Thursday, December 26, 2013
Cruciphobia at Mt. Soledad
By
Michelle Malkin • December 25, 2013 02:03 PM
Consider
this: Taylor Swift wasn’t even born yet when the fight over the Mount Soledad
cross began. How much longer will it drag on? Disgruntled atheists first filed
suit over the memorial at a veterans park in San Diego in the summer of 1989.
The fringe grievance-mongers have clung bitterly to their litigious activities
for nearly a quarter-century. It’s time to let go and bring peace to the city.
The
historic 43-foot cross has stood atop Mount Soledad on public land since 1954.
The Mount Soledad Memorial Association erected the monument to commemorate the
sacrifice of American soldiers who died in the Korean War, World War I and
World War II. The cross has long carried meaning for the city’s residents far
beyond religious symbolism. “It’s a symbol of coming of age and of
remembrance,” Pastor Mark Slomka of the Mount Soledad Presbyterian Church said
years ago when the case erupted. The San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board
explained that the cross is “much like the Mission San Diego de Alcala and the
cross at Presidio Park, both of which also are rooted in Christianity but have
come to signify the birth of San Diego.”
I
first started covering the case as an editorial writer at the Los Angeles Daily
News in the early 1990s. A federal judge initially ruled that the landmark
cross’s presence violated the California constitution’s church-state separation
principles. The city of San Diego put the issue before voters, who overwhelmingly
approved a practical solution in 2005: Sell the cross and the park to the
veterans group for use in a national war memorial.
A
pragmatic, tolerant resolution with 76 percent of voters’ support? Heavens, no!
The extreme secularists couldn’t have that. They sued and sued and sued and
sued. By 2007, the state Supreme Court — affirmed by a state appellate court —
had rejected the atheists’ campaign. The courts affirmed the constitutionality
of the San Diego referendum (Proposition A) and the sale of the cross to the
Mount Soledad Memorial Association. The American Civil Liberties Union
intervened to suppress and “de-publish” the ruling as a way to prevent its use
in future litigation. They lost.
Lawyers
for the Thomas More Law Center, which represented the memorial association,
were relieved: “This decision protects the will of the people and their desire
to preserve a historical veterans memorial for future generations.” They’ve
fought hard to remind America that the Founding Fathers fought for freedom of
religion, not freedom from religion.
But
still the cross-hunters press on. Fast-forward to Christmas week 2013. U.S.
District Court Judge Larry Burns, who earlier had ruled in support of the
cross, was forced to rule that it must come down in 90 days in the wake of a
liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision overturning his prior decision.
In anticipation of new appeals, Burns stayed the order. All eyes are on the
U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case last summer.
Rabbi
Ben Kamin, who lives in Southern California, responded sensibly to the hysteria
of the Mount Soledad cross-hunters who claimed to be irreparably “hurt” by the
monument: “After six decades, and hundreds of thousands of visitors, cyclists,
hikers, thoughtful folks who simply admire the inspiring vista of land, sky and
ocean, the Cross remains simply a beacon, a marker and a landmark.” Kamin wrote
that he “once lived adjacent to the site, and it did not bother me then, and it
does not bother, offend or intimidate me now. I remain much more concerned
about the glaring mercantilism that has by now drained all the fall/winter
holidays, from Thanksgiving to Hanukkah to Christmas, of any dignity or
theological poetry.”
Amen
to that. Militant atheists won’t rest until every last expression of faith is
eradicated from the public square. They don’t stand for reason or religious
liberty. They are vengeful purveyors of cruciphobia. The everlasting good news,
of course, is that in the end, hope will triumph over hate. Faith will outlast
fear. And God’s love will prevail long after physical crosses have fallen.
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