Saturday, December 18, 2010

First they came for the creche at city hall....

This is pretty outrageous. Apparently Federal Reserve officials aren't awsare of the First Amendment.

PERKINS, Okla. -- A small-town bank in Oklahoma said the Federal Reserve won’t let it keep religious signs and symbols on display.

Federal Reserve examiners come every four years to make sure banks are complying with a long list of regulations. The examiners came to Perkins last week. And the team from Kansas City deemed a Bible verse of the day, crosses on the teller’s counter and buttons that say "Merry Christmas, God With Us." were inappropriate. The Bible verse of the day on the bank's Internet site also had to be taken down.

“I don’t think there should be a problem with them displaying whatever religious symbols they want to display,” said Amy Weierman, a Perkins resident.

Specifically, the feds believed, the symbols violated the discouragement clause of Regulation B of the bank regulations. According to the clause, "...the use of words, symbols, models and other forms of communication ... express, imply or suggest a discriminatory preference or policy of exclusion."

Banks are private businesses. The Federal Reserve's job, other than destroying the value of the currency and destabilizing the economic system, is to regulate the financial state of banks to insure they remain solvent, something that they've also failed spectacularly at. They have no business whatsoever determining what religious symbols the bank can display. If they have any evidence of discrimination of non-Christians let them bring it, otherwise they should mind their own business. I do hope the bank fights this in the courts, but because it's not good to be on the bad side of the Fed, they probably won't. And tyranny advances step by step.

[UPDATE: Apparently the bank has decided to fight. They've contacted their Senator and congressman who have sent a letter to the Fed.]

(h/t KisP)

No comments: