Remember the lawsuit filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation against the town of Whiteville, TN over a giant cross on the city’s water tower? The two sides have now agreed to a consent decree that is essentially a win for the FFRF, despite the mayor’s loud and defiant posturing over the issue.
When the FFRF first demanded the removal of the cross, Whiteville Mayor James Bellar responded with much bluster. He then had one arm of the cross removed, so it’s no longer a cross. The consent decree allows that to remain but is still a win for the FFRF:
1. Defendants are enjoined from installing decorated or undecorated stand-alone crosses on city hall property;
2. The Defendants agree not to replace the arm removed from the structure located on the Whiteville water tower, and not to install any other decorated or undecorated stand-alone cross on the water tower;
3. Defendant Bellar agrees not to install a decorated or undecorated stand-alone cross on the publicly owned portion of the sidewalk in front of his insurance agency located at 140 E Main Street in the Town of Whiteville, Tennessee;
4. Within 30 days of the entry of this Agreed Judgment and Order of Dismissal, the Town agrees to pay the Foundation attorney’s fees and other litigation expenses in the amount of $20,000.00. The parties will not apply for, nor will the Court award additional fees or expenses associated with this litigation.
Bellar had also sent a letter to the local attorney in the case calling the case “terroristic, cowardly and shameful” and saying that it caused “fear and terror” in the hearts of the town’s “older people.”
38 comments
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Doug Little
August 14, 2012 at 2:07 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hey, you sure he isn’t talking about Paul Ryan’s budget?
Randomfactor
August 14, 2012 at 2:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
it caused “fear and terror” in the hearts of the town’s “older people.”
But threatening people with eternal torture for the slightest misdeed, that’s just theology.
ambassadorfromverdammt
August 14, 2012 at 2:14 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@1 Ryan’s budget could make anyone cross.
MikeMa
August 14, 2012 at 2:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’ll bet the mayor can be found muttering to himself ‘damned atheists’ as he shuffles around town too. Where does the babble enshrine ‘poor loser’ as a valid role model?
I’ll also bet a nickel that the sale and display of crosses on private property skyrocketed in the town. Good for them.
eric
August 14, 2012 at 2:36 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ignoring the ridiculous exaggeration, I can imagine some citizens DID think it was vandalism when only one arm of the cross was removed. They’d think that because nobody would expect their public officials to do such a thing; removing only one arm is something teens would do as a joke.
What they would expect of rational government officials is that if there was a problem with the cross – be it safety, building codes, or other legalities – then the government would remove it until the problem was resolved.
ashleybell
August 14, 2012 at 2:48 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
and saying that it caused “fear and terror” in the hearts of the town’s “older people.”
gee, I wonder who stirred up THAT hornet’s nest?
Attorney: ‘ then they’ll come for your grandchildren and burn down your houses!’
jimnorth
August 14, 2012 at 3:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
So the water tower is now giving them the finger?
richardhowland-bolton
August 14, 2012 at 3:12 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Jimnorth
Not having seen it, but the immediate reaction was that it probably looks like a really skinny guy with an erection.
richardhowland-bolton
August 14, 2012 at 3:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
And long legs
Zinc Avenger (Sarcasm Tags 3.0 Compliant)
August 14, 2012 at 3:17 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Eh, it still looks like a cross from the side…
Reverend PJ
August 14, 2012 at 3:30 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wouldn’t a cross with one arm removed look like a gallows?
eric
August 14, 2012 at 3:41 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Maybe this is a good model solution for future cases. The Christian community gets to put up a cross, then objectors get to remove one arm.
I choose the bottom arm.
John Pieret
August 14, 2012 at 3:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wouldn’t a cross with one arm removed look like a gallows?
Actually is does:
http://www.goddiscussion.com/100047/settlement-reached-between-the-freedom-from-religion-foundation-and-whiteville-tn/
Another funny thing: the residents were shocked, SHOCKED, when they were recently informed that their water bills had nearly doubled. Apparently this was unrelated to the suit but now the Town has to pony up $20,000 to the FFRF.
Aratina Cage
August 14, 2012 at 4:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Love how they assume older people are not atheists or non-Christian.
Nentuaby
August 14, 2012 at 4:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wow, so they destroyed the thing out of spite but insist the destroyed thing must stay. That’s like something a six-year-old child would do in an argument with their parents. Also, isn’t it supposed to be some kind of blasphemy to display a disfigured cross?
grumpyoldfart
August 14, 2012 at 4:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think the Christians have had a win. The cross with an arm removed will always be a visual reminder that Christians are being persecuted by atheists. Christians love to play the martyr and they will be delighted to have the chance to do so. Expect a remembrance service next year.
Doug Little
August 14, 2012 at 4:36 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Probably fits in nicely with some other opinions they hold in that town.
frog
August 14, 2012 at 4:38 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@16: yes, but tourists will all be like, “Why is there a gallows on the water tower?” and the cleverer ones will say, “Shit, this place is called Whiteville.”
