A recent post to the popular Facebook page You Know You’re From New Carlisle If….. has caused quite the uproar. At a recent New Carlisle City Council meeting Councilman Bill Lindsey was about to give the customary invocation, and the sound of someone saying “you’ve got to be kidding me” was overheard by fellow councilman Ethan Reynolds. Councilman Reynolds posted a video of the incident, along with the following message:

Editor’s Note: The following is a direct quote and all spelling and grammar errors are part of the original quote, which was copied and is fully intact. 

Bill Lindsey and I think it is such an honor to be asked to do the invocation, we feel this way because we are deeply commitment to our faith. Last night at Council before Bill gave the invocation he was rudely interrupted by a not so honorable gentlemen across the room. Bill and I were appalled by what we heard. A not so honorable gentlemen said” You got to be kidding me ” I don’t know if he thought prayer was a joke or the fact that Bill was giving the invocation not that it maters either way. What a disgrace! What a little man for slamming a man praying, even if you don’t like the man praying you show respect to God, and show respect for your fellow elected officials. This Councilmember should apologize to Councilman Lindsey and to the City, he should do it and do it now. – Ethan Reynolds via Facebook

The video can be seen here:

After close examination of the video, Main and Lake noticed that prior to what appears to be another councilman saying “You got to be kidding me,” Councilman Lindsey appeared to be engaged in laughter directed at the other councilman.

Main and Lake is here to provide a few explanations for what went on.

It’s Straight-Up Disrespect from One Councilman to Another

Taken at face value, it looks like one councilman has some sort of personal beef with another is using this moment at the beginning of a council meeting to voice that beef. We have no information as to what could be the source of the friction if this is indeed the case, but “you got to be kidding me” isn’t normally the type of thing you say in jest.

The Person Who Made the Comment is Part of the War on Christianity

This is the scarier alternative to the first scenario. Anyone with an ounce of common sense in their heads will tell you that any land that governs by the rule of God is a better land, and a simple invocation at the council meeting is a way of uniting the city through faith.

The problem is a lot of people don’t believe in God. Worse yet, some of those non-believers feel the need to impose their lack of belief on others, including in policy-making and governance. You don’t see Christians trying to push their beliefs on all Americans, now do you? When is the last time you saw a Christian politician advance a policy or law that was based on his belief in God or the Holy Bible? YEah, that’s what I thought. But there are a lot of godless people who are more than happy trying to remove God from anything and everything.

It should be noted we have no evidence that the person who said this at the meeting is part of the War on Christianity. We are just saying that it’s possible.

It Was an Inside Joke Between Buddies

I sure hope this is it. While it might not have been professional and it definitely wasn’t the right time or place for a joke, if it was just two good friends joshing each other then it’s pretty harmless. Still, we hope that the Abbott and Costello routine can be saved for personal time instead of taxpayer time, if that’s what was going on here.

The Video Was Doctored

As recently as 15 years ago this wouldn’t even be a possibility. But advances in technology have made video editing easy for the common man. It’s possible that Councilman Reynolds, eager to use a divide-and-conquer strategy to gain power within the New Carlisle city council, doctored the video to drive a wedge between the other councilmen.

To editorialize for a moment, I think this is by far the least likely explanation. Councilman Reynolds has always shown a desire to put the city second behind only God Himself, and I can’t imagine him doing something malicious to hurt New Carlisle or his fellow councilmen. But we wouldn’t be doing our due diligence if we didn’t explore every possible explanation for what happened on that video.

So, was this a case of a not-so-honorable gentleman disrespecting Mr. Lindsey or, even worse, our Lord God above, aka the King of Kings, aka Yahweh, aka the Light to the Nations, aka Our Heavenly Father, aka The High and Exalted One, aka The Redeemer, aka Jehovah, aka El Shaddai, aka Maker, aka the Rock of My Strength? Was Mr. Lindsey attempting to bait his fellow councilman? Was it a simple inside joke between two buddies on city council? Or is the video not true, and this is all an elaborate scheme by an ambitious, young politician?

Let us know what you think in the comments below.