News Release
For Immediate Release – April 27, 2017
Contact:  Diane Gramley  1.814.271.9078

William Penn’s Words Deemed Unconstitutional and Will be Removed

(Oil City, PA) — Tonight those city council members who were elected to uphold the Constitution chose instead to ignore it and deny its very existence.   City Council has voted to remove the war memorial because atheists found part of it offensive — the Tyrants Bench with a paraphrase of William Penn’s quote “Men who aren’t governed by God will be governed by tyrants.”   The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), an advocate for the First Amendment and the Founding Fathers understanding of it, is appalled that not one city council member had the courage to stand up against the bullies from the American Atheists, but instead gave in to their unconstitutional demands.

“The bench as part of a larger war memorial donated by the VFW in 2003 has stood in Justus Park for fourteen years without one complaint until October of last year.  One complaint, one letter from atheists and six months later the bench has been deemed too offensive to remain.  What would William Penn say?  Penn’s quote was 100 percent correct and that’s why atheists are offended!” commented Diane Gramley, president of the AFA of PA.

“We, the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, and humbly invoking His guidance, do ordain and establish this Constitution.”  Shall the Preamble to the Pennsylvania Constitution also be “sanitized” of that “offensive” God word?  And let’s not forget Article 1, Sections 3 and 4 also have that “offensive” word God.  Will the American Atheists come after our Constitution and force “that word” out of the document?

This is simply another attack on Christianity.  Atheists are determined to erase this nation’s Christian heritage.  Words on a bench  – part of a war memorial – donated by the VFW are too offensive to be tolerated and must be removed.  This is not the Commonwealth that William Penn envisioned nor is it the America that the brave men and women who were being honored by the donated war memorial fought for.   This is an America that has lost its way and no longer remembers where she came from.

“Oil City voters need to remember that elections have consequences.  City Council members need to remember that they took an oath to uphold the Constitution and should be willing to defend it.  We as a Commonwealth and a nation are seeing the consequences of being governed without God and it’s not a pretty picture.  William Penn’s warning should be heeded rather than deemed offensive,” concluded Gramley.

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