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City Cross May Land Frankenmuth in court by: Ed Brayton from http://michiganmessenger.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=78F77348653022F20996AB6F4494D72C?diaryId=1184 Wednesday (04/30) at 11:42 AM A local resident's complaints about a Lutheran cross on the city seal may have Frankenmuth headed for a federal lawsuit. Lloyd Clarke, a retiree and longtime political activist who chuckles when you suggest that perhaps he likes being a gadfly, already succeeded a few weeks ago in petitioning the city to remove crosses from a city bridge. Now he has his sights set on removing a Lutheran cross from the official city shield, which he says makes the community of 5000 in Saginaw County less welcoming to those of a different background and amounts to an official endorsement of Christianity. Clark plans to go to the city council meeting on May 6 to request the removal of the cross and says that if it's not removed, he will contact Americans United for the Separation of Church and State or the American Civil Liberties Union and prepare to file a federal lawsuit over the issue. Clark says his goal is to make Frankenmuth a more welcoming city: "My goal now is to convince the city council that they should delete the cross from the shield. That would be the best solution because otherwise it prolongs the effort to bring them within the constitution. This will help make Frankenmuth a community of inclusion, not exclusion. They want to be a German, Lutheran, Christian community, and they can be culturally, but not legally." Continued - Ed Brayton :: City Cross May Land Frankenmuth in court The official city shield, or seal, was adopted by the Frankenmuth city council in 1963. An official document put out by the Frankenmuth Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau describes the religious meaning of the symbolism: The seal of the great reformer, Dr. Martin Luther, is the open rose with a heart and white cross. That and the sheaf of grain stand for the 12 farmer leaders plus the pastor, his wife and her child who, by word and example, were to teach and live Christianity in the New World. You can see the Lutheran cross in the bottom right hand corner of the picture on the left. Clarke calls this a clear endorsement not only of Christianity, but of Lutheran Christianity specifically; city officials say that it is merely an acknowledgment of the history and traditions of the people who settled and founded the town. Frankenmuth is a predominately German community, of course, and Martin Luther is the most prominent and influential religious figure in German history. But that history and tradition includes some troubling elements that might dramatically affect one's perceptions of the meaning of that symbolism. While Luther is best known for sparking the Protestant revolution against the Catholic Church, many historians also note that his virulent, even violent, anti-semitism helped plant the seeds that led later in German history to the Holocaust. In 1543, Luther wrote On the Jews and Their Lies, a book with many passages that could have been taken directly from Hitler's Mein Kampf. He called Jews "children of the devil" and "vermin," likening them to "gangrene" that eats away at the body of society. He urged his followers to burn down their synagogues and homes and purge Jews from society, something he did himself in throwing the Jews out of Saxony and many German towns during his life. His book concluded by calling for the Jews to be murdered: There is no other explanation for this than the one cited earlier from Moses -- namely, that God has struck [the Jews] with 'madness and blindness and confusion of mind.' So we are even at fault in not avenging all this innocent blood of our Lord and of the Christians which they shed for three hundred years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and the blood of the children they have shed since then (which still shines forth from their eyes and their skin). We are at fault in not slaying them. Clarke says this history underscores his argument. "Now we have this cross that not only denotes Christianity, but Lutheranism specifically. And with the history of Martin Luther, the inference can easily be drawn that there is an attitude of exclusion rather than inclusion because of his writings against the Jews. Most Lutherans likely don't even know this history and I'm sure the city council that adopted the shield did not intend any anti-semitic overtones to that symbolism. But to outsiders, especially to those of the Jewish faith, this would undoubtedly make them feel slighted and unwelcome. And I think we should strive to be a welcoming community to those of all religious persuasions." The Supreme Court has never specifically addressed religious symbolism on city seals, but courts around the country have reached disparate results. In Webb v City of Republic, a federal court in Missouri ruled that a city seal with the Christian fish symbol on it "was in fact a Christian symbol and an endorsement of religion." In ACLU v City of Stow, a case from Ohio and thus in the same judicial circuit with Michigan, a federal court likewise ruled that a cross on that city's seal constituted an impermissable endorsement of Christianity. But in a Texas case, Murray v Austin, the 5th circuit court of appeals ruled that a cross on a city seal was not a religious endorsement but merely an acknowledgment of history and tradition because it was taken from the coat of arms of Stephen F. Austin, considered the "father of Texas." Given the strong German history of Frankenmuth, a court could use a similar analysis in a court challenge on this case. The reaction from the community has been mostly in opposition, but Clarke says it has remained polite. He's received a few negative letters and phone calls, he said, but nothing that he considers threatening or harassing. Several clergyman quoted in the local paper urged the community to respond with civility and restraint. Many citizens and businesses have put up crosses around town on their own property to show their opposition to Clarke's position, which he says is just fine with him: "That's the appropriate place for the crosses, on private rather than public property." |