Some vehement Religious Right operatives would like to see the nation’s public buildings, spaces, areas, squares and forums festooned with Christianity’s symbols and mottos.
It is not enough for them that the nation’s motto and currency proclaim, “In God We Trust.” Or that, all throughout the country, every morning, children in private and public schools recite the Pledge of Allegiance, which acknowledges God. Instead Religious Right pundits like to whine about being victimized and excluded from public life. How many times do we have to hear about a so-called “naked public square”?
So it’s heartening when a court official rejects that ridiculous thinking and stands up for one of the nation’s founding principles – the separation of church and state. One such occurrence just happened in Starke, Fla., where a federal judge issued an order barring display of a cross on the town’s water tower.
Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge John H. Moore II of the Middle District of Florida ruled in American Atheists v. City of Starke that a lighted, metal, 10-foot-high cross could not be positioned on top of the municipal water tower. The Gainesville Sun reported that the power plant’s superintendent ordered the display of the cross in the 1970s. Moore also noted in his decision that the city paid for its upkeep and maintenance.
But in 2005, a resident and member of American Atheists, Lon Bevill, sued Starke officials arguing that the display was a blatant promotion of Christianity in violation of the First Amendment principle of church-state separation.
In his 13-page order March 19, Moore agreed, calling the cross “the universal symbol of Christianity.”
Citing federal court precedent, Moore said the water tower cross was “indistinguishable from the ubiquitous crosses found on any number of churches within the State of Florida and across the country symbolizing Christianity.”
While it is fine for houses of worship to feature religious symbols, it is not the business of government, state or otherwise, to push religion, Moore ruled.
“The display of the cross,” Moore wrote, “on the water tower has the unconstitutional effect of advancing, affirming, or otherwise validating Christianity. To the objective observer, the combination of the words ‘STARKE’ and the Cross on the water tower clearly communicates the City’s endorsement of Christianity to the exclusion of all other religions.”
The judge also noted that at least one city official and lots of Starke citizens recognized the cross’s religious significance in their vocal support of the display.
Indeed, Moore cited City Commissioner Larry Davis’s reaction to the lawsuit challenging the display.
“It really makes you mad to know that someone wants to take down something that represents Christ on the cross,” Davis said in 2005 to the Florida Times-Union.
During the course of the litigation, city officials removed the Christian symbol and then asked Moore to dismiss the lawsuit as moot. The judge, however, issued his order, concluding that “it is not absolutely clear that the City will not put the Cross back on top of the water tower at a later date.”
Moore’s action will likely be derided by Religious Right activists as another example of a hostile government action toward religion. It is not that at all. It is a simple reaffirmation that in America there is no official religion and all Americans are first-class citizens regardless of their beliefs about faith.
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