Chapel stirs up controversy in small Oklahoma college town
ADA, Okla. — A small chapel nestled on a university campus in a rural central Oklahoma town is at the centre of a firestorm over the use of religious symbols on public property after a Washington, D.C.-based group insisted that a cross be removed from atop its steeple.
At first, East Central University — a public university with 4,000 students in Ada, about 80 miles (130 kilometres) southeast of Oklahoma City — complied with the request from Americans United for Separation of Church and State, removing Bibles and other Christian-themed items from the colonial-style chapel that was donated by a longtime regent in 1957. But before the cross could be taken down, the matter had drawn the attention of religious leaders as well as Oklahoma’s Republican attorney general, who is running for re-election next year.
Now the university is letting Attorney General Mike Hunter handle the matter while it waits to find out whether Americans United for Separation of Church and State will sue.
While some conservatives see the letter that Americans United sent this summer as an effort by out-of-state atheists to impose their values on the Bible Belt, the group says it took action after someone in the community raised concerns and that it’s just asking the university to follow the law.