Veteran Memorial Cross in the Crosshairs

Perhaps you heard about it – A memorial featuring 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,” said Mayor Brian Hatch to Todd Starnes of FoxNews. 

Apparently it wasn’t clear to everyone … because a citizen filed an anonymous complaint arguing that the memorial was promoting Christianity and therefore violated the ‘establishment clause’ of the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

According to Starnes, Mayor Hatch said 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.”

Well, that didn’t satisfy the offended citizen.  He/she contacted Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AUSCS) – a group with a reputation in bullying towns across the nation.  Their attorney fired off a letter to the town demanding, “Please remove the Latin cross from government property.”  AUSCS 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.”  They suggested that the inclusion of the cross excludes veterans of faiths other than Christianity.  “Another court prohibited a county government from displaying a war memorial featuring crosses and the Star of David, because this design ‘gave the impression that only Christians and Jews are being honored,’” AUSCS wrote in their letter.

Mayor Hatch told Starnes the council will meet next month to decide what course of action to take.  Meanwhile, the citizens of Knoxville are launching a campaign to save the memorial.  “This political correctness stuff is getting way out of hand,” resident Doug Goff told Starnes.  “When we are bending to the will of one person in the town – you know something is wrong there.”  Goff is a lifelong resident of Knoxville; and a Navy veteran. He’s helping to spearhead a rally to defend the cross.  “This is a memorial for our veterans,” he said.

AUSCS has given the town 30-days to respond to their demand.  If they refuse to comply, we ought not be surprised to learn that the town of Knoxville gets hauled into court.

So why are these little town scuttlebutts important?  Because, if it is determined that this veteran memorial is inappropriate on public land, what is to say that the same can’t be argued for crosses on the headstone at Arlington National Cemetery … or any other VA cemetery?  Will thousands upon thousands of military grave markers need to have their crosses removed?

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel