{"id":15470,"date":"2026-09-01T15:05:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=15470"},"modified":"2026-09-01T15:05:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:05:49","slug":"community-rallies-behind-97-year-old-cross-slated-to-be-taken-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/09\/community-rallies-behind-97-year-old-cross-slated-to-be-taken-down.html","title":{"rendered":"Community Rallies Behind 97-Year-Old Cross Slated to Be Taken Down"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15473\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15473\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15473\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/09\/Nativity-Cross_credit-The-Becket-Fund-for-Religious-Liberty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15473\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A group of community merchants is joining a legal battle to keep a near-century old cross and Nativity scene from being removed from an LA neighborhood. The trouble began in 2025 when a member of the El Pueblo community in LA, Jack Gerritsen, sued the city, asking for the removal of the cross and Nativity, claiming they violated the establishment clause and offended him. The two figures have stood at the Olvera Street Market for 97 years. Gerritsen\u2019s initial sued was rejected by a federal district court and the case and has since moved to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.<\/p>\n<p>The suit has drawn the ire of local community members, who see the cross as indicative of the area\u2019s Mexican heritage. The Olvera Street Merchants Association Foundation, represented by the Becket Group, has asked to join the suit to defend the cross and Nativity. According to a release from Beckett, the 10-foot wooden cross was installed at Olvera Street in honor of Los Angeles\u2019s 148<sup>th<\/sup> birthday. The Nativity is brought out annually as part of the Las Posadas celebration every year. \u201cFor generations, the merchants of Olvera Street have kept the neighborhood\u2018s rich Mexican-American heritage alive. Now one observer wants to take down the parts of that heritage that include religion. Thankfully, the First Amendment doesn\u2019t include a third-party veto over history and culture merely because it acknowledges religion,\u201d said Andrea Butler, counsel at Becket.<\/p>\n<p>Members of the suit have families that go back as far as the 1930s when the marketplace was started. Butler insisted that public displays of faith should be considered \u201cnatural\u201d and that it shouldn\u2019t have to be removed simply because someone is offended. \u201cLos Angeles shouldn\u2019t have to erase its own history every time someone takes offense,\u201d said Butler. \u201cThe cross and nativity are woven into the fabric of El Pueblo. Nothing in the Constitution requires those traditions to be torn away. The city should be free to keep its full history, including the parts that happen to be religious.\u201d Valerie Hanley, treasurer of the Olvera Street Merchants Association Foundation, voiced her support for the displays. &#8220;Olvera Street is not just a part of our families\u2019 heritage, it\u2019s at the heart of Los Angeles\u2019s history. One offended bystander shouldn\u2019t get to decide which parts of our City\u2019s story we can tell.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of community merchants is joining a legal battle to keep a near-century old cross and Nativity scene from being removed from an LA neighborhood. The trouble began in 2025 when a member of the El Pueblo community in LA, Jack Gerritsen, sued the city, asking for the removal of the cross and Nativity,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":15473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Community Rallies Behind 97-Year-Old Cross Slated to Be Taken Down<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Olvera Street merchants join a legal fight to preserve a 97-year-old cross and Nativity reflecting Los Angeles\u2019 Mexican heritage.\" \/>\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\/2026\/09\/community-rallies-behind-97-year-old-cross-slated-to-be-taken-down.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Community Rallies Behind 97-Year-Old Cross Slated to Be Taken Down\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Olvera Street merchants join a legal fight to preserve a 97-year-old cross and Nativity reflecting Los Angeles\u2019 Mexican heritage.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/09\/community-rallies-behind-97-year-old-cross-slated-to-be-taken-down.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-01T19:05:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" 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