By: Brian Louwers | Warren Weekly | Published March 11, 2015

Fouts said he’d join 400 other cities and towns across the country by joining In God We Trust – America Inc. and make free posters available to the public through his office.


WARREN — Last month, Warren Mayor Jim Fouts lost a court battle with the American Civil Liberties Union, waged over a resident’s right to operate a “reason station” at City Hall offering an atheistic point of view.

The city lost $100,000 in costs, damages and fees in the settlement, which mandated tolerance of the display in the same way the mayor has permitted a “prayer station” to operate for years.

But despite losing that battle, Fouts declared that the city actually won the war over religious free speech because the prayer station is still up and running and a nativity scene depicting the birth of Jesus Christ, also permitted by the mayor to be displayed in the City Hall atrium, is coming back again next Christmas.

On March 4, Fouts said he’d join 400 other cities and towns across the country by joining In God We Trust – America Inc. He said he’d make free posters displaying the “In God We Trust” message available to the public through his office.

Asked if that decision was related to the recent ruling about the “reason station,” the mayor said it was, at least in part.

“To some degree it is,” Fouts said. “Obviously, I was concerned about the court order that forced the city of Warren to have a reason station within our City Hall atrium,” Fouts said. “The prayer station had been functioning for years without any problems or any controversy. They’re now allowed to have an atheist station under the euphemistic guise of a reason station.”

Fouts said the court case over the reason station was the only one lost by the city. He said Warren won two other cases in federal court: one over the nativity scene, and one over a proposed sandwich board “winter solstice” sign bearing an atheistic message.

Douglas Marshall, the Warren resident who sought to display the sign and permit the reason station in the atrium, said the court’s recent ruling was a “definite victory,” despite the continued existence of the prayer station and nativity.

“My request for a reason station never asked for any of those things to be removed. I look at it as a victory for free thought,” Marshall said.

He said he wasn’t surprised by the mayor’s plans to offer the “In God We Trust” posters.

“The mayor’s continually tried to promote Christian religious beliefs, and it sounds like that’s just another attempt,” Marshall said. “He doesn’t understand the First Amendment. Government is supposed to be completely neutral when it comes to religious beliefs.”

Fouts said “In God We Trust” is a congressionally approved national motto going back to the mid-1950s.

“I think the city of Warren will become the most prominent and the most visible and maybe the largest city to do this,” Fouts said. “I’m not alone in doing this.”