Legal Battle Ignites Over Jesus Statue in Montana

[alp227]

The statue of Jesus at the Whitefish Mountain Resort in Montana. (Matt Baldwin, Whitefish Pilot)

They call him Big Mountain Jesus: a six-foot statue of Christ, draped in a baby blue robe and gazing out over the majestic Flathead Valley from his perch along a ski run at the Whitefish Mountain Resort in Montana.

He has been there for more than 50 years, erected by the local Knights of Columbus chapter in honor of the soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division who told of seeing similar shrines in the mountains of Italy during World War II.

These days, though, Whitefish’s Jesus statue is at the center of an increasingly bitter battle over the legality of such symbols on federal land.

An atheist group says that because Big Mountain Jesus stands on United States Forest Service property, it is in violation of the constitutional principle separating church and state.

After receiving a complaint about the statue in the spring, the group, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Wisconsin, has been urging the Forest Service not to reauthorize the Knights’ special-use permit for the memorial, which is up for renewal.

(...)

Hiram Sasser, a lawyer for the Liberty Institute, a conservative legal advocacy group, said that because the ski resort is already leasing much of the mountain from the Forest Service, the federal government has no right to ban the statue merely because some people might not like it.


(...)

Meanwhile, United States Representative Denny Rehberg, a Montana Republican, has hurled himself into the debate, speaking at rallies for the statue and proposing swapping the 25-foot-by-25-foot piece of land for a parcel owned by the ski resort.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/25/us/in-montana-jesus-statue-is-focus-of-legal-battle.html

[skepticscott]

1. Maybe the Xstians would be happier

if they also put up statues of Zeus, Santa Claus and Ronald Reagan, just to give it some balance.

[LiberalFighter]

2. Does the resort any of the land they use?

If so, then move the damn statute on it. Otherwise, get rid of it.

They forget that there is a commandment according to one version:
'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.'

[CC]

3. Thinking they need a start & crescent

for all the American Muslim soldiers lost during our wars to go along with the Jesus. A star of David too...and well the list goes on but thinking the star & crescent would piss them off the most these days.

[Kurmudgeon]

4. It's a big statue in the middle of nowhere, get a grip.

[mwrguy]

5. Dynamite that fucking thing.

Keep your church out of my state.

[We_Have_A_Problem]

6. Keep the state out of the church.

It isn't an infringement on your rights. Don't like it? Don't look at it. I don't particularly care for many things I have to see, but I accept that the public square is one place where EVERYONE'S views must be tolerated.

Yes, it is on publicly owned land. So what? It was paid for by private donations to honor those who gave their lives in the service of this country. Is that such a bad thing?

[CC]

7. Technically by using the image of a

religious figure like the Christ in the Christian religion they are only honoring the service of his followers, leaving out any service member of any other religion or no religion. At times I tend to think people get overly upset then I am reminded how religion and specifically Christianity is use as a weapon against non-conservatives in politics these days. It is a great reminder of how important the separation of Church & State really is.