Atheists File Lawsuit to Demand that Cross-Shaped World War I Memorial be Torn Down…

by Tiffiny Ruegner | March 5, 2014 12:56 pm

It’s always impressed me how unhappy atheists are with people who believe in a Deity. I sat at a funeral next to one who was really miserable. I said,”You know, whether you are right or not, your unbelief is making you incredibly unhappy. Whether I am wrong or right, my belief makes me incredibly happy. I am not bothered by your unbelief, but you are terribly bothered and preoccupied with my belief even though neither intrudes on the other.”

Walking around with that kind of unbelief, envy is sure to have many flare-ups in atheist groups. The politically correct way to say “atheist” is human secularist. Recently a human secularist group has become frustrated with Deitists and are now fighting to have a memorial shaped like a cross taken down.[1]

cross memorial[2]

This cross was just too big to bear–at least for some Humanists.

The American Humanist Association filed a lawsuit Tuesday to tear down the Bladensburg Peace Cross, a 40-foot-tall World War I memorial in Bladensburg, Md. The cross honors the memory of 49 Prince George’s County residents who died serving the country. Dedicated in 1925, the monument stands in a median at the busy intersection between Baltimore Avenue and Annapolis Road. It is lit every night.

According to the lawsuit, the AHA has no problem with memorializing America’s fallen soldiers. The group says the presence of a Christian religious symbol on public property violates the First Amendment clause prohibiting government from establishing a religion. Steve Lowe is one of the plaintiffs in the case, who claims he is “upset” every time he drives by the cross, which is usually about once a month.

“He believes that the Bladensburg Cross associates a Christian religious symbol with the state and gives the impression that the state supports and approves of Christianity, as opposed to other religions, and that the state may even prefer Christians and Christianity over other religions,” the AHA complaint says. “As a non-Christian, Mr. Lowe is personally offended and feels excluded by this governmental message.”

Still, some veterans from the local American Legion see the AHA’s lawsuit as an attack on soldiers.

“I mean, to me, it’s like they’re slapping the veterans in the face,” Dale Weber told WJLA . “I mean, that’s a tribute to the veterans, and for some reason, I have no idea what they have against veterans. I mean, if it wasn’t for us veterans they wouldn’t have the right to do what they’re trying to do.”

I want to review something that has been mistaught in the public school system. The First Amendment states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”. This states that there is a right to have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.

It says that government shall make no laws to establish religion– erecting a memorial that is Christian based is not the same as making a law to establish a religion. If that were the case, then the statues to popular secular humanists like the Yoko Ono Wish Tree in DC could be seen as a grander nod to atheism than a local veteran cross.

Or a step further would be the teaching of secularist ideas in public schools like “Big Bang Theory” (a theory): over other theories like “Intelligent Design”… both have equal and incomplete proof and yet the atheistic idea is the only one allowed to be taught. Would that teaching secularism in public schools have a stronger case to government establishing a belief or religion over a cross memorial?

Also,
A Right Wing News Survey on the 2014 election[3]

Endnotes:
  1. fighting to have a memorial shaped like a cross taken down.: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/humanists-suing-tear-cross-shaped-world-war-memorial-article-1.1707263
  2. [Image]: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/cross-memorial.jpg
  3. A Right Wing News Survey on the 2014 election: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/column-2/a-right-wing-news-survey-on-the-2014-election/

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