XPost: alt.religion.christian, alt.atheism, sac.politics
XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.misc
A large white cross that stood for years at the Waterloo State
Recreation Area near Jackson is gone following a complaint that it
violated the separation of church and state in the First Amendment of
the Constitution.
A longtime resident, who frequently hiked the Waterloo-Pinckney Trail
and would sled the Sackrider Hill, sent a complaint to the Michigan
Association of Civil Rights Activists (MACRA) in March.
The activist group asked the director of the Department of Natural
Resources, Keith Creagh, that the agency remove the cross.
The activist group said the cross also violated Article 1, section 4
of the Michigan Constitution, which explicitly forbids the
appropriation of public money or property for the benefit of any
religious sect or society.
But Grassroots Jackson, a volunteer group, strongly opposed the
removal of the cross, beginning an online petition "Save the Jackson
Cross" which got over 2,500 signatures in March, according to MLive.
Member Billie Dawson said that they wanted to "give a voice to the
thousands of people that support the cross."
"Its presence on the hill does not establish a state religion or
coerce any person into religious worship," Dawson said.
MACRA discovered through a public records request that an unauthorized
permit was issued for the cross in 1992.
The cross was removed Tuesday.
"We are pleased with the DNR's action to remove the cross without
further controversy," MACRA co-founder Mitch Kahle said.
Maybe it's time for the unauthorized removal of some atheist communist
heads.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/05/15/waterloo-state-rectration-area-cross/612824002/
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