By Martha Simmons
When a small group of workers at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston submitted the following notice to their June 2015 employee newsletter, they had no idea it would launch a legal missile at their lunchtime worship group:
“Join with the praise and worship band ‘Allied with the Lord’ for a refreshing set of spring praise and worship songs on Thursday, June 4, from 11:15 a.m. to noon in Building 57, Room 106. (The theme for this session will be ‘Jesus is our life!’) Prayer partners will be available for anyone who has need. All JSC civil servants and contractors are welcome.”
Shortly after the notice appeared, Mike FitzPatrick, president of “Allied with the Lord,” said he received a call from a NASA attorney objecting to the name “Jesus” appearing in the notice. “Jesus” made the notice too “sectarian” or “denominational” for publication in the internal government publication, according to the lawyer, and would be censored from any future notices.
“Everybody in the club was really surprised,” Fitzpatrick said in a CBN News interview. “NASA’s had a long history of tolerance and even encouragement of religious expression by private individuals.”
NASA had previously supported the praise and worship group, which “lets the world know that scientists and engineers believe in Jesus,” FitzPatrick said.
“It was only when we put ‘Jesus’ in the newsletter (that) we got a rise out of the legal office,” he said. “I told the lawyer … we will refrain from putting in ‘Jesus’ but I want to retain legal counsel.”
Written response demanded
On Feb. 8 an attorney representing First Liberty Institute, a religious liberty advocacy and legal defense organization, sent a letter to NASA asserting that “censoring of the club’s religious viewpoint is a violation of federal law and the First Amendment.”
The letter went on to say that Rebekah D. Reed, the attorney who called FitzPatrick, contended that using the name “Jesus” in the “JSC Today” newsletter would cause NASA to violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The letter, which is posted on firstliberty.org, demands a written response from NASA no later than March 10 or the matter will be taken to court.
JSC news chief Kelly Humphries released the following statement Feb. 16: “NASA’s Johnson Space Center does not prohibit the use of any specific religious terms or names in employee newsletters, or other internal communications. The ‘JSC Today’ daily electronic newsletter has cited numerous religious themes and holiday events throughout its history.”
‘Proselytizing’
“A May 28, 2015, ‘JSC Today’ posting for the praise and worship club was cited by some employees as proselytizing and an inappropriate use of federal resources. However, the newsletter has continued to make postings that have been religious in nature for both the praise and worship club and other organizations, and on multiple occasions have cited specific references to the name ‘Jesus,’” the statement reads.
The statement doesn’t go far enough for FitzPatrick.
“We’d like a certainty that what we’re doing is acceptable,” he said in the CBN News interview. “We’d really like an apology … from NASA (acknowledging) that our rights were infringed and in no uncertain terms that we can put ‘Jesus’ back into the newsletter.”
The issue could have special significance for Alabama, since NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville employs 6,000 civil servants and contractor workers.
Jennifer Stanfield, NASA Marshall public affairs officer, said, “Employee groups are allowed to meet at lunchtime or during nonwork hours as long as the meeting does not interfere with NASA work.” Some examples are weight loss meetings, book clubs and cancer support groups. Faith-based groups are permitted too.
Since Marshall’s newsletter is for official business, notices for these meetings may be posted by employees on the facility’s intranet, Stanfield said. However, no legal problems have arisen in connection with these notices.
This is not the first time NASA has struggled with controversy regarding separation of Church and state. In the months prior to the 1969 moon landing, Apollo 8 astronauts orbiting the moon on Christmas Eve broadcast a portion of the Creation story from Genesis. Atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair filed a lawsuit alleging that the astronauts, as government employees, had violated separation of Church and state. The lawsuit was dismissed by the Supreme Court.
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