Posted on 01/06/2005 7:42:26 AM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs
President Bush's 2001 inauguration parade ( A Christian group is accusing the U.S. Secret Service of religious discrimination and censorship for issuing a memo that bans Christian crosses from the presidential inauguration parade later this month.
Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Christian Defense Coalition, contends the Secret Service has "trampled the First Amendment and crushed religious freedom in the public square."
"Simply put, it is religious bigotry and censorship," he said. "It is even more troubling when one realizes that it is only Christian symbols that have been excluded from the inauguration parade."
Tom Mazur, spokesman for the Secret Service, told WorldNetDaily the prohibition is simply a security matter that has nothing to do with the religious nature of the cross.
"The reference to the cross is strictly in regard to structure, certainly not the symbol," he said. "There is no prohibition based on content, only structure or materials that could be used in a potentially harmful or threatening manner."
The prohibition was issued in a Dec. 17 memo to the National Park Service that the Christian Defense Coalition received along with its approved demonstration permit.
Mahoney told WND his group plans to be at the Jan. 20 event for a prayer vigil and "to challenge President Bush to remember the innocent children who have been lost through abortion and to appoint pro-life justices."
The Secret Service memo says, in part:
With respect to signs and placards, the Secret Service would ask that these items be limited to items made of cardboard, poster board or cloth and have dimensions no greater than three feet in width, twenty feet in length and one-quarter inch thickness. As noted above, we are asking that supports for signs and placards be prohibited as these items may be used as a means of concealing weapons or as weapons themselves."
Additionally, the prohibition on structures includes props, folding chairs, bicycles, displays such as puppets papier mache objects, coffins, crates, crosses, theaters, cages and statues.
The Department of Homeland Security has designated the four days of inauguration events a National Special Security Event, putting the Secret Service in charge of overall security planning.
Already, security has been heightened around the White House, where police have set up a street checkpoint with a sign reading "100 percent ID check."
Mazur said crosses would be allowed at the parade site if they conform to the same material and size restrictions applied to signs and placards. For example, a cross made of cardboard could be brought, he affirmed.
But Mahoney told WND that explanation "doesn't fly," arguing that the prohibition outlined in the memo bans crosses outright and does not say they are allowed if they meet certain restrictions, such as those mentioned for signs and placards.
"Are coffins allowed if they are the right material and size, or bicycles?" he asked.
In the past, he said, his group has brought wooden crosses to the inauguration "to remind people of innocent lives lost through abortion."
Mahoney said his legal team likely will send a letter to the Secret Service demanding the agency rescind the prohibition on crosses.
"The only way we would not go to court on this -- the Secret Service would have to issue an apology and remove that ban altogether," he said.
Mahoney's 12-year-old group has been at every inauguration since 1993, he said. In 1997, he successfully sued in federal court for the right to get a demonstration permit for President Clinton's second inaugural parade. Prior to that, no protest permits were issued for the event, he said.
"To my knowledge, this is the first time the federal government has ever singled crosses out," said Mahoney. "I have been involved in public ministry and demonstrations for 27 years, and I have never heard of a cross being used as a weapon anywhere."
His group plans to hold a news conference tomorrow at the corner of 4th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW in Washington, in front of the Canadian Embassy.
At this location, the group also plans to conduct a prayer vigil and demonstration during the parade.
The Christian Defense Coalition was in the news last year as a prominent organizer of rallies in defense of ousted Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's Ten Commandments monument.
As I read it, this sounds like a whole lot of noise about nothing. If you have a cross on your necklace or t-shirt, or made out of paper, you're fine. If you attempt to carry a 6-foot high wooden cross, you're probably asking for trouble.
So it's not really crosses that are prohibited. It's sticks and other potentially dangerous items.
I don't see the problem. Make the crosses of cardboard.
The Inauguration is an event where there is potential danger against our President. Make the crosses of cardboard and bring them.
This sounds just like the restrictions on not having demonstration signs on large wooden or metal stakes, that could easily be turned into weapons.
Yes. Nothing to do with crosses per se, if is about hding things.
My question is have all of these restrictions described ever been implemented for an inauguration before?
Perhaps they're concerned that the alternative might appear something like "Religious Procession in the Kursk Province" by Repin.
;^)
I was always very impressed that protesters could put wooden sticks on their protest signs. We weren't allowed to do that in New York. You had to either attach it to a cardboard tube or just hold the sign in your hands.
That law came about because so many NYC protesters in the past ended up using the wooden sticks to bop other people on the head, or break windows. So I suspect the Secret Service is anticipating riots this time around.
I don't know how the ANSWER crowd will survive without their giant puppets.
This seems fair enough, both for secuirty reasons and to prevent the event from becoming a circus. There will be plently of Dems there who'd like to burn flags, effigies of Bush and who knows what else, probably even nail one to a crucifix
Some folk need to know when to pick their battles and when to smile and take it.
I don't suppose it would ever occur to Mahoney that
the bulletin mentions "crosses" in an effort to avoid
NEGATIVE media comment about the President's personal religion. I noticed the media picked up on Jeb Bush's
personal reaction to seeing the devastation in Indonesia:
"I found myself saying the Rosary."
I agree. This Mahoney person is just looking for a
headline for himself.
It always disturbs me when I see the Secret Service abbreviated as SS.
-But Mahoney told WND that explanation "doesn't fly," arguing that the prohibition outlined in the memo bans crosses outright...-
This just isn't true. If your object - cross or not - conforms to the stated outline of acceptability, you can bring it. Make your crosses out of cardboard, make a lot of them, and show up in force! If they think the situation "demands" crosses made out of harder materials, they're missing the point of their own objective.
A little extra security these days isn't uncalled for. If other religions show up with hard objects, you can be sure they'll be detained.
If I read this right, a cross (two sticks placed at right angles to one another) would not be allowed; however, a large piece of cardboard with a cross painted or drawn on it would be just fine.
Right, or a cross formed from two pieces of cardboard. The Secred Service just doesn't want something that could me made into a weapon. Lots of cities don't allow protesters to carry signed on wooden sticks anymore; for the same reason.
At one counter-protest in my town, the leftists objected to the stick that my US flag was on. Solution? I broke the stick in half, so that it was an admissible length under regulations.
Guess that wouldn't be possible for the inaugural parade. Real flags need real support.
Btw, why does the article lead off with the date "2001"? Is this news or history?
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