Supreme Court rules on war memorial, good news and bad news. This is Dr. Jim Denison's

daily article podcast for Friday, June 21st, 2019. The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a 40-foot

World War I Memorial Cross can stay on public land. The concrete cross is located in the middle of a busy median strip

and across from a pawn shop in Bladensburg, Maryland. It was erected nearly a century ago when

mothers in the community decided to build a memorial to honor their fallen sons. When they ran out of

money, the American Legion adopted the project. By the 1930s,

a local park commission had taken over at the memorial and its maintenance. The American Humanist

Association challenged the placement of the cross, contending that there is, quote,

no meaning to the Latin cross other than Christianity, close quote, a federal appeals court agreed

declaring that its placement on public land violated the Constitution's ban on the establishment

of religion. The American Legion countered that if the cross had to be moved, so too with the

crosses that served as war memorials. Writing for the seven to2 majority, Justice Samuel Alito called the cross, quote,

a prominent community landmark, and stated that its removal would be seen not as a neutral act,

but as the manifestation of a hostility toward religion that has no place in our establishment

clause traditions.

Justice Alito argued that the Maryland cross had essentially become secular.

He invoked the history of World War I memorials, noting that many of the rows of crosses

and stars of David at cemeteries that memorialized those who died in that war.

In his review, these memorials have

been established as a way to honor the dead. I am grateful that a majority of Supreme

Court justices do not want to begin removing crosses from war memorials all across the country,

but I am less grateful for their reasoning. These crosses have become so irreligious in symbolic importance that they are no longer statements of religious conviction.

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