Keep the Cross at Camp Pendleton

This is the cross that is causing so much "trouble" for some people in this country.

When you read the following, you may think it is a well thought out piece of history but if you think of the motive, it leaves a lot of wholes.

I have a problem with the government pushing one Christian doctrine over another because that is in fact supporting it and establishing it. I have a problem when I read about some Chaplains in the military thinking getting converts to their denomination is their job instead of taking care of all the troops. I have a problem when there is not enough diversity in the military so that no matter what faith a soldier has, they have someone to talk to of a like mind.

What I do not believe is that a cross put up on Camp Pendleton to honor the lives lost threatens anyone. We really need to wonder why someone would feel threatened by it or think their rights are being taken away by anyone. Did anyone tell anyone else they couldn't put up a symbol of their own faith? Did anyone deny the right of anyone to worship as they see fit? Then why deny the right of Marines to put up a cross as a symbol of sacrifice?

Does this person think that building chapels on bases violates anything?

Cross at Camp Pendleton: Good intent gone wrong
By Randall Hamud

midnight, Nov. 20, 2011
On Nov. 10, a small group of people lugged a cumbersome, 13-foot cross to the top of a hill inside the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base in Oceanside. The next day, Veterans Day, they erected the cross at precisely 11 a.m. They took their cue for the day and time from the predecessor of Veterans Day, Armistice Day, which celebrated the end of the fighting in World War I at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918.

But these people had more in mind than just Veterans Day. They were there primarily to honor four Marines of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, who were killed in combat in Iraq from 2004 to 2007. Three of the four fallen Marines had been part of a group of seven Marines who had erected a cross on the same spot in 2003. It later burned down in a brush fire.

The new group of people was more eclectic than its 2003 predecessor. It included a Marine Corps staff sergeant; a Marine gunnery sergeant; the widows and three young children of two of the fallen Marines; and a retired naval officer who had previously served as the regiment’s chaplain. Undoubtedly, the sojourn up the hill and the erection of the cross were attended by plenty of tears and heart-wrenching sadness.

Had this scenario unfolded on private land, nobody could question its propriety. However, their project was carried out on public property – Camp Pendleton is a military base owned by the federal government. When they erected their cross on that hilltop, they violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution – the very Constitution for which those four fallen Marines – and all of our fallen military personnel in all of our wars – sacrificed their lives.
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If you believe that the cross should stay up, go to this Facebook page and put in your voice.
Keep the Camp Pendleton Cross