ACLJ and Congressman Rehberg to Defend Jesus Statue

Many of you are aware of the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s (FFRF) ridiculous effort to have a 60-year old war memorial in Montana taken down because it depicts Jesus. In fact, over 70,000 of you signed our letter urging the National Forest Service (NFS) to ignore the FFRF and renew the lease for this memorial on Big Mountain.

Fortunately, the NFS listened and the lease was appropriately renewed. Predictably, as has become its rather frivolous habit, the FFRF has filed a lawsuit against the memorial. The suit makes the usual complaints that the mere existence of this memorial – which has been prominently in place and unchallenged since the 1950’s – is a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. While these are tired arguments, they certainly cannot be ignored.

That is why we are so pleased that Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, has agreed to file an amicus brief with us in defense of the statue and in opposition to the FFRF. Congressman Rehberg has been leading in Congress on this issue from the beginning, and we are honored that he would join with us in taking that fight to the courts on behalf of his Montana constituents. With Congressman Rehberg’s leadership, we will call on other Members of Congress to also join with us in this important effort.

We learned long ago to resist the temptation to ignore some of these ridiculous claims, and to always engage aggressively. By doing so, we routinely demonstrate the protection under the law that is afforded to this type of memorial.

Remember, this is the same group who, when talking on national television about this issue, was willing to blatantly lie about the fact that Moses is depicted in the Supreme Court. Even something as minor as a factual statement about Moses’ depiction in the Supreme Court cannot be tolerated by this group.

Fortunately, the FFRF has been served notice today that the ACLJ and Congressman Rehberg will be bringing the fight back to them in federal court. We applaud Congressman Rehberg and call on his colleagues to follow his leadership.