Take a look at the link below. It is an article on a recent controversy concerning a 24 foot cross on a hilltop near Lyndonville, Vermont.
Burlington Free Press – Lyndon Cross at Center of Rights Dispute
According to a 2009 magazine article, the village of Lyndonville, Vermont is one of 15 “Best Small Towns” in New England. Every year since 1932 the village hosts a local community fair, and just very recently the village has become center point in a new First Amendment Court case. Enter the Downing family, a foster family of seven children and 35 foster children. The foster parents, in their 70’s, have built the Chapel of the Holy Family in order to serve their family. In about 2007, the Downings erected a 24 foot cross in front of the chapel, of which the Downings are fighting to keep.
Despite the land being private property, local zoning officials have called for the removal of the cross, due to complaints of neighbors. The local authorities state that the cross does not fit in with Vermont’s environment, that a 24 foot cross on 800 acres of private property is out of place.
Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter about his at particular time. For citizens who have actually bothered to study the history of their nation, this should b familiar. It is the response that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association, of which the clause “Separation of Church and State” is badly misquoted.
To messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.
Gentlemen
The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.
Th Jefferson
Jan. 1. 1802.
The ex-President makes the point that religion should remain between “Man & his God,” and then quotes the First Amendment of the Constitution. His famous statement of “Separation of Church and State” simply reinforces the idea that the government cannot restrict the practice of religion. In the court case, the Downings state that the cross is essential to their beliefs. If it really is essential, then the government cannot force the Downings to remove the cross, and that local zoning laws are not exempt to the First Amendment.
Judge for yourself:
Burlington Free Press – Lyndon Cross at Center of Rights Dispute
Library of Congress – Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association
