Posted on 02/24/2019 8:33:42 PM PST by Rummyfan
If the U.S. Supreme Court took a light touch on cultural issues following the contentious confirmation hearings of Justice Brett Kavanaugh this fall, the period of restraint didn't last long.
The justices next week are set to hear arguments over whether a giant, four-story World War I memorial cross located in a busy Maryland intersection and maintained by the government can remain standing.
The case, which touches at the core of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, is the most significant dispute over a public monument to reach the top court since Chief Justice John Roberts took the helm.
It comes before the court in the wake of controversial orders connected to abortion and a Muslim inmate's religious rights during execution, and just a month after the justices said they would hear their first major gun-control case in nearly a decade.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
If you cannot use government funds to advocate on behalf of a religion, you cannot use them to promoted a blasphemous message against that same religion.
Stalinists lie. Always
The cross was built on private land with private funds. As originally conceived, the monument flanked the road facing the bridge over the Anacostia. The state acquired the property years later in connection with road widening and to build a traffic circle. This is the intersection between U.S. Alternate 1/Bladensburg Road and MD 450/Annapolis Road. These are busy roads. The cross now sits in the middle of the traffic circle and the state maintains the site, which means the state mows the grass.
How about the cross stays, and we start running off the people who want it gone?
Just wait.
In time, that will be on the agenda also.
Hey leftists. If seeing the cross hurts you like the church did to Damien in “The Omen” or makes you burst into flames, many of us would pay to see that.
I still don’t know why they haven’t just classified the cross as art. Then nobody could mess with it.
If I recall, don’t locals call that the “Peace Cross”?
After every confederate memory is destroyed, the liberals will try to remove every cross in the US. They will jail nuns and confiscate rosaries.
Soon cremation will be the only option. Im sure Congress is already investing in the funeral industry currently.
“Hey leftists. If seeing the cross hurts you like the church did to Damien in The Omen or makes you burst into flames, many of us would pay to see that.”
$69.95 on PPV, and a bargain at twice the price.
Oral arguments on this should be interesting. Looks like the argument is scheduled for the second session on Wednesday (2/27/19). Should be posted on the supreme court website by 4pm.
Yes, that’s what we’ve always called it and heard it called; but I’m not sure that was originally a formal designation.
It’s been listed on the National Register of Historic Places for several years:
https://mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.aspx?NRID=1644
Jamestown1630’s excellent link in post 15 contains a wealth of photos and stories about the Peace Cross and some of the men honored by itof possible interest to other Marylanders.
Yes, we do.
If it was a nuisance then, why wasn't the monument moved as part of the road widening to someplace where it would be out of the way? There is a monument not 2 miles from where I live that was moved about 20 years ago, when the highway was re-adjusted and a new off-ramp setup implemented. As part of the project, the monument moved about 100 yards west of where it was, still very visible, but on private grounds, I think (now at the edge of a motel parking lot).
No muss, no fuss. And this is in Caliph-phony-a, to boot!
The outfit that is doing this - the ‘American Humanist Association’ - are not locals who grew up with this memorial in their neighborhood and who love it. They are activists who are bringing the same kind of case all over the country.
I hope that the Supremes will recognize DIVERSITY in this case, instead of catering to the solipsism of people who have intellectualized all true humanity out of their consciousnesses.
Yes, same thing activists have done with the Ten Commandments memorials and nativity scenes. They make sure to pick a small town or a small school that can't fight back effectively. But this time they may have not been paying close attention to where Bladensburg really is.
We passed the Peace Cross so many times growing up, on the way to points in and out of North East DC, the National Arboretum, the Fort Lincoln or Rock Creek cemeteries, New York Avenue as a good way to get downtown, CU and the Basilicaa, Union Station, the Capitol Building, etc. etc.
Love that beautiful statue, “Grief.”
They tore down the Soldier’s Home that was on New Hampshire Avenue almost at the DC line, Eastern Avenue. Now it’s a yuppie townhouse development.
My father always called it ‘Grief’ - that was the popular name for the statue. But I don’t think that was what Adams had in mind when he commissioned it. He didn’t want it to have a name, and seems to have wanted it to be rather left up to the observer. (He was steeped in Eastern religions and culture.)
As I recall, St. Gaudens suggested that it represented something like ‘the peace that passeth understanding’ - the idea of peace coming from detachment from physical life and cares, and release into an entirely different realm.
At any rate, it’s a very beautiful piece of sculpture, very peaceful to contemplate, and evocative of deep thought:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adams_Memorial_(Saint-Gaudens)
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