{"id":1028,"date":"2020-02-24T10:59:44","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T15:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=1028"},"modified":"2020-02-24T11:00:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T16:00:01","slug":"cross-targeted-by-atheists-will-not-be-removed-on-florida-public-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2020\/02\/cross-targeted-by-atheists-will-not-be-removed-on-florida-public-property.html","title":{"rendered":"Cross Targeted by Atheists Will Not Be Removed on Florida Public Property"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1031\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1031\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1031\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2020\/02\/Bayviewcross2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"393\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1031\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">MSFulford\/WikiCommons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Pensacola\u2019s historic cross will remain standing and atheists aren\u2019t happy about it.<\/p>\n<p>Atheists recently lost a decision in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to have a historic World War II-era cross removed from public property in Pensacola, Florida.<\/p>\n<p>The Freedom From Religion Foundation, whose mission is to remove any religious aspect of our culture, sued back in 2016 saying it violated the constitution even though there has been overwhelming support to keep the cross standing.<\/p>\n<p>Back in 2017, FFRF celebrated their favorable court decision with a tweet.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Our victory in Pensacola ruffled some feathers over at Fox. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AK412Efx9R\">https:\/\/t.co\/AK412Efx9R<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 FFRF (@FFRF) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FFRF\/status\/876911031427239937?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 19, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nYet, in a multi-year long court battle, the decision was made to keep the cross standing.<\/p>\n<p>One of the biggest contributing factors to the ruling had to do with the cross\u2019s influence in the community, according to Beck Law, a firm that focuses on religious liberty issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollowing the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in American Legion v. American Humanist Association, protecting a World War I memorial cross in Bladensburg, Maryland, the Eleventh Circuit ruled that the cross is constitutional, acknowledging that it has become \u201cembedded in the fabric of the Pensacola community\u201d and that removing it could \u201cstrike many as aggressively hostile to religion.\u201d The Bayview Cross is one of over 170 displays in Pensacola parks memorializing the City\u2019s diverse history and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Only one of the four people who brought the original lawsuit against the city was from the area. The FFRF later partnered with the American Humanist Association to bring a lawsuit once they weren\u2019t getting support from the city.<\/p>\n<p>The cross was built 76 years ago in Bayview Park as a symbol of hope as the country got ready to go to war. Today, the location continues to be used for different observations, including Veteran\u2019s Day and Easter.<\/p>\n<p>The American Humanist Association calls the decision a \u201cdevastating blow\u201d to the establishment cause. These atheist groups believe it is a direct attack to the principle of church-state separation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is troubling to see the court attack the principle of church-state separation that was held dear by our Founders,\u201d Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, said. \u201cToday\u2019s decision is part of the religious right\u2019s ongoing crusade to privilege Christianity at the expense of true religious freedom for all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pensacola\u2019s historic cross will remain standing and atheists aren\u2019t happy about it. Atheists recently lost a decision in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to have a historic World War II-era cross removed from public property in Pensacola, Florida. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, whose mission is to remove any religious aspect of our culture,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":565,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[65,250,260,585,239,10,287],"class_list":["post-1028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-news","tag-american-christians","tag-american-humanist-association","tag-atheists","tag-bayview-cross","tag-christian-headlines","tag-christian-news","tag-freedom-from-religion-foundation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cross Targeted by Atheists Will Not Be Removed on Florida Public Property<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2020\/02\/cross-targeted-by-atheists-will-not-be-removed-on-florida-public-property.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cross Targeted by Atheists Will Not Be Removed on Florida Public Property\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pensacola\u2019s historic cross will remain standing and atheists aren\u2019t happy about it. Atheists recently lost a decision in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to have a historic World War II-era cross removed from public property in Pensacola, Florida. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, whose mission is to remove any religious aspect of our culture,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2020\/02\/cross-targeted-by-atheists-will-not-be-removed-on-florida-public-property.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-24T15:59:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-24T16:00:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2020\/02\/Bayviewcross2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"393\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lesli White\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cross Targeted by Atheists Will Not Be Removed on Florida Public Property","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2020\/02\/cross-targeted-by-atheists-will-not-be-removed-on-florida-public-property.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cross Targeted by Atheists Will Not Be Removed on Florida Public Property","og_description":"Pensacola\u2019s historic cross will remain standing and atheists aren\u2019t happy about it. Atheists recently lost a decision in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to have a historic World War II-era cross removed from public property in Pensacola, Florida. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, whose mission is to remove any religious aspect of our culture,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2020\/02\/cross-targeted-by-atheists-will-not-be-removed-on-florida-public-property.html","og_site_name":"Christ News Today","article_published_time":"2020-02-24T15:59:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-02-24T16:00:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":393,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2020\/02\/Bayviewcross2.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Lesli 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