Article originally appeared on www.westernjournal.com.
A town in the Mountain West found out the hard way that banning the most potent symbol in Christianity is not the best way to celebrate the nation’s enduring freedoms.
Rules for this year’s Fourth of July parade in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, originally prohibited religious symbols from being part of the procession — a bitter irony in a country where the very first provision of the very First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion.
And the backlash forced organizers to back down.
According to the Coeur d’Alene / Post Falls Press, the Coeur d’Alene Regional Chamber announced its ban on religious symbols as part of a blanket ban on potentially offensive material being part of the festivities.
Chamber President and CEO Linda Coppess told the newspaper in an email that the ban was not intended “to isolate individuals or be considered an anti-religious policy.”
In the past, Coppess wrote, the chamber “received …
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