The Persecution of Christians by the US gov't. continues

[central scrutinizer]

When will this privileged majority that is pandered to by politicians in both parties catch a break?

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/12/23/a1.christianwinery.1223.p1.php?section=cityregion

excerpt:

UMPQUA - It was the perfect inscription for their corks, Stephen and Gloria Reustle thought, wedding their love for wine with their love for God.

So the couple etched the passage from scripture on 5,000 corks at their Umpqua Valley-based Prayer Rock Vineyards and plunged them into the first 416 cases of wine the New York transplants produced.

Perfect, that is, until the federal government found out about it.

"DELETE 'DRINK YOUR WINE WITH A HAPPY HEART GOD APPROVES OF THIS' " wrote a bureaucrat at the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. "You may not make misleading curative or therapeutic claims on labels, or create misleading associations between the consumption of alcohol and health."

snip

"I noticed Ghandi and Confucius had been quoted on corks before," Stephen Reustle said. "Never God."

They couple found Ecclesiastes 9:7 and bought 5,000 corks with the scriptural passage firebranded on it.

[uppityperson]

1. I thought this was a joke until I read the article. wtf?

Seems the gvt could find more pressing things to work on.

http://www.reustlevineyards.com/history.html

The vineyard is located in a fairy-tale viticulture area where varietiels, clones and rootstocks were carefully researched and selected to match the diverse hillside soils and unique micro-climate.

[BushOut06]

2. You mean like making sure the nation's food supply is safe?

Why should they be concerned with trivial things like safe produce, when there are more pressing issues like this!

[drm604]

3. This does seem kind of heavy handed.

I think this bureaucrat was a little overzealous. That said, I doubt that this had anything to do with the mention of God. I'm sure it was more because of the "happy heart" phrase, which I suppose could be taken as a claim of health benefits. It seems like some people are just looking for any reason to claim that Christians are being persecuted.

[Warpy]

4. This sounds like an urban legend

I'm going to wait for Snopes on this one.