{"id":2250,"date":"2012-02-09T10:32:15","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T15:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithandjustice\/?p=2250"},"modified":"2012-02-08T18:08:38","modified_gmt":"2012-02-08T23:08:38","slug":"jay-sekulow-atheist-group-launches-legal-assault-against-jesus-statue-in-montana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2012\/02\/jay-sekulow-atheist-group-launches-legal-assault-against-jesus-statue-in-montana.html","title":{"rendered":"Jay Sekulow: Atheist Group Launches Legal Assault Against Jesus Statue in Montana"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We knew it would happen. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), an atheist group that continually challenges everything from the National Motto, the National Day of Prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance, has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Jesus statue – a Montana war memorial that’s been displayed on a mountaintop since the 1950’s.<\/p>\n

The FFRF lawsuit comes just days after the National Forest Service rejected arguments from the atheist group to remove the statue<\/a>. The federal government agreed to keep the statue in place, renew the special use permit for ten years, and acknowledged that this statue represents an important part of the history and heritage of the region.<\/p>\n

Now, FFRF has gone to federal court – filing a lawsuit to get the statue removed<\/a>. I can tell you that we will mount an aggressive defense of the memorial and will file an amicus brief on behalf of thousands of Americans.<\/p>\n

As you may recall, we had a tremendous impact earlier as the Forest Service considered public comment about the display. In a letter sent to the federal government representing more than 70,000 concerned individuals<\/a>, we urged the Forest Service to renew the lease saying the display is an important historical memorial. The Forest Service acknowledged it had received approximately 95,000 comments about the memorial.<\/p>\n

“The statue’s history and purpose, its longevity, and its setting all support the conclusion that no reasonable observer could think that renewing the Knights of Columbus’ special use permit would be an unconstitutional endorsement of religion,” the letter contended.<\/p>\n

The statue of Jesus was put in place on Big Mountain at the Whitefish Mountain Resort in Montana in the 1950’s by WW II veterans who were also members of the Knights of Columbus. The veterans were inspired by monuments they saw in the mountains of Europe during the war. The statue of Jesus, they said, was put in place to commemorate the service of local WW II veterans – a war memorial.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s really not surprising that FFRF filed the lawsuit. What’s clear is that this legal challenge represents their latest move in a troubling pattern designed to remove any religious reference from our history – a tactic that we believe ultimately will fail in the federal court system.<\/p>\n

We will file a friend-of-the-court brief in this important case – standing up for the constitutionality of the memorial. We will be representing thousands of Americans who understand that this statue represents the history and heritage of the region, not a government endorsement of religion, as the atheist group contends.<\/p>\n

I will keep you posted and let you know when you can join our brief – standing up for this important war memorial in Montana.<\/p>\n

