Advertisement

Opinion: What the cross theft proves

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

No matter who stole the memorial cross in the Mojave Desert -- fraternity pranksters, atheist terrorists or rogue scrap-metal dealers -- the theft of the much-litigated symbol can be seized on by both its defenders and its opponents.

Critics of the metal cross, successor of one erected to honor World War I dead, argued that its presence in a federal preserve was offensive to non-Christians and church-state separationists. Until we know for sure who’s to blame, they can contend that opponents of the establishment of religion took the law -- and the cross -- into their own hands (though I don’t know of any civil-liberties group with a paramilitary wing).

Advertisement

Some defenders of the cross, however, said it was no big constitutional deal because the display was so isolated that almost nobody could see it and be offended. A variation of this argument was offered by Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito in his opinion in the latest round of litigation in the case. Alito, who supported a deal in which the government would swap the land around the cross for a private parcel, wrote that ‘at least until this litigation, it is likely that the cross was seen by more rattlesnakes than humans.’ The nobody-can-see-it argument is arguably buttressed by the ability of the thieves to make away with the display without being observed.

Whatever the explanation, the case may remain unsolved. Snakes don’t make good witnesses.

-- Michael McGough

Advertisement