If I told you a federal court recently ruled that a 60-year-old statue of Jesus may remain on public property, I’m guessing you’d be surprised. After all, you may have heard some people argue that a crèche at the courthouse or a Star of David on a Holocaust memorial violate the First Amendment’s prohibition on government establishment of religion.
Because, it turns out, that despite recent efforts to bar religious symbols from the public square the U.S. Constitution doesn’t require us to erase religion from history — or from public celebrations or memorials for that matter.
The statue in question in the case, Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Weber, was erected to honor veterans from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division and tells a fascinating story about their experiences during and after World War II.
The 10th Mountain soldiers were recruited from ski clubs around the country specifically to fight in the Alps of Italy. After the war, the ski industry boomed when thousands of these veterans returned to become athletes, ski instructors, and developers who wanted world-class slopes like those they’d seen in Europe.
One veteran purchased a floundering resort near Whitefish, Mo., and successfully bid the 1951 U.S. ski championships. Many of the competitors had served in the 10th Mountain Division and had a mini-reunion on the slopes.
Remembering the shrines they had seen in the mountains in Italy, they recruited the local Knights of Columbus to help erect the statue to honor their fallen comrades. Because the slopes were on public land, the Knights obtained a special-use permit from the Forest Service.
Now, for nearly 60 years, the statue has stood as a memorial and a locally-beloved curiosity. Visitors view it as a quirky landmark great for high-fiving Jesus, meeting up with friends, and photo ops. The Knights, in turn, dutifully repair and restore the statue each summer.
This peaceful arrangement was shattered in 2011, when the Wisconsin-based and militantly-atheist Freedom from Religion Foundation caught wind that the Forest Service — under neutral regulations — had just renewed the statue’s permit for another 10 years. They sued, demanding that the statue be destroyed.
Fortunately, in August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected the atheists’ claim, noting that no reasonable person would believe the statue constitutes a government establishment of religion.
The decision is true to our constitutional values. But it is also common sense. Our museums shouldn’t reject centuries of religiously-inspired art. Our history books can’t ignore the Pilgrims who came to America for religious reasons or the civil rights movement led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Rather than censoring any reference to religion that might offend someone, the Constitution requires neutral policies that allow space for everyone to voice their beliefs.
History confirms, not threatens, religious freedom. The Friendship Bell in Oak Ridge, Tenn., gifted from Japan, does not endorse Buddhism, although some litigants claimed it did. The Ground Zero Cross, formed from the twisted wreckage of 9/11, has great significance to many who lost loved ones, but it doesn’t impose religion on anyone. The Pope’s address to Congress last week was an encouragement to many who aren’t Catholic, but it wasn’t a government endorsement of Catholicism.
Everyone has the right to believe or not to believe, but the government can’t favor one side by forcing cultural amnesia about religious aspects of our history and culture, especially not for the purpose of soothing hyper-sensitive militant atheists like the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
Religion is part of the human condition. It is important to the vast majority of Americans and plays a significant role in American life. We are a richer nation when we embrace public manifestations of our religious pluralism, including the obscure statue of Jesus that stands on a ski slope in Montana.
Courtesy of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty 
