(Digital Editor's Note: This article appeared first in the May 2023 edition of the print version of The Stand.)
During and following the “mostly peaceful protests” of 2020, seeing statues and monuments removed across the fruited plain became a common occurrence.
By July 2020, according to Jonah Gottschalk from The Federalist, “At least 183 monuments, memorials, statues, and major historical markers [were] defaced or pulled down since protests began in May.”
Why the hostility toward symbols that serve as a reminder of the country’s heritage?
According to Nile Gardiner and Joseph Loconte of the Heritage Foundation, “The radical Left has hijacked debate over America’s monuments to wage a cultural war. Their goal: to deny the moral legitimacy of our democratic republic.”
Nothing new
Though the attempts to remove or destroy historical works were thrust into the public eye more recently, the movement is nothing new.
Countless are the stories of attempts to remove crosses, Nativity scenes, Ten Commandment monuments, and anything else with any reference to God.
Not only have the physical symbols been under attack, but also individuals who hold to the morals and ethics espoused in those symbols have been attacked for exercising their freedom to express their sincerely held religious beliefs.
However, First Liberty Institute (FLI) believes there is hope. The First Amendment advocacy group has launched an initiative to protect and restore religious displays and monuments and return them to the public square.
Fighting back
FLI is one of the nation’s largest legal organizations dedicated exclusively to defending religious liberty for all Americans. Last November, FLI introduced Restoring Faith in America, a movement it hopes will save and preserve the nation’s heritage.
As a result of two recent landmark victories, FLI believes the tide is turning, and where religious liberty has lost ground, it can be reclaimed and even advanced.
Writing about the initiative, Jorge Gomez, FLI senior manager of content strategy, cited the Kennedy v. Bremerton School District and American Legion v. American Humanist Association cases as decisions that will afford the opportunity to right the ship.
The Kennedy case involved high school football coach Joe Kennedy of Bremerton, Washington, who was fired for his post-game 50-yard line prayers. In the latter case, the American Humanist Association attempted to remove a nearly 100-year-old WWI Veterans Memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland, because it is shaped like a cross.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality for the defendants in both cases – Kennedy in July 2022, and American Legion in June 2019.
Gomez wrote, “The victories in American Legion and Kennedy brought an end to the days of offended observers forcing government to scrub all public references to the divine.”
Going on the offensive
Rather than merely waiting and defending, FLI suggests it is time to be proactive. FLI believes the Supreme Court made it clear in their decisions that public religious displays should be seen as “presumptively constitutional.”
“For decades, public religious expression was censored, and people of faith were stripped of their constitutional rights,” Gomez wrote. “Religious Americans were accustomed to playing defense and reacting to violations of our First Freedom. But with the incredible new momentum for religious freedom, we cannot stand idly by as enemies of freedom plan their next attack.”
