WBOY.com: Clarksburg, Morgantown: News, Sports, WeatherACLU: Harrison County Commission Must End Funding of Jesus Fest

ACLU: Harrison County Commission Must End Funding of Jesus Fest

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"The ACLU is there to Protect your bill of rights," said Harrison County Commissioner Mike Romano. "The ACLU's sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights and the Bill of rights includes the first amendment right of speech and religion,"

Nowhere in the letter does the ACLU demand Commission put an end to Jesus fest.

The letter simply asks Commission to put an end to financially supporting or endorsing the event citing ‘governmental neutrality between religion and religion and between religion and non religion' from the Constitution.

But County Commission emphasizes it was not choosing one religion over another or using taxpayer money.

"Fairs and festivals its not taxpayers money," said Harrison County Commissioner Ron Watson."It's money we fund all fairs and festivals regardless of what the subject manner is. It is usually open to the public. And doing so that money does not come from property tax money. It comes from what I call devil's money which is gambling money from video lottery and table games that the county has received."

"We think that we have acted constitutionally because we will fund any legitimate fair or festival that is appropriately permitted in this county based on an established set of criteria which includes the number of days the festival will be conducted as well as the total amount of the budget."

Even though that money didn't come directly from taxpayers Romano said the county is still obligated to spend that money wisely.

"Any funds we receive from the public is public money and we have an obligation to send that money wisely and certainly spend it in the confines with our constitutional obligations," Romano said. 

Original Story:

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia has asked Harrison County Commissioners to 'permanently discontinue funding and public endorsement of Jesus Fest' as it  violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article III of the West Virginia Constitution, according to a letter sent to commissioners, from the ACLU.


The ACLU said that it has received complaints regarding Harrison County's sponsorship of the Christian music festival held in Clarksburg each August.

The ACLU requested records through the Freedom of Information Act from the Harrison County Commission to determine the county's monetary contributions to Jesus Fest.

According to the letter from the ACLU, the Commission has provided Jesus Fest with $2,000 each year for the past five years.

The FOIA records also indicate that the County Commissioners were aware of Jesus Fest's religious nature when the Commission voted to sponsor the festival.

You can read the complete letter from the ACLU, by clicking here.