Pagan Symbols on Fence Must Go, City Insists

June 10, 2008

Author: Melissa Walker

Source: The Des Moines Register

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080610/NEWS/806100380/-1/LIFE04

Robert Frost once said "good fences make good neighbors."

Apparently not when the fence is used to express religious beliefs.

A Des Moines couple say city officials have attacked their pagan religion and their civil rights after a complaint from a neighbor led to a notice to remove symbols that had been painted on the fence. Officials said the symbols are graffiti and must be removed.

"Those are religious symbols; they're not mean or obnoxious in any way," said Ryle MacPebbles who lives in the 2000 block of Southeast Sixth Street. "I just don't like them telling me my religion isn't anything.

"When they start making it personal with my religion, I'm sorry, we'll take it to court," said MacPebbles, a member of the American Pagan Church.