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Politics

U.S. Court Rules Against Roadside Crosses

August 18, 2010 - 6:00pm

The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has found the setting up of large crosses along roads in memory of Utah state troopers killed in the line of duty to be unconstitutional, maintaining that it violated the Establishment Clause.

And the decision has outraged the Christian conservative community across the country -- including the Florida Family Policy Council.

The Utah Highway Patrol Association, a private organization, started setting the crosses up in 1998. On each cross is the fallen officers name and rank and the Utah Highway Patrol insignia -- which the judges opined would lead to concerns about the state government promoting Christianity.

"We hold that these memorials have the impermissible effect of conveying to a reasonable observer the message that the state prefers or otherwise endorses a certain religion, wrote the three judges who decided the case.

American Atheists, an organization of more than 2,000 Americans looking to promote the separation of church and state, launched the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the crosses being erected -- apparently successfully for the moment, though their opponents are talking about appealing, perhaps even planning on taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court of the U.S.

Supporters of the crosses sounded off on Thursday against the decision.

The Utah ruling is another sad example of the hostility judicial activists have toward expressions of faith in the public square," said Gary Bauer, chairman of American Values and a former candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. "Today its the Utah highway; tomorrow it will be Arlington National Cemetery."

When the government starts taking crosses off of the side of the road, it is simply eliminating the historical expressions of Christian faith in Almighty God, said Roy Moore of the Moral Law Foundation.

Moore -- best known for his refusal to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from a state courthouse during his tenure as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama --and the Moral Law Foundation filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Utah troopers.

At the same time, this same government openly and without apology supports the building of an Islamic mosque at Ground Zero and sends radical imams to the Middle East at taxpayer expense, noted Moore. Its time for America to wake up to whats going on in our country.

Its really an absurd decision, John Stemberger, president and general counsel of the Florida Family Policy Council, told Sunshine State News on Friday. Noting that a private organization had set up the crosses, Stemberger said that the decision could have consequences for the state as precedent or through independent action.

"The problem is the entire First Amendment has been turned on its head, he said, noting that the freedom of religion was increasingly being used to protect the non-religious instead of churches.

Stemberger added that it was offensive that the wishes of a small group like the American Atheists could trump the wishes of the family, the Highway Patrolmens Association and the community.

"We're proud that we brought and supported this suit, said Dr. Ed Bruckner, president of American Atheists, on Thursday. This isn't about safe driving or memorializing troopers who died in the line of duty. We definitely support appropriate memorials to the members of the Utah Highway Patrol who gave their lives protecting citizens. But Utah officials used this as an excuse to promote religion -- one religion, in fact: Christianity. It must be left to religious citizens and the organizations they support to create and maintain religious memorials on privately owned property. A cross is undeniably a Christian symbol, as Christians themselves will attest."

"Religious discrimination is just that, said David Silverman, vice president of American Atheists. Equal access is just that. If the state of Utah wants crosses on their roadsides, they have to allow other religious and secular symbols, too. Allowing only crosses -- with the bogus justification that crosses arent Christian--is against the law, and we hope the UHP will erect proper memorials tofallen officers that respect the diversity of the police force and the population of this country."

There certainly is a history of memorials, either crosses or Stars of David or crescents, expressing the religion of the person who died, said Dr. Mark Silk of the Center of the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., and editor of Religion in the News.It doesnt sound as if the intention was to advocate a religion.

The bottom line is, I would just as soon not see religious symbols on public highways but this seems like a close call, said Silk, who added that he would not be surprised to see the U.S. Supreme Court reverse the decision.

Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.

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