{"id":7940,"date":"2006-07-15T10:07:07","date_gmt":"2006-07-15T14:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/7940.html"},"modified":"2006-07-15T10:07:07","modified_gmt":"2006-07-15T14:07:07","slug":"this-week-in-god-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/this-week-in-god-25\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in God"},"content":{"rendered":"

First up from the God machine relates a bit to an item from yesterday about the right’s sudden obsession with “In God We Trust,” this time, in Ohio public schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite constitutional concerns, Gov. Bob Taft signed a bill [this week] requiring all public and community schools to display any donated copies of the national and state mottos — “In God We Trust” and “With God, All Things Are Possible.” […]<\/p>\n

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Keith Faber, a Celina Republican, requires public schools, including charter schools run by private entities using state money, to display copies of the mottos if they are donated in a classroom, auditorium or cafeteria. An earlier version of the bill required display in every classroom in the state.<\/p>\n

Moms for Ohio, a small political-action committee that mostly promotes conservative causes, pushed the bill as instilling the right values in children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How wonderfully logical. Children will see “[tag]In God We Trust[\/tag]” posters everywhere, every day, until they’ve lost all meaning. This will “instill the right values,” the same way putting the phrase on all currency since 1954 has dramatically curtailed the rate at which people steal others’ money. Oh wait, it hasn’t.<\/p>\n

Next up from the God machine is a controversial story about a towering, 43-foot-tall cross, public property, and a legal fight that’s spanned nearly two decades.
\n
\nIn 1954, some religious activists erected a towering cross on publicly-owned land in San Diego. Activists had erected similar crosses at the site for about a century, but previous versions were vandalized or destroyed, and this one was built to last. (Defenders insist it is a war memorial, but its founders called it an “Easter Cross.”)<\/p>\n

The Mount [tag]Soledad Cross[\/tag], of course, sparked a lawsuit, which argued the cross should be moved to private property. After a series of stunts and schemes, the local government ran out of legal options and was ordered by a federal judge to remove the towering cross from the premises.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy gave the cross a reprieve, pending further appeals. That’s a shame; as an LA Times editorial<\/a> noted today, the cross has to go.<\/p>\n

Whether viewed as a war memorial, an icon or a place of worship, the cross is an extremely visible symbol of one religion. It occupies arguably the most prominent piece of public real estate in the city, which is in a state where the Constitution is even more exacting than the U.S. Bill of Rights about the separation of church and state. California’s “no preference” clause explicitly prohibits the government from giving any preferential treatment to a particular religion, which is mainly why federal courts have ruled repeatedly that the cross must go. Even seen as a public war memorial, it is lopsided, honoring only those members of the armed forces who belonged to a particular faith. [..]<\/p>\n

[I]t is abundantly clear — from court proceedings, legal history and to any passing motorist on I-5 — that the cross on Mt. Soledad represents an unacceptable establishment of religion on public land.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One other thing: some defenders of the cross have argued that if this religious monument has to be removed, lawsuits might force smaller crosses from public cemeteries. The argument, as a friend of mine recently noted<\/a>, is a baseless “scare tactic.”<\/p>\n

Crosses and other religious symbols at cemeteries, whether government run or privately owned, are freely chosen by the families of fallen military personnel. No one is forced to accept a cross, nor do government officials presume to use the symbol of one faith to honor all war dead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The case is going to the 9th Circuit in a couple of months where proponents of state-sponsored religion will no doubt lose, again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First up from the God machine relates a bit to an item from yesterday about the right’s sudden obsession with “In God We Trust,” this time, in Ohio public schools. Despite constitutional concerns, Gov. Bob Taft signed a bill [this week] requiring all public and community schools to display any donated copies of the national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}