Chaplain's Web page causes controversy

A chaplain wanted to convince Web browsers that church is a safe haven.
To emphasize his point, he compared the number of deaths that occur in church to the number of deaths that occur at home, on the streets or in a car.

"Logic tells us that the safest place for you to be at any given point in time is at church!" wrote Chaplain Jack Martin, "and ... Bible study is safe too ... so, for safety's sake: Attend church and read your Bible. IT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE."

Ken Fagan discovered Martin's page after he clicked on a link on a Web site owned by the Spring Hill Fire Rescue District.
"The (Web site) is property of the taxpayers who live within the district," stated Fagan in a letter the Florida Department of Community Affairs.
The fire district eventually removed the page from its Web site.

A state official told Fagan the DCA, which has some oversight over independent districts like Spring Hill Fire Rescue, doesn't have the authority to investigate such a complaint.
He suggested Fagan contact the state attorney's office. Fagan complied and e-mailed Brad King, the lead prosecutor for the Fifth Judicial Circuit.

Fagan also fired off e-mails to Chief Mike Rampino and attorney Andrew Salzman, who legally represents the board of fire commissioners.
"Pastor Martin has broken the ethics rules once too often," Fagan wrote to Salzman in an e-mail dated Jan. 11.

"For a couple of years, the chaplain's site has crossed the line regarding the separation of church and state," he continued.
Fagan frequently attends public meetings of the fire board. He has publicly sparred with several current and former fire commissioners, but he found an ally in Rob Giammarco, who added the topic to next week's public meeting agenda.

Martin suggested Fagan was out of line when he demanded the page be taken down. He also put some of the blame on Giammarco.

"I have contacted a Christian law group for their opinion on this, but as of this moment I am simply asking that the page be reinstated," Martin wrote to Giammarco. "I was taken back by what seemed an aggressive response on your part toward the page.

"Mr. Fagan is entitled to not like the page, but that doesn't give (him) the right to have it removed," the chaplain wrote.

The next fire board meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Calls to Martin were not answered Thursday. A message left with Giammarco was not returned.
The link and page eventually were removed by Rampino, who also had contacted the state attorney's office about the matter.

"I believe your actions in removing the chaplain's link from the district's Web site was appropriate," Salzman wrote Thursday in an e-mail to the chief. "Despite the threat of possible litigation, I believe the prudent action is to maintain the status quo (and) keep the link removed until the commission decides how they want the issue resolved."

Fagan said the link to the page had been on the district's Web site since 2004. He had brought up the matter a few times to fire commissioners during the past year.

"I don't question (Martin's) faith," Fagan said. "I question whether he should be using that Web site. It's not his."