Podcast: Gaetz ready for ‘robust’ debate on Bayview Park Cross

On “Pensacola Speaks,” State Rep. Matt Gaetz discussed why he wants to debate Amanda Kondrat’yev over the Bayview Park Cross.

Gaetz is a Republican candidate for Florida’s 1st Congressional District. Kondrat’yev is running as a Democrat.

Last week, the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) filed suit challenging the City of Pensacola allowing a 25-foot tall Christian cross in public Bayview Park.

“Pensacola’s cross is a clear violation of the separation of state and church,” said FFRF Legal Fellow Madeline Ziegler. “We’re thankful to be working with courageous Pensacola residents to end the city’s unconstitutional religious favoritism.”

Kondrat’yev is one of four Pensacola citizens that plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

“There’s a problem in our country right now where we can notice that people of faith, are being discriminated against in a wide variety of platforms,” said Gaetz. “Whether it’s the Little Sisters of the Poor being forced by Obamacare to pay for life ending procedures that they don’t support, or whether it’s groups like Hobby Lobby being dragged into court over Obamacare, we’ve really gotten into a situation where there is a war against people of faith.”

He added, “Here in our community, you’ve got an ultra liberal, activist, humanist group that wants to see no expression of faith of any kind on our public land, on our money. They don’t want to see, ‘In God we Trust’ on our law enforcement vehicles, and I think it’s time to fight back.”

Gaetz said he looked forward to “a robust intellectual debate about the historical value that Judeo-Christian beliefs have really brought to the success and prosperity of United States of America.”

The date of the debate has yet to be set.

“I invited Miss Kondrat’yev to debate me, person to person, in Bayview Park so that we can discuss the constitutionality of the cross,” said Gaetz. “We can discuss the importance of historical recognitions of the value of the faith community in Pensacola and throughout our country. She accepted that challenge, and we are working now with her campaign to solidify a date.”