NASA's Jesus Ban Controversy: Fact Or Blown-Out-Of-Proportion? What’s The Real Story?
Did it really happen or the widely debated NASA Jesus ban controversy was simply blown out of proportion by a section of the media?
As readers might already know, Fox News and a few conservative media outlets reported earlier this week that the American space agency had banned the use of the word "Jesus."
Quite expectedly, these reports prompted many to come down heavily on NASA criticizing the organization of infringing
As is the case with social media, always, the whole thing soon took an ugly turn and a war of words broke out on social media between the supporters of NASA's alleged ban and those who's opposing it.
However, on a closer look, it looks more like a needless controversy void of substance.
As it turned out, the allegation which the Fox News and other reports were based on was made by an anti-LGBT legal organization that has had a long history of making headlines with controversial cases like those, as reported by Samantha Allen of The Daily Beast.
As claimed by the Texas-based Liberty Institute, some NASA employees who are also the members of the Praise and Worship Club at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, made an announcement regarding a forthcoming meeting for inclusion through an e-mail newsletter.
The newsletter was basically an invite to the fellow JSC employees to sing religious songs on the theme: "Jesus is our life!"
The Liberty Institute alleges that NASA took note of the newsletter and urged the organizers to omit the word Jesus from the announcement.
"The NASA attorneys claimed including 'Jesus' was 'sectarian,' possibly creating the perception that NASA was endorsing Christianity over other religions and non-religion, and thus violating the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution," read a press release issued by the organization. ."
However, NASA denied the allegations saying "NASA does not prohibit or ban the use of any specific religious names in employee newsletters or other internal communications
The Daily Beast inquired if the Liberty Institute had any credible evidence other than their claim that their clients were told by a NASA attorney to ban the word, Jesus. Turns out, there's no other evidence.
Many analysts believe that even if NASA wanted the word "Jesus" removed from the newsletter, their decision to do so still makes sense because the Praise and Worship club is the sole religious group within JSC and the space agency would certainly not want to give the impression that it favors Christianity over other religions and the non-religious population.