Sometimes the South just parodies itself.
John Horstman
August 14, 2012 at 4:44 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Bullet dodged! A victory for Christians everywhere as this offensive act of idolatry is corrected, thus sparing us all from Yahweh’s wrath.
:-P
baal
August 14, 2012 at 4:48 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Nothing like harassing the attorney because you lost. The consent decree also make clear that Bellar is spiteful. He put up a cross in front of his insurance business on his public space sidewalk and called it ‘free speech.’ That too has to go in the consent decree*.
*it was a mediated outcome but really Mayor Bellar lost wholesale.
brianwestley
August 14, 2012 at 4:54 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wouldn’t a cross with one arm removed look like a gallows?
It would be a fun engineering project to, say, launch a rock attached to a strong nylon thread over the arm, and then pull a noose up to it and anchor the thread.
John Horstman
August 14, 2012 at 4:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@15: Religious symbols (well, any symbols that are worshiped aka idols; also any depictions of anything that lives in the ocean or in the soil or is in Heaven – Jews and Christians break a commandment every time they take a photograph or draw a picture of a fish or a worm or something imagined to be in Heaven) are strictly forbidden by Yahweh’s Ten (actually more like 11; it’s a bit hard to determine stable separations, and whether “I am Yahweh, your god” really should count as a commandment – I think it’s more of a proclamation) Commandments, specifically because they can be defaced. The Christians missed the memo, though to be fair, many have not actually read the Holy Bible.
quixote
August 14, 2012 at 5:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’m pretty sure those older people are perfectly capable of putting up a cross on their own private property if they so desire.
Randomfactor
August 14, 2012 at 5:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Semaphore “J” or “P” depending on which side you’re looking at.
coreymondello
August 14, 2012 at 6:14 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“terroristic, cowardly and shameful” and saying that it caused “fear and terror” in the hearts of the town’s “older people.”
its always about them being the victims, always attacked for being christian. they apparently dont read the bible which states you are to expect persecution for your beliefs if u are christian and u are to welcome them, almost beg for more, for this shows your god you are willing to suffer for him.
markr1957 - old enough to know better
August 14, 2012 at 8:37 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
#13 – pity you can’t figure out the dimensions. I have a wicked idea to carve a dead jeebus nailed up by one hand and both feet and fix it to the remains of the water tower ‘gallows’.
Crudely Wrott
August 14, 2012 at 9:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The new look of the instrument of torture and death does look a lot like another one, a gallows, but I’m sitting here chuckling because I think it looks like -1 (minus one).
Quine
August 14, 2012 at 11:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Any non-loss is a win for the FFRA because other places will see that they can’t avoid the costs of fighting.
dan4
August 14, 2012 at 11:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What does a water tower have to do with Christianity (i.e. why was a cross placed on the city’s water tower in the first place?)?
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven
August 15, 2012 at 12:08 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Only after dark. It IS the South, after all.
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven
August 15, 2012 at 12:09 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wait, I thought Southerners put crosses on OTHER people’s lawns…
billyeager
August 15, 2012 at 4:38 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Now, if he’d have said “Muslim sons of bitches” would that not, as a public official, result in him losing his job and/or facing some hefty recrimination? How can he get away with making that sort of nasty comment when it clearly qualifies as ‘incitement’?
dingojack
August 15, 2012 at 4:47 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Azkyroth (#31) – probably doubly true in ‘Whiteyville’.
Dingo
bobcarroll
August 15, 2012 at 6:09 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
ref 24: Great! Now all we need is “E” and “D” and we’ll have the complete set…
Nancy New, Queen of your Regulatory Nightmare
August 15, 2012 at 7:53 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Dan4 at 29–
Why the watertower? Visibility–watertowers stand up high and have a nice, big, solid-colored surface upon which to display something. Many types have to be regularly painted anyway, as maintenance, so why not put something up there?
Many communities use them for some sort of town-promotion–the local HS team, or other appropriate (there’s a small town in MO with a billiard ball-painted tower, for example–Tipton, I think–a big 8-ball in the sky).
democommie
August 15, 2012 at 7:56 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Expect a remembrance service next year.”
And another lawsuit, since the rememberance service will make it obvious that the cross is still a cross and is STILL placed on public property.
“13 – pity you can’t figure out the dimensions. I have a wicked idea to carve a dead jeebus nailed up by one hand and both feet and fix it to the remains of the water tower ‘gallows’.”
I see a movie treatment here, “The FugJESUS–The Return of the One-armed Messiah”.
“What does a water tower have to do with Christianity (i.e. why was a cross placed on the city’s water tower in the first place?)?’
It is probably the tallest structure in the town and the surrounding area.
Moggie
August 15, 2012 at 9:12 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
They’re hoping that Jebus will turn it into a wine tower.
Paul Neubauer
August 15, 2012 at 11:27 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
High five to bobcarroll @34!
I was thinking along the same lines when I saw the “J” and “P” :-)
Paul