Rally Planned for Saturday at Madison County HS Monument

In Madison County, a group of concerned citizens plan to rally Saturday around a controversial monument at Madison County High School.

The monument at the edge of Red Raider field was donated to the school and contains a number of Scripture verses.

Football teams touch the monument on the way on to the field before each game, but a county resident complained to the group, Freedom From Religion who now wants the school to remove it calling the Scripture verses inscribed on it a violation of separation of Church and State.

Paul Hood is one of the organizers of Saturday’s rally.  Hood attends New Bethel Congregational Holiness Church on Farmtown Road in Danielsville. He said the idea came after talking with members of his church.

“We kept talking about how Madison County needs to know that there are people standing with them,”  Hood said. “We kept on saying, ‘somebody needs to do this’ and so I went to my pastor after church and said, ‘why don’t we have a rally and go up there with signs and have a rally?'”

From there, Hood said word spread about the rally via a Facebook page and he says they expect a large crowd tomorrow.

“My pastor, the Rev. Clay Huff,  put a page on Facebook about it. I believe there are about 48 people now planning to be there and others who said they are going to try to be there,” he said.

Hood said he was not aware when he planned the rally that it was the same day as the Royston Fall Festival.

“I know a lot of other churches may have committed to being there, but we really don’t care if it’s just two people at the rally, we’re going to be there,” he said.

The rally takes place beginning at 9a in front of the monument at Madison County High School.