Today the Supreme Court heard the case of the Desert Cross. Some background: In 1934, some veterans of WWI got together and erected a cross, made of white metal pipes, in the Mojave Desert. The desert has since become national park land. The cross has been covered up as a result of the court cases. An older couple kept the cross up for the now deceased vets. According to the Washington Post:
In 1934, veterans erected a cross on a rock in a remote part of the Mojave Desert on what is now national park land — and for the next 65 years, pretty much nobody but the odd rattlesnake noticed. But over the past decade, this 6 1/2 -foot-high cross, made from four-inch white metal pipe, has become the subject of no fewer than four acts of Congress, two district court rulings, three appellate court actions — and Wednesday, arguments before the nine justices of the Supreme Court.
The case was heard and gave an opportunity for Justice Anthony Scalia and Attorney Peter Eliasberg of the American Civil Liberties Union to get in the proverbial pissing contest with each other. It went something like this:
“The cross doesn’t honor non-Christians who fought in the war?” the Catholic justice asked with incredulity.
“I believe that’s actually correct,” said Peter Eliasberg of the American Civil Liberties Union, the son and grandson of Jewish war Pveterans.
“Where does it say that?” Scalia demanded to know.
“It doesn’t say that,” Eliasberg admitted, “but a cross is the predominant symbol of Christianity, and it signifies that Jesus is the son of God and died to redeem mankind for our sins.”
This news enraged Scalia. “The cross is the most common symbol of the resting place of the dead,” he declared. “What would you have them erect . . . some conglomerate of a cross, a Star of David, and you know, a Muslim half-moon and star?”
“The cross is the most common symbol of the resting place of Christians,” Eliasberg corrected. “I have been in Jewish cemeteries. There is never a cross on a tombstone of a Jew.”
The audience laughed. “I think that’s an outrageous conclusion,” Scalia hissed
.
I am embarrassed for Justice Scalia. How ….unseemly.
How will the case be settled? Will the cross have to taken down? After all, it is out in the middle of nowhere, erected by men who are now dead; to honor those who died over 80 years ago, in a war barely remembered. Who is it hurting? Does it show state supported religion? What of the crosses on tombstones in federal cemetaries here and abroad?
Solutions have been suggested. One that seems to make the most sense is to give the land the cross is erected on to the Veterans of Foreign Wars and let them put the cross back up. That works. Or we could not worry about a lone cross, honoring soldiers from a century ago. Sometimes we just have to suck it up and not be so ‘correct.’
Washington Post: Court Wades Shallowly Into Church and State
