U.S. Congress Acts to Save the Mt. Soledad Cross...

...Atheist Blames ‘Jihad Jesus Republicans’
From the Thomas More Law Center:

RANCHO SANTA FE, CA — In a surprising turn of events, the United States Congress has joined the fight to keep the 43-foot tall cross atop Mount Soledad in San Diego, California, by designating the land on which it stands and the granite memorial walls surrounding it, a national veterans memorial. The congressional action came as a result of efforts by the Thomas More Law Center.

San Diego area Congressmen, Reps. Duncan Hunter, R –El Cajon, and Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Escondido, inserted the memorial designation as part of a spending bill awaiting approval by President Bush.

Phillip Paulson, the atheist who mounted a successful 15- year legal battle to remove the cross with support from the ACLU, told the San Diego Union-Tribune, “Jihad Jesus Republicans need to understand that the separation of church and state has kept this country from getting into religious wars." “ If God was powerful, there would not be a need for the government to go in and force a religious agenda on nonbelieving citizens,” he continued.

The ACLU of San Diego also criticized the legislation calling it “political gamesmanship”.

San Diego attorney Charles LiMandri, Director of the Law Center’s western regional office who has led the effort to save the Mt. Soledad cross called the congressional action “an act of God”. LiMandri said Congress was not unconstitutionally endorsing religion because it intended to honor veterans in the same manner as the crosses at Arlington National Cemetery.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center responding to Paulson’s comments, “Those who want the Mt. Soledad cross removed erroneously base their case on the metaphor ‘separation of church and state,’ a phrase nowhere in the Constitution. This cross and memorial, soon to be officially designated a national veterans memorial is constitutionally permissible. It’s time to stop government by the ACLU and for the ACLU.”

Thompson acknowledged the battle is far from over and hopes the City of San Diego and the Veterans Memorial Association will now get behind efforts to keep the cross on top of Mount Soledad, where it has stood for fifty years. “We fully expect further legal challenges to tear down the cross, but we are not giving up either.”

President Bush is expected to sign the bill within the next few weeks.

According to the congressional designation, once the City of San Diego donates the land to the United States, the Secretary of the Interior shall administer the Memorial as a unit of the National Park System, giving the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association the right of continued maintenance of the cross and surrounding granite memorial walls and plaques.