The Freedom from Religion Foundation has pressured the mayor of Alsip, Illinois to discontinue erecting a cross on its water tower as part of its annual Christmas tradition. Mayor Patrick Kitching reports former Mayor Arnie Andrews started the tradition in the 1970s.

Kitching said he chose not to battle the Madison, Wisconsin-based atheist group to avoid a costly legal fight, but is offended by the outcome.   “I really am. It’s a tradition, and our tradition has been slapped down,” Kitching told the Chicago Sun Times. “They told me an anonymous person complained. I doubt that. I think they (foundation members) were driving down the toll way and saw our cross.”

A letter from the foundation’s attorney, Patrick Elliott, said the cross “demonstrates the village’s preference of Christianity over all other faiths, and impermissibly advances religion over non-religion. Such a government endorsement of Christianity is unconstitutional.”

A well-known Christian apologist, however, expressed frustration with the mayor’s lack of resolve and maintains local leaders often exhibit ignorance of the law.  “We need some local leaders who not only understand our history and our protocol but have the backbone to say “Okay, go ahead. We’ve recorded your complaint, but we will not abridge the rights of citizens simply because an atheist is offended,” said Dr. Alex McFarland, director of the Christian Worldview and Apologetics Center of North Greenville University.

McFarland maintains some 95 percent of the American population believes in God and atheists are systematically waging war against all Judeo-Christian religious belief in America.  “By historical precedence as well as preference, the Judeo-Christian worldview is part of our DNA,” said McFarland.

McFarland recalled Fisher Ames of Massachusetts, who provided the wording for the First Amendment passed by the House of Representatives in 1801.  He said the following about the value of the Bible in education:

 “… We have a dangerous trend beginning to take place in our education. We’re starting to put more and more textbooks into our schools. … We’ve become accustomed of late to putting little books in the hands of children containing fables with moral lessons. We are spending less time in the classroom on the Bible, which should be the principle text in our schools. The Bible states these great moral lessons better than any other manmade book.”

McFarland said he often asks Atheists, “How is it that the man who wrote the First Amendment didn’t think it would have been a violation of the First Amendment to teach the Bible in public schools?”  Furthermore, “How is it that Atheists know more about the First Amendment that the man who wrote it?”

The town’s mayor reports the Water Tower Christmas Cross will be replaced with a ‘Holiday Tree’.