![]() “It has sent the wrong message to cities that you can be bullied into a revisionist version of history.” “I think the ramifications of this could be seen not just in California, but across the country,” said Jay Alan Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit law firm founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson. ![]() ![]() Whether the past includes Spanish missionaries settling in California or Puritans staking a claim to New England, much of American history is intimately entwined with religion. Los Angeles County’s decision appears to have touched a nerve with many who worry that removing a cross is akin to blotting out history. Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who supports keeping the cross, plans to introduce a motion next week asking his colleagues to put the matter on the ballot for a public vote. It’s implausible to say it’s more secular than religious.”īut the controversy remains. “It is absolutely the central symbol of Christianity. “In general, people objecting to government use of crosses have won,” said Douglas Laycock, a constitutional law professor at the University of Texas. Supreme Court has not ruled on the question of religious symbols on government seals, lower courts have struck down seals depicting Latin crosses in several cases across the country. Peppler’s advice to leaders of other municipalities: “Leave it alone until someone makes them take it off.”Īfter reviewing relevant cases, lawyers for both Redlands and Los Angeles County concluded that they were unlikely to win a lawsuit challenging their respective crosses. “I think it’s a matter of time” before other cities are challenged, said Redlands Mayor Susan Peppler, whose city agreed in April to remove a cross from its cluttered logo, which also featured a church steeple, citrus groves and an open book. But after two California jurisdictions decided to scrap such images when threatened with ACLU lawsuits, the miniature crosses have spurred an intense debate over religion’s place in public life that seems unlikely to fade anytime soon. Santa Clara has two, one standing atop a mission bell tower and another on a lower roofline, while Carmel-by-the-Sea boasts three.įor decades, Latin crosses have adorned government seals, sometimes amid a jumble of other icons meant to reflect a community’s history, faith or values. The city of San Luis Obispo has one - tiny but unmistakable - affixed to a tile roof above a mission.
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