Cross to be restored in Mojave Desert

Finally complying with the spirit of a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the National Park Service announced Tuesday that a veterans group can restore a memorial cross in a remote corner of the Mojave Desert, ending a decade-old legal battle.

Wanda Sandoz of Yucca Valley recalls a wooden cross was first erected on the two-story Sunrise Rock in 1934 by a World War I veteran, Riley Bembry. He and other veterans would hold barbecues and barn dances near the site, she said.

Her husband, Henry, now 72, knew Mr. Bembry and promised the dying veteran he would look after the cross, Wanda Sandoz says. He kept the promise for decades.

But the site became part of the Mojave Desert Preserve in 1994. That meant the cross was then on public land.

A federal judge approved the settlement Monday, permitting the park service to turn over the remote hilltop to a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Barstow and the Veterans Home of California-Barstow. In exchange, the park will receive five acres of donated private property elsewhere.

The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed in 2001 by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a retired Park Service employee who argued that the Christian religious symbol was unconstitutionally located on government land.

The U.S. Supreme Court in April 2010 refused to order removal of the cross. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the cross represents more than religion: “It evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles, battles whose tragedies are compounded if the fallen are forgotten.”

The principle that the government should not impose or favor one single religion is an important one. That’s why such complaints deserve a serious hearing.

That said, this matter hovered between the ridiculous and the sad. If centuries-old Spanish missions still stand as national landmarks – respected for their architecture and what they teach us about our history – should they be stripped of their bells and crucifixes out of fear that government agents mean to use them to force unwilling Christian conversions? Should some of the greatest music and paintings of the Western tradition be banned from Washington’s museums and concert halls because they were based on religious themes?

The Founders wanted to guard against an official “religious test.” They never meant that every sign or symbol of religious faith should be banished from our midst.

Henry Sandoz has a replacement 7-foot steel cross ready to go, his wife says. The Park Service vows to post signs, noting the cross will now stand on private land. A plaque will also note the cross honors U.S. war veterans. Fine.

In the end, the courts got this one right.