Judge Orders 65-Foot-High Cross Taken Down at Marine Base in Hawaii
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A federal judge has ordered that a 65-foot-high cross overlooking a U.S. Marine base in Honolulu be removed or replaced by a non-religious symbol.
But in issuing the order in Washington, U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan said it would not take effect for 60 days to give the government an opportunity to seek a stay from a higher court while it appeals the ruling.
“The principal symbol of Christianity, this nation’s dominant religion, is too laden with religious meaning to be appropriate for a government memorial assertedly free of any religious message,” Hogan said.
The case involved a lawsuit that was filed in 1986 on behalf of 15 individuals of various religious faiths who charged that the maintenance of the cross on military land “symbolizes governmental approval, sponsorship, preference and endorsement of a specific religion.”
A Justice Department attorney had said the wooden cross was erected at Camp Holland M. Smith in 1966 to memorialize Americans who were dead or missing in Vietnam.
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