9/11 Cross: Court orders Atheists to explain why it's "Offensive"

The World Trade Center Cross

On June 21st, 2014, it was reported that a Federal Appeals Court said that an Atheist group trying to keep the 9/11 Cross out of the National September 11 Memorial Museum must better explain how displaying the artifact is "offensive" and violates members’ constitutional rights.

The 17-foot-tall, steel beam "Cross" was found in the rubble of the World Trade Center twin towers in New York that fell during the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The 9/11 Cross instantly became a shrine, a place of comfort for first responders who often prayed there and left messages or flowers, a sign of hope.

It was moved away from the debris a few weeks later and became a tourist attraction through several years of reconstruction.

Atheists filed a lawsuit in 2011, which was thrown out last year by a Federal judge in the Southern District of New York.

The appeals court ruling on June 19th, last Thursday, cites an amicus brief filed by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit law firm that specializes in church-state law and protecting the free expression of all religious traditions.

"We're thrilled that the court picked up on this issue," said group lawyer Eric Baxter, whose brief argued that American Atheists had no right to bring a lawsuit in the first place.

"Courts should not allow people to sue just because they claim to get ‘dyspepsia’ over a historical artifact displayed in a museum."

The museum officially opened on May 21.

The judge has now given the plaintiffs until July 14th to file supplemental legal briefs before deciding whether the case will proceed.

Among the questions that must be answered in the new filings is:

Explain how the offensiveness of the cross to them, because the plaintiffs view as a Christian symbol, becomes a "Constitutional injury?"

The other question is:

If the plaintiffs indeed feel displaying the cross "marginalizes them as American citizens' -- then how is that a 'particular and concrete injury" compared to just "the abstract stigmatization of Atheists generally?”

The judge has also asked the plaintiffs to substantiate their claim the museum and Sept. 11 memorial are getting taxpayer dollars when in fact it does not.

"Taking personal offense is not an injury that warrants invoking the power of the courts to shut down everything you disagree with," Baxter also said.

"The Constitution is not a personal tool for censoring everyone’s beliefs but your own."

That is the absolute truth of the Constitution, it should not be used as weapon against others just because you don't like what it allows or doesn't allow.

Example: Because of the 1st Amendment's Freedom of Speech, our children are exposed to more pornography than ever before.

As a Conservative, I would like to see that changed. 
On the other hand, Liberals would like our Freedom of Religion under the 1st Amendment and our Right to Bear Arms under the 2nd done away with.

The balance becomes one of compromise.

For example, though Islam is a recognized religion and those wanting to practice the Muslim faith are free to do so -- yet like Cannon Law for Catholics, Sharia Law for Muslims cannot be practiced in this country because the system of law is against the Constitution.

As for Atheists, they do believe in something -- just not a Christian God. They believe that there is no Supreme Being, a Creator, a God.

Make no mistake, it is their belief system. Their "faith" holds that nothing is there and they are as ardent followers of their faith as any Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, and so on.

Atheists in America fight Christian symbols no differently than the Catholic Church fought against symbols of the devil during the Inquisition.

Look at Atheism for what it is, a religion that worships nothingness all in a hurry to stop any Christian from practicing their faith.

And yes, when something special, spiritual, comforting, like when the 9/11 Cross took place -- they attack it with all of the fervor of those worried and scared that all of their efforts to rid the land of Christianity is failing.

And yes, they will always fail.

I believe that no matter how many Nancy Pelosis, Harry Reids, Barack Obamas, and other Liberal politicians that the Atheist can gather as allies; no matter how many Liberals ridicule, attack, and defame Christians; no matter if the Democrats pass law after law to rid the United States of the Freedom of Religion, or outlawed Christians from practicing our faith; no matter if they get their way and outlaw Christianity all together -- just as what the former Communist Soviet Union found when they outlawed Christianity, all of the Liberals in the world cannot stop a Christian from practicing their faith.

Whether it is in an attic, or a basement, in secret hid away from a Fascist government, Christians will worship -- and yes, that fact makes Atheist more angry than anything thing else in the entire world. 

Though many cannot understand why people who supposedly believe in nothing get so upset over Christians believing in Christ, I believe that it angers Atheist because it goes against their faith -- a faith that says there is nothing to believe in.

Their faith, that of Atheists, says since they believe in nothing, they demand we do to -- and in some cases are backed by the state, the government.

Yes, that's how I see it.

Tom Correa