Las Cruces School Sued Over Art-Sculpture On Campus Contains Three Crosses

koat ^

[chance33_98]

Las Cruces School Sued Over Art Sculpture On Campus Contains Three Crosses

POSTED: 6:33 p.m. MDT September 20, 2003

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Two men are suing the Las Cruces Public School District over a sculpture at a sports complex that includes three crosses.

Jesse Chavez and Paul Weinbaum are founding members of the southern New Mexico chapter of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Their federal lawsuit alleges the artwork violates a constitutional ban on government endorsement of religion.

The $21,000 steel sculpture is the work of Las Cruces artist Ruth Bird.

It has an eight-foot-wide metal circle enclosing three crosses that stand for unity, strength and excellence.

The sculpture was funded by New Mexico's One Percent for Art Program, and is on display outside the Las Cruces Public Schools Sports Activities Complex.

[chance33_98]

Ping

[Mears]

Here we go again!The ACLU must be positively gleeful.

If this were a sculpture of a penis and a vagina that would be okay,though.

[narses]

Another culture war ping.

[Sister_T]

*groan*

Do these whiny, anti-religious CRYBABIES have lives?

[martin_fierro]

"Las Cruces" means "The Crosses" in Spanish.

I suppose the city will have to change its name next.

[martin_fierro]

And if CRUZ (Cross) Bustawhitey becomes governor of CA, LOOK OUT! <|:/~

[mtbopfuyn]

That's the sculpture? No, it's not crosses, it's a disected circle.

[MEG33]

Oh,brother.Is there no end to this lunacy?

[goldstategop]

Its silly. Its just art. A lot of art containing Christian themes is to be found all over this country and my message to these AUSH theophobes would be - in a free country you have NO right not to be offended. Its things like this that you liberals do offend conservatives every day but somehow you don't see us suing you at the drop of a hat. Grow up and learn some tolerance before you blow your bigoted anti-religious (and anti-conservative) stack.

[Skooz]

No problem. Just submerge it into a vat of urine and the objections will cease.

[chance33_98]

Ping

[katya8]

That's a really UGLY sculpture. I'd be much more interested in finding out how much they paid for it.

[RobbyS]

Good grief.

[katya8]

Wait a minute....if the school is called "Las Cruces" isn't the sculpture simply an image of the school's name?

[SandRat]

Thank you! I was about to post that.

[SandRat]

Here we go again!The ACLU must be positively gleeful.

Oh you mean the Anti-American Corrupting Licentious UnseMensche.

[livius]

I don't think it's ugly, but it's pretty bland. You'd have to look really hard to find crosses in it. But then again, I guess they were looking really hard.

I'm expecting the ACLU to petition for a name change for that city any day now.

[MalcolmS]

Next, they will object to any display containing:

-The flag of Switzerland (contains a cross)
-The flag of Britain (contains nested crosses)
-Misc. other flags
-Mathematical formulas containing the + sign
-Multiplication, which contains a St. Andrews Cross X
-X-rays and other words containing X
-All words continaing the letter t (lower case, which looks like a cross or T, which is a form of truncated cross, which some say is the type of cross Christ was actually killed on.
-The word excruciating, which is based on the word crucifiction

And on it goes. Did I mention the Red Cross?

[hillyes]

And at the same time they file lawsuits collecting something
that says "In God We Trust"-not complaining then.