Justices Weigh in on War Memorial Cross

Andrew Pauley
10-16-09
12:30pm

The Supreme Court offered conflicting concerns Wednesday over a cross, erected as a war memorial, that sits on national parkland in the Mojave Desert and whether it violates the constitutional separation of church and state. Conservative members of the bench suggested that Congress acted properly when it tried to transfer land around the Mojave Memorial Cross to veterans groups, an effort to eliminate any Establishment Clause violation. A federal appeals panel had blocked that land swap. At issue before the justices is whether the display violates the first 10 words of the Bill of Rights: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." More specifically, can one individual who protests the cross have legal "standing" to take his case to court and prevail? And do congressional efforts to minimize the appearance of a constitutional violation carry any weight? The 6-foot Latin cross was erected by the local Veterans of Foreign Wars in a remote part of the California desert in 1934 to honor war dead. It has been rebuilt several times over the years, and Easter services are held on the site every year. The land now is part of the Mojave National Preserve, a unit of the National Park Service, encompassing 1.6 million acres, or 2,500 square miles. A former Park Service employee brought suit, saying that such symbols represent government endorsement of the Christian faith. A federal appeals court ultimately agreed and rejected a move by Congress in 2003 to transfer a tiny portion of the land where the cross sits back to the VFW as a privately held national memorial.

Do you think that allowing these veteran’s war memorial to stand is a government endorsement of the Christian Faith? I think that if the government “recognizes” all non-violent faiths as acceptable why should they have this taken down? I guarantee that if the government acted on taking down a Jewish, for example or any other religion if you will, monument that was erected on government land, before it was government land, the outcry of discrimination would come out like a tidal wave. These is not a memorial in the sense of pushing faith on anyone, it is a war veteran memorial constructed by fellow veterans in remembrance of their fallen brothers. I don’t think that tearing this down will do anything other than disgrace the men who constructed this memorial not to push their faith but to recognize other heroes. Allowing this to stand will not show that the government endorses any faith over any other. It will only show that they recognize the true point for this cross, remembrance of fallen soldiers who died to allow us to have freedom so that we can allow all religions and beliefs to be accepted.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/07/scotus.mojave.cross/index.html