicitly for the domination of government and education by Christians.



So let us all encourage our friends, family, and congregations of any and all religions to be very aware, and continue to speak up and speak out on this rising threat to religious liberty.

For further information or to get involved, email us at: deaconFCC@gmail.com.
 

Signed: First Congregational Church Williamstown, Committee for Religious Liberty

Betsy Burris
Adrian Dunn
Sherwood Guernsey
David Langston
Bridget Spann


 

 

 

 

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Smoking Ban, Airbnb Limits Put to Williamstown Town Meeting Members

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The age-old tension between individual liberties and the common good will be in play when residents convene for the annual town meeting on Thursday evening at Mount Greylock Regional School.
 
Two articles on the 32-item meeting warrant seek to clarify that balance in one way or another.
 
One, a proposal generated by the town's Planning Board, would set a limit on the number of days a residence can be utilized as a short-term rental, commonly referred to by the trade name Airbnb.
 
Another, on the warrant via citizens petition, would prohibit smoking tobacco products in multifamily dwelling units (apartments) with more than four units per structure.
 
Those are two of the articles that have generated significant discussion at the board and committee level in the months leading up to the annual meeting, where all the town's registered voters have the right to vote up and down on everything from the town budget to whether geothermal wells that use "chemical heat transfer fluids" should be heavily regulated in the town's Water Resource Districts.
 
One fiscal item that tends not to get a lot of attention in most years has been the focus of strong protest in the last few weeks leading to the warrant's publication.
 
Article 6, a seemingly routine measure that would authorize the budget for solid waste disposal at the Hoosac Water Quality District, appears on the warrant with a 2-3 vote by the Select Board against adoption.
 
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