Posted on 10/25/2006 6:15:14 PM PDT by radar101
Philip Kevin Paulson, who fought a 17-year legal battle to remove the Mount Soledad cross from public property, died Wednesday of liver cancer. He was 59.
Paulson, a 6-foot-5 Vietnam veteran who lived in City Heights, became so passionate about the separation of church and state that he filed a civil lawsuit against the city of San Diego in 1989 without an attorney. He won the case, and as the appeals dragged on he became one of the county's most reviled and respected characters.
The Cross
Typical Memorial Plaque around base
During interviews with The San Diego Union-Tribune in September and October, a few months after doctors told him he did not have long to live, Paulson said he was unconcerned about death and proud of the stand that defined his life.
“The real message is equal treatment under the law, and religious neutrality. That's the purpose of why I did it,” said Paulson, who turned away from religion early in life. “It has nothing to do with me being an atheist or whether I was a Bible-thumping fundamentalist Baptist preacher.”
Paulson, the grandson of a Lutheran preacher who shunned media attention to protect the case, agreed to exclusive interviews on the condition that his comments remain confidential until his death or the end of the case.
He said he wanted people to understand why he pursued the removal of the cross, and that he was never motivated by a hatred of Christians.
“I don't harbor those kind of feelings,” Paulson said. “My mother's a Christian. I was raised a devout Christian. I'm not anti-Christian. The reason I did it is because it's not fair to the other religions. America is not just the Christian religion.”
Paulson, who grew up in Clayton, Wis., a town of 300 people, taught computer and business classes at National University.
When it became clear last summer that Paulson's condition was terminal, he and his lawyer, James McElroy, made plans to add another plaintiff to the case so that it could continue. The city has agreed to the move, although the change awaits the judge's signature. The new plaintiff, Steve Trunk, is a Vietnam war veteran, an atheist and also the product of a religious upbringing.
The city has argued that while the cross has religious significance, it also has a secular purpose – to honor war veterans. Paulson contended the memorial portion of the hilltop site was built only after he filed suit. The cross is a religious symbol that should be moved from public land, Paulson contended.
President Bush signed a bill this year that transferred ownership of the cross and war memorial site to the Department of Defense.
I did a computer search and the word Karma is not found.
If you can't say nuthin' nice, don't say nuthin' at all.
Therefore, I have no comment.
I did a computer search and the word "Karma" is not found in the Bible.
(hit post before I was finished)
I did find Karma as part of Hinduism and Buddhism. Maybe we can replace the Cross with a statue of Shiva or a Buddha.
It's ironic that people who are arguing for the primacy of Christianity in the U.S. do so by making a reference to a different religion.
If you're going to take the Buddist route, the guy's probably reincarnated by now anyway.
Gaydar alert.
It's not a question of "Where" sinners go, or even "if" they go to hell.
My point is that God has done everything to KEEP people from going to hell, only to have some of his followers jump up and down with glee everytime a sinner dies and goes there.
It's almost like some Christians are cheering at a bizarre football game, where touchdowns are scored for our team when people go to hell.
When Jesus looked out at the masses and saw all the lost people, he experienced incredible sadness. The Bible did not say 'he got a smile on his face and gleam in his eye knowing that he was about to take them out.'
That's supposed to come LATER... if the Bible is an integrated book we have to deal with such paradoxen.
if there is a karma, he was reincarnated as a cockroach.
Could you meet me at the bank tomorrow morning, say about 10:00? You see, MY truth is that I have one million dollars in my account -- they seem to have gotten the idea that there's only $ 62.45 in there.
Judge not lest ye be judged.
My Bible states that angels rejoice when one more is brought into the kingdom.
Does yours state that God the Father and God the Son rejoice when one more goes to hell? You think they give each other high fives?
Read this and went about filing my nails.
Only verifying my memory. Being human I'm imperfect.
And if my computer is also imperfect, please cite for me chapter and verse where Karma, as the other religions understand it, is in the Bible.
Justice?
These type comments remind me why I am glad HE is God, versus those "Christians" who enjoy seeing people going to hell.
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