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ACLU Aims to Tear Down War Memorial Cross

By Patrick B. Craine

June 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is seeking to have a War Memorial Cross in California’s Mojave Desert removed. The Cross was originally erected in 1934 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) “in Memory of the Dead of All Wars,” as the plaque reads.

After winning at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the ACLU will have to bring its case before the U.S. Supreme Court; but they are being opposed by two legal organizations dedicated to the preservation of religious freedom and traditional values.

Both the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) and Liberty Counsel (LC) announced Monday that they had filed amicus briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing the removal of the Memorial Cross.

According to LC the Memorial Cross has long acted as a site for religious services. Easter services were held there occasionally up until 1984, after which they happened regularly. Due to these gatherings the National Parks Service deemed the War Memorial a sort of religious shrine, and so it thus disqualified the site from the National Register of Historic Places. To preserve the site, Congress enacted a series of laws which culminated in a land exchange that transferred its ownership from the Parks Service to the VFW.

The ACLU is arguing that the Cross violates the First Amendment, breaching the separation of Church and state, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed. LC, however, argues that a monument should be permissible if it, first, “comports with history,” and second, “does not objectively coerce participation in a religious exercise or activity.”

Matthew Staver, founder of LC, said: “Passive displays like the World War I Memorial, the Ten Commandments, Nativity scenes, or statements like the National Motto do not force anyone to participate in a religious exercise and, thus, do not establish religion.”

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel for TMLC, said, “Through our brief and the compelling stories of the war heroes we represent, we want the court to feel the devastating impact removing crosses will have on those who have sacrificed so much for this country.”

“Since the beginning of America,” Mr. Thompson continued, “crosses have been used to memorialize our fallen war veterans and to give solace to their families and comrades. Ironically, the Ninth Circuit used the very constitution these veterans defended with their lives to order the destruction of the memory of their heroic sacrifices. Sadly, the cross in the Mojave Desert is currently covered from view until the appeal is resolved.” 

According to Mr. Staver, “This case reveals the extreme lengths the ACLU will go to in order to erase religious monuments.”

“For 75 years,” he says, “this cross in the Mojave Desert did not disturb anyone. It stood as a memorial to the heroes of World War I. Removing this memorial would be an insult to our war veterans. Doing so under the guise of the First Amendment is an insult to the Framers of the Constitution.” 

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Mt. Soledad Cross Victory: ACLU Loss
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07022205.html

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