ICC Note: A recently installed veterans memorial featuring a cross in a small Iowa town is facing threats from the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State. An anonymous complaint was made and the group sent a letter of complaint to the town, demanding that the cross be removed. The city’s council will be meeting next month to make a decision regarding the presence of the memorial.
By Todd Starnes
08/20/2015 United States (Fox News) – The memorial features a silhouette of a soldier holding a gun and kneeling at the foot of a cross.
It was installed a few months ago alongside Freedom Rock at Young’s Park in the small town of Knoxville, Iowa.
“It was clear to us it was a memorial to fallen veterans,” Mayor Brian Hatch told me. But it wasn’t clear to everyone.
About a month ago a citizen filed an anonymous complaint — arguing that the memorial was promoting Christianity and therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Mayor Hatch told me the city council ignored the complaint.
“We didn’t take any action because it (the memorial) did not have any religious ties to us at all,” he said. “I only see it as a memorial to the veterans and it shocked me that someone could see it otherwise.”
Instead of letting bygones be bygones, the offended citizen contacted Americans United for Separation of Church and State – a group that relishes in bullying towns across the nation. On Tuesday their attorney fired off a letter to the town.
“Please remove the Latin cross from government property,” the letter demanded.
Americans United said the Constitution prohibits government bodies from promoting religion on public land and they argued that the Latin cross is the “preeminent symbol of Christianity.”
