NC Residents Rally Over Removal of ‘Religious’ Memorial
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
RALEIGH (Worthy News)– North Carolina residents came together last week to protest the removal of a veterans’ memorial, according to Christian News.
Back in 2012, a group called Americans United for Separation of Church and State had filed suit against the City of King, NC, claiming that a veterans’ memorial depicting a soldier kneeling before a cross was unconstitutional. But others supported the memorial, notably Joseph Glatthaar, professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“I consider the artwork to be a tasteful display that honors veterans and am convinced that it suggests nothing more than a soldier paying tribute to a recently fallen comrade,” Glatthaar wrote the court. “Those who argue that this is an attempt to promote religion or one faith over another have simply taken the artist’s rendition out of its historical context and assumed things that the artist has not depicted.”
Although King had fought the AUSCS lawsuit for the past two years, its city council was forced to agree to a settlement because the costs to continue the struggle would be prohibitive.
Following the removal of the monument last week, residents gathered in King’s Central Park to plant a cross and kneel before it in memory of the missing monument.