{"id":14342,"date":"2012-04-26T17:46:19","date_gmt":"2012-04-26T21:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/?p=14342"},"modified":"2012-04-26T18:06:48","modified_gmt":"2012-04-26T22:06:48","slug":"momentous-victory-cross-stays-at-mojave-vets-memorial-aclu-looses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2012\/04\/momentous-victory-cross-stays-at-mojave-vets-memorial-aclu-looses.html","title":{"rendered":"Momentous victory: Cross Stays at Mojave Vet’s Memorial (ACLU looses)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Court: Mojave Cross Can Stay<\/h1>\n

________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

by Karla Dial<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Mojave Desert Cross Saved<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Religious freedom advocates won a momentous victory this week, when a federal judge signed a settlement allowing a contested cross to stand on a one-acre spit of land in the middle of the Mojave Desert.<\/p>\n

The court battle over the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial, first erected in the 1930s, has been going on for 11 years. Atheists, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, complained in 2001 that the \u201creligious symbol\u201d stood on government property maintained by the National Park Service. They said that violates the separation of church and state.<\/p>\n

But on Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Timlin authorized a land transfer deal, essentially allowing the government to cede the land to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). Congress authorized the land transfer in 2003, but the ACLU has been fighting to block it ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great victory because there are literally hundreds of veterans memorials across the country with religious imagery,\u201d said Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for Liberty Institute, a religious-liberties law firm that worked on the case. \u201cIf this memorial had been struck down as unconstitutional then all those other memorials would be in peril, especially the World War I memorials which are uniquely, almost exclusively in the shape of a cross all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legal wranglings over the cross went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 2010 that it is not an unconstitutional instance of the government endorsing religion. The land transfer was sent back to the lower court for review at that time.<\/p>\n

The cross has suffered along the way: At one point, a court ordered it to be covered with a box until the case was resolved. After the Supreme Court ruled in its favor, vandals tore the eight-foot cross from its base atop Sunrise Rock.<\/p>\n

The VFW plans to restore it, as it is the only memorial to veterans of World War I designated as a national monument by Congress.<\/p>\n

After all the steps of the settlement are complete, the National Park Service will gain five acres in the area, and the VFW post in Barstow, Calif., will own the acre around the cross. The trade should be complete later this year; afterward, the Park Service will fence the area around the cross and install signs noting that it is private property.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Mt. Soledad Cross, San Diego<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial isn\u2019t the only one to face such challenges. The case of a cross at the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial in\u00a0 has been appealed to the Supreme Court, and Marines at nearby Camp Pendleton faced challenges this month from atheists who want two crosses to memorialize service members lost in Afghanistan and Iraq removed.<\/p>\n

FOR MORE INFORMATION<\/strong>
\nLearn more about the history <\/a>of the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial.<\/p>\n

Download a song <\/a>to help raise money to defend the memorials.<\/p>\n

Learn more about the Liberty Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Related content:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. House Passes Two War Memorial Bills<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Utah Highway Crosses Modified<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Federal Court Orders New York City to Back Off Policy<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Churches Win Major Victory at Supreme Court<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Bronx Household of Faith Turned Away by High Court<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Read More: http:\/\/www.citizenlink.com\/2012\/04\/25\/court-mojave-cross-can-stay\/<\/a><\/p>\n

    ~\u2020~<\/p>\n

    Posted by Donna Calvin \u2014 Thursday, April 26, 2012<\/p>\n

    ~\u2020~<\/p>\n

    Please share this Watchwoman post on your Facebook page, Linkedin, Google+1, Twitter to all your friends, Please click \u201cLike\u201d, Share, and Leave Comments.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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    \n    http:\/\/groups.yahoo.com\/group\/WordWarriorette\/<\/a><\/p>\n

    ~\u2020~<\/p>\n

    DISCLAIMER: Beliefnet puts paid advertisements on \u201cWatchwoman on the Wall\u201d blog site including some that would never be approved of by the King James Bible, Pastor Ernie Sanders of Doers of the Word Church, What\u2019s Right-What\u2019s Left Radio Ministry, the Voice of the Christian Resistance, Geauga County Right to Life and Donna Calvin.\u00a0 We at www.WRWL.org<\/a> do not condone, endorse, adhere to, practice or believe in many of the topics and some of what other bloggers promote or their religions at Beliefnet.\u00a0 However, Mrs. Calvin has no control of what Beliefnet displays.\u00a0\u00a0 She blogs at Beliefnet because she is in the missionary field ministering to true believers posting articles and commentaries informing pro-life, conservative Christians of recent anti-Christian acts and hostile legislation to God\u2019s Agenda and His Will for the world.\u00a0 Hopefully, unbelievers will read these along with the salvation message of Jesus Christ as written in the Gospel of John, Chapter 3, according to the King James Bible, and be saved.\u00a0 A missionary must go into the unbelievers\u2019 territory to reach them.\u00a0 Her mission is to Proclaim Warning to a Nation that has forgotten their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the only Truth, the Life, and the only Way to the One God the Father.<\/em>
    \nRead more:     http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/?p=4928<\/a><\/em><\/h6>\n

    ~\u2020~<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Court: Mojave Cross Can Stay ________________________________________________ by Karla Dial Religious freedom advocates won a momentous victory this week, when a federal judge signed a settlement allowing a contested cross to stand on a one-acre spit of land in the middle of the Mojave Desert. 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