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igor2003 -> RE: Cross honoring vets must come down... (12/13/2013 11:36:44 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: thishereboi
I think they should allow other religions to put up their own symbols to be fairly represented. As long as they are not offensive what difference does it make. And for those who just love to cry about others but don't have an actual symbol of their own, we can put up a big pacifier. Wouldn't want to leave anyone out.
quote:
ORIGINAL: MsMJAY
To me its simple, let all other faiths erect their own monument too or take all religious monuments down. I recently read that Oklahoma is facing a civil liberties problem because a Satanic church and a Hindu church both want to place monuments on the OK state capital lawn next to the 10 commandments monument. That lawn is going to get pretty crowded if this keeps up. I think our forefathers had the right idea.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...."
I don't think it is quite as simple as "letting" other faiths erect their own monuments. Who paid to have the cross erected and who pays for it's maintenance? If the cross is paid for and maintained by the local government, then the other faiths should be able to expect their monuments to be paid for and maintained as well. And how many other faiths are there that should be able to expect equal treatment under the law? To start building and maintaining all these monuments would be a very expensive undertaking.
So, what do they do about it? At the East end of Boise, Idaho is a small mesa called Table Rock, atop which there is a cross. If I remember right, the cross was first erected by a local civic club...like the Kiwanis or something of that nature, back in the 1950s, and later given to, and maintained by the city of Boise. About 10 or 15 years ago an atheists group...I think out of Kansas...filed suit to have the cross removed. They had successfully had similar religious symbols removed in other cities around the country, and now they were going after Boise. So Boise gave or sold the land with the cross back to the private organization. The cross is still there today.
So, to me one answer would be for some group of private citizens that want the cross to remain, to buy the land from the local government and maintain it themselves.
Personally, I believe that all governmental entities should avoid erecting or maintaining any symbol or monument that is associated with any one religion. However, it really raised my ire when an out of state group wanted to muck around with the cross in Boise. It was never a religious symbol to me. The one and only time I flew out of state and back we were coming in to the Boise airport at night, and when I saw the cross lit up on top of Table Rock I knew I was "home", and to me, that is what it was a symbol of.
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