A Cross We All Should Bear

In a remote area of the Mohave National Preserve in southeastern California, a memorial dubbed the Mohave Cross was erected by the Veterans of Foreign Wars 75 years ago, honoring the soldiers that were killed in World War 1. The cross has been covered with plywood for the past several years following court rulings. Why you ask?

One day a man was driving through the Mohave Desert, and upon seeing this cross, was offended by it’s very presence. So offended in fact, he brought this before the lower courts. Because this is public land, the lower courts have repeatedly ruled that the cross must come down, as it violates a provision in the Constitution prohibiting the government from endorsing any religion. You know the Constitutional provision as “Separation of church and state.”

"Separation of church and state" is a common metaphor simply meaning that the church stay out of the state's business and the state stays out of the church's business. Because of the very common usage of the "separation of church and state phrase," most people incorrectly think the phrase is in the constitution. Thomas Jefferson originally coined the phrase “wall of separation between the church and the state” in a letter to the Danbury Baptists on January 1, 1802. His purpose in this letter was to ease the fears of the Danbury, Connecticut Baptists, and so he told them that this wall had been erected to protect them. The metaphor was used exclusively to keep the state out of the church's business, not to keep the church out of the state's business.

The Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Both the free exercise clause and the establishment clause place restrictions on the government concerning laws they pass or interfering with religion. No restrictions are placed on religions except perhaps that a religious denomination cannot become the state religion.

So there you have it. However, it does not end there. In order to prevent the cross memorial from being removed, Mr. J. Lewis made a deal with the government to give a private owner the land where the memorial stands in exchange for five acres elsewhere in the preserve. However, a federal court in California determined that was an insufficient solution and ordered that the cross be taken down.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court took up consideration of the several yearlong battles, and will make its decision sometime in spring.

Peter Ellisberg, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyer argues that the cross is a symbol of Christianity and commonly used at Christian gravesites. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the ACLU demand tolerance!

Mr. Elisaberg stated that many Jewish war veterans would not be honored by the “predominate symbol of Christianity”, one that signifies that Jesus is the Son of God and died to redeem mankind of our sins.” Justice Antonin Scalia disagreed saying “the cross is the most common symbol of the resting place of the dead and asked “what would you have us erect?” Some conglomeration of a cross, a Star of David and, you know, a Muslim half moon and star?”

Mr. Eliasberg said he had visited Jewish cemeteries. “There is never a cross on the tombstone of a Jew,” he said, to laughter in the courtroom.

Justice Scalia grew visibly angry. “I don’t think you can leap from that to the conclusion that the only war dead that that cross honors are the Christian war dead,” he said. I think that’s an outrageous conclusion.”

If the court finds the cross is not a violation of the First Amendment, the ruling could possibly curb all citizens from future lawsuits challenging numerous other religious imagery. However, if the cross is ordered down, the decision could lead to the removal of many treasured memorials on historic battlefields or national cemeteries in the United States.

I don’t know about you, but I for one commend Justice Scalia . Seriously, what has our America come to? As for me, I will leave this judgment up to God. But I believe this is one cross we all should bear.