My nearest California DMV office endorses Christianity
Holy Shit! I visited my California DMV office yesterday to renew the registration for my car. I expected the three hour wait before I could conduct my transaction. What I did not expect were the two persons behind a table of evangelical Christian material just outside the entrance and unambiguously on the DMV property (two meters from the entrance and ten meters from the public sidewalk). This is what I saw as I entered and left the DMV office:
There were also signs on the table saying things like “What the Bible really says”. The different languages you can see in the picture reflect the fact that the Santa Clara population includes significant numbers of Koreans, Indians and other Asia-Pacific immigrants. I asked the two women if they had permission to be there and they said “Yes”. I told them that I would be filing a formal complaint about this violation of the US Constitution. They politely said “Okay”. Note that this is Santa Clara, CA. The California San Francisco south bay area that is the heart of Silicon Valley and pretty secular overall.
Now I have to figure out who to complain to. The California DMV web site doesn’t provide any useful links. So I’ll reach out to the FFRF for advice. I’ll also try to speak face-to-face with the management of that DMV office. I’ll probably also file a complaint with the California Attorney General.
P.S., The DMV employee who helped me was unbelievably friendly and helpful. I had a somewhat difficult situation in that I had let my auto insurance lapse (I subsequently bought a different policy). That meant renewing the vehicle registration required jumping through an extra hoop which required me to step aside and call a DMV phone number to establish that I once again had insurance in place. The DMV employee who helped me made that extra step as painless as possible without requiring more time waiting in line.