One day after the San Diego City Council voted to appeal a judge's ruling to remove the controversial cross atop Mount Soledad, African-American church leaders added their voices to the campaign to keep the towering touchstone of Christianity.
“This is bigger than just about a symbol because it's about Jesus,” said the Rev. Marshall Sharpe of Phillips Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Emerald Hills.
Like others at a news conference yesterday, Sharpe considers this an assault on his religion.
“Though it's public land, it's still God's land,” Sharpe told dozens of preachers and supporters at Bayview Baptist Church in Encanto.
The National Clergy Council and the Christian Defense Coalition, both based in Washington, D.C., also entered the fray, signaling a growing national attention – at least among conservative Christians.
“It really is much larger than San Diego, much larger than California,” the Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the clergy council, said as he waited yesterday to meet with San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. “It really involves every American citizen.”
Because this month's court ruling was by a federal judge, Schenck thinks it will affect other cases of religious symbols in the public square.
The two groups have launched a fundraising drive to help with legal costs, hoping to enlist support from thousands of congregations. Today, the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based religious liberty group, is expected to join the legal battle to preserve the centerpiece of the outdoor war memorial.
As for San Diego's African-American church community, the gospel radio station, KURS/AM 1040, also will push to keep the war memorial and the cross as is, said Larry “Preacherman” Thompson, a local radio personality who launched “The Soul of San Diego” two years ago with Bayview's senior pastor, the Rev. Timothy Winters.
“Removing the cross is a serious infringement and if we don't stand up against this, what will be next?” Winters said.
On Tuesday, the City Council voted 5-3 to fight the judge's ruling that gave the city until Aug. 1 to remove the cross or pay $5,000 a day in fines.
Those who want the cross removed say its presence is a clear church-state separation issue. Courts have ruled repeatedly that having the cross on city land is unconstitutional.
