ICC Note: In a close vote, Belle Plaine, Minnesota’s city council decided to bring back a veterans memorial to a public park, under the condition that a cross is removed from the display. The memorial under discussion, which depicts the silhouette of a service member kneeling before a tombstone in the shape of a cross, was criticized by the Freedom from Religion Foundation for allegedly serving as a government endorsement of Christianity. In response, the city council decided to remove the cross in order to keep the memorial, but in a secular manner.
By Heather Clark
02/10/2017 United States (Christian News Network) – The city council of a Minnesota city voted narrowly on Monday to return a memorial featuring a soldier kneeling before a cross tombstone to a public park after veterans reluctantly agreed to cut the cross off the display due to a complaint from a prominent professing atheist organization.
Council members in Belle Plaine voted 3-2 to create a “limited public forum/free speech zone” in Veterans Park, which they believe will solve the issue.
City attorney Robert Bose told local television station KMSP that while the logistics will still need to be worked out, the plan is to allow all citizens to apply to have their veterans memorials displayed.
“[The limited public forum] ensures that there is no endorsement of religion by the city whatsoever because the memorials that will be put up represent the citizens that put them up,” also explained Alliance Defending Freedom’s (ADF) Doug Wardlow.
As previously reported, the Belle Plaine Veterans Club had recently placed the display in Veterans Park next to an inscribed stone honoring local residents who had lost their lives in various wars, from the Indian War of 1862 to the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
The silhouette showed a soldier kneeling before a grave marker in the shape of a cross, such as are seen in some military cemeteries.
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