Jay Sekulow<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We knew it would happen. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), an atheist group that continually challenges everything from the National Motto, the National Day of Prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance, has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Jesus statue – a Montana war memorial that’s been displayed on a mountaintop since the 1950’s.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":401,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,427],"tags":[492,155,19,571,795,796,563],"class_list":["post-2250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-constitution","category-war-memorial","tag-constitutional-challenge","tag-federal-lawsuit","tag-ffrf","tag-jesus-statue","tag-montana","tag-war-memorial","tag-whitefish-mountain-resort"],"yoast_head":"\nJay Sekulow: Atheist Group Launches Legal Assault Against Jesus Statue in Montana - Faith & Justice<\/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\/faithandjustice\/2012\/02\/jay-sekulow-atheist-group-launches-legal-assault-against-jesus-statue-in-montana.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jay Sekulow: Atheist Group Launches Legal Assault Against Jesus Statue in Montana - Faith & Justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We knew it would happen. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), an atheist group that continually challenges everything from the National Motto, the National Day of Prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance, has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Jesus statue – a Montana war memorial that’s been displayed on a mountaintop since the 1950’s.…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2012\/02\/jay-sekulow-atheist-group-launches-legal-assault-against-jesus-statue-in-montana.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith & Justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-09T15:32:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-02-08T23:08:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithandjustice\/files\/2011\/10\/573406034-300x187.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jay Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jay Sekulow: Atheist Group Launches Legal Assault Against Jesus Statue in Montana - Faith & Justice","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\/faithandjustice\/2012\/02\/jay-sekulow-atheist-group-launches-legal-assault-against-jesus-statue-in-montana.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jay Sekulow: Atheist Group Launches Legal Assault Against Jesus Statue in Montana - Faith & Justice","og_description":"We knew it would happen. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), an atheist group that continually challenges everything from the National Motto, the National Day of Prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance, has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Jesus statue – a Montana war memorial that’s been displayed on a mountaintop since the 1950’s.…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2012\/02\/jay-sekulow-atheist-group-launches-legal-assault-against-jesus-statue-in-montana.html","og_site_name":"Faith & Justice","article_published_time":"2012-02-09T15:32:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-02-08T23:08:38+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithandjustice\/files\/2011\/10\/573406034-300x187.jpg"}],"author":"Jay Sekulow","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2012\/02\/jay-sekulow-atheist-group-launches-legal-assault-against-jesus-statue-in-montana.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2012\/02\/jay-sekulow-atheist-group-launches-legal-assault-against-jesus-statue-in-montana.html","name":"Jay Sekulow: Atheist Group Launches Legal Assault Against Jesus Statue in Montana - Faith & Justice","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2012\/02\/jay-sekulow-atheist-group-launches-legal-assault-against-jesus-statue-in-montana.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2012\/02\/jay-sekulow-atheist-group-launches-legal-assault-against-jesus-statue-in-montana.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithandjustice\/files\/2011\/10\/573406034-300x187.jpg","datePublished":"2012-02-09T15:32:15+00:00","dateModified":"2012-02-08T23:08:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/#\/schema\/person\/fd4c384af0620d4b82ae09cf1d77bdb4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2012\/02\/jay-sekulow-atheist-group-launches-legal-assault-against-jesus-statue-in-montana.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2012\/02\/jay-sekulow-atheist-group-launches-legal-assault-against-jesus-statue-in-montana.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2012\/02\/jay-sekulow-atheist-group-launches-legal-assault-against-jesus-statue-in-montana.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithandjustice\/files\/2011\/10\/573406034-300x187.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithandjustice\/files\/2011\/10\/573406034-300x187.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2012\/02\/jay-sekulow-atheist-group-launches-legal-assault-against-jesus-statue-in-montana.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jay Sekulow: Atheist Group Launches Legal Assault Against Jesus Statue in Montana"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/","name":"Faith & Justice","description":"Jay Sekulow - ACLJ","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/#\/schema\/person\/fd4c384af0620d4b82ae09cf1d77bdb4","name":"Jay Sekulow","description":"Jay Sekulow is Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a law firm and educational organization that focuses on constitutional law. He is also Chief Counsel of the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ). Jay Sekulow is one of the leading defenders of constitutional rights and religious liberties in the United States. Over the past 25 years, Jay Sekulow has amassed an unparalleled record of accomplishment, arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court on 12 occasions. His aggressive litigation strategy before the Supreme Court has led to many landmark First Amendment victories. In his first case before the Supreme Court, Jews for Jesus, Jay Sekulow secured the right of religious groups to pass out tracks in airports. In Mergens, Jay Sekulow successfully protected the right of students to form Bible clubs and prayer groups on public school campuses. In Lamb\u2019s Chapel, Jay Sekulow cleared the way for churches to have equal access to public facilities in the same way that other groups are permitted to utilize those facilities. In the Bray and Operation Rescue cases, Jay Sekulow protected the free speech rights of pro-life advocates to be free from criminal prosecution for conveying their pro-life message. In McConnell v. FEC, Jay Sekulow protected the right of young people to engage in the political process by donating to the campaign of their choice. In Pleasant Grove, Jay Sekulow paved the way for governments to be able to display Ten Commandments monuments, and other monuments of their choosing, in public parks. Through the ACLJ, Jay Sekulow engages the political, legal, and cultural battles facing America today. He routinely works with Members of Congress, advising them on proposed legislation and representing them in critical legal matters. Jay Sekulow has also testified before Congress on the constitutionality of proposed legislation. Also, in addition to being a successful Supreme Court advocate, Jay Sekulow is a highly respected broadcaster. Jay Sekulow is the host of Jay Sekulow Live! which airs each weekday on over 850 radio stations nationwide, in addition Sirius and XM satellite radio. He brings insight and education to listeners daily through this national call-in radio program. He is also the host of the ACLJ This Week, the ACLJ\u2019s weekly television program. Jay Sekulow regularly appears on major media outlets, including FOX News, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC, where he is sought out for his vast experience in constitutional law and his unique insight into many of the pressing legal and political issues facing America today. He is frequently quoted in the nation's leading newspapers and often contributes opinion editorials to national publications. Jay Sekulow has also published numerous law review and other scholarly articles. Jay Sekulow has received numerous honors for his groundbreaking legal work in the area of free speech and religious liberties. The Legal Times has named Sekulow one of \u201cThe 90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years\u201d and the National Law Journal has twice named Sekulow one of the \u201c100 Most Influential Lawyers\u201d in the United States. In addition, TIME Magazine listed Jay Sekulow as one of the \"25 Most Influential Evangelicals\" in America. Jay Sekulow\u2019s legal work in defense of religious liberties and human rights extends beyond the United States, having founded the ECLJ in Strasbourg, France, which maintains consultative status with the United Nations. He has also opened offices in Pakistan, Africa, and Jerusalem, Israel. Jay Sekulow is a staunch defender of Israel, presenting arguments before the International Criminal Court at the Hague. His efforts in support of Israel\u2019s right to defend itself from terrorist attacks have been commended by Israeli government officials, one official stating, \"Jay was instrumentally-involved in projects that the President of Israel and the Prime Minister put on our national agenda.\" Jay Sekulow also has a passion for educating the next generation of religious liberty advocates. He is a member of the Regent University Law School Faculty as a Distinguished Professor of Law and routinely teaches courses on constitutional law and presents guest lectures. Jay Sekulow has also started educational programs in international human rights law in Strasbourg, France and at Handong University in South Korea. Jay Sekulow is a graduate of Mercer University, earning both a bachelor\u2019s degree and doctor of jurisprudence. Sekulow served on the editorial staff of the Mercer Law Review and graduated cum laude. He later earned a Ph.D. from Regent University, writing his dissertation on American Legal History. Jay Sekulow also serves on the Board of Trustees for The Supreme Court Historical Society in Washington, D.C. Jay Sekulow, ACLJ Chief Counsels full biography and video. Jay Sekulow on Facebook. Jay Sekulow on Twitter. Jay Sekulow on YouTube.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/author\/jay_sekulow"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2250"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2260,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250\/revisions\/2260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}