A California membership is combating to get its cross again on what they are saying is their personal property after an atheist group campaigned for it to be removed.
Fifty years in the past, a devout Christian requested the Albany Lions Membership to construct and keep a big lighted metal and plexiglass cross on his personal land, to be lit throughout the Christmas and Easter seasons. When lit, the cross is seen for miles, which the group says sends “its message of God’s love and as a comfort to the Christian community.”
The encircling space has since turn out to be public land however the cross is a part of an easement dispute between the Metropolis of Albany and Lions Membership.
The Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) – a conservative authorized protection group based mostly in California – filed a petition for aid after the Metropolis of Albany eliminated the cross in June 2023. Brad Dacus, its president, informed Fox Information Digital he believes the town has an animus in the direction of Christians.
“If there was a giant LGBT flag or something like that, this city would embrace it. No problem. So it’s specifically because of the viewpoint and the religious viewpoint and perspective of the cross. That’s their agenda,” he stated.
“The City’s public statements and actions have been hostile and targeted the Christian cross because [of] its religious message,” the petition, filed on March 22, stated. “The City Council lacked neutrality and attacked the cross and the Lions for its free exercise of religion and free speech.”
Dacus stated he believes the statements from metropolis officers give him a slam dunk case.
“It is a vicious, blatant, anti-constitutional, discriminatory action by the City of Albany. And that’s what makes this case so shocking. You know, the city didn’t even hide it,” Dacus stated.
The petition cited comments from then-Mayor Aaron Tiedemann, who is associated with the Green Party. Tiedemann served as mayor from December 2022 to December 2023 and is currently a member of Albany City Council.
Tiedmann celebrated the cross removal in 2023 as a step consistent with the Bay Area city’s values.
“The city has actually put its money where its mouth is, and our city looks a little bit more accepting now in a way that we think is consistent with our values,” he told the East Bay Times in June. “For the small local group of people that really want to see the cross stay, when you’ve had such privilege for therefore lengthy, shedding it appears like being oppressed. That’s going to be an adjustment for people, however I feel we’ll all get used to it, and I feel it’s an actual profit.”
The petition drew consideration to the East Bay Occasions reporting, “Tiedemann, who grew up in Albany, said people have long complained about the cross for a litany of reasons: it symbolizes a preference of one religion over others, offends some members of the city’s diverse communities, is reminiscent of KKK cross-burnings in the East Bay hills in the 1920s, and is an eyesore.”
Then-Mayor Tiedemann (pictured), at the moment a metropolis councilmember, stated of the cross removing on the time, “…our city looks a little bit more accepting now in a way that we think is consistent with our values.”
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Dacus says the town is utilizing eminent area to assert possession over the property, and make sure the cross’s removing.
“The takings clause doesn’t allow the government to take property because they don’t like the religious speech,” he stated. “If they could get away with this, make no mistake, then they could get away with taking down a church with eminent domain, or any other kind of religious entity or organization. And, of course, we all know that the Constitution forbids that.”
Dacus defined he was “very optimistic with regard to the final outcome of this case” and was prepared to take all of it the way in which to the Supreme Court docket, if needed.
He added that anti-Christian sentiment within the U.S. was comparatively new and was coinciding with an uptick in antisemitism.
“The feeling of hostility and bigotry against… the Christian community is something that is relatively new. It’s really come to the surface just within the last few decades and has specifically spiked within the last decade itself,” he stated. “We’ve seen religious intolerance against the Jewish community in the past. Unfortunately, it’s spiking. Antisemitism is unbelievably blatant and open in our country, our universities.”
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The PJI president stated that voters want to pay attention to who they’re electing to make sure they’re choosing these “sensitive towards religious freedom” who will “not give in to the leftist extremist ideology.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Tiedemann and didn’t instantly obtain a response. The Metropolis of Albany stated it was unable to remark presently attributable to pending litigation.
