'Keep the Cross, Remove the Democrats,' Protestors Say

(CNSNews.com) - More than a thousand angry citizens went to a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, but despite their efforts, county supervisors refused to reverse their decision to remove a small cross from the county's official seal.

The ACLU threatened to sue the county if it did not remove the Christian cross -- which symbolizes California's missionary history. On Tuesday, as protestors waved signs, the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to uphold its earlier decision that the cross must go.

Press reports said Tuesday's meeting was standing room only, drawing the largest crowd to attend a meeting in many years.

Christians weren't the only ones waving signs. According to the Los Angeles Daily News, some of the signs read "Jews for the L.A. County Seal," "Buddhists for the Seal," and "Stop the ACLU Nazis."

'Arrogance'

"If people want to keep the cross, they need to remove the Democrats," said the Campaign for California Families, a conservative group that mobilized support for keeping the cross in the county seal.

CCF noted that all three people voting to remove the cross were Democrats. The two who voted to keep the cross were Republicans.

In two-and-a-half hours of public testimony, virtually all the speakers favored keeping the cross, CCF said.

"Those who don't respect the Constitution are doing everything in their power to remove Christian values in society," said Randy Thomasson, CCF executive director. "When our founding fathers wrote, 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,' they didn't mean to yank crosses off public property."

Thomasson argues that the First Amendment prohibits Congress from creating an official state denomination, such as the Church of England in Great Britain.

"While the establishment clause was narrowly written to prohibit an official 'Church of the United States,' the free-exercise clause -- "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" -- was meant to guarantee the free flow of religious expression everywhere else," Thomaason said.

"This freedom includes the right of federal, state, and local governments to respect and promote Christian symbols such as the cross, or other religious values the people hold dear. It's the American way."

Thomasson called Tuesday's vote a demonstration of "anti-Christian arrogance" in Los Angeles.

"Given that Democrats are the only ones attacking the cross, it's obvious that if people want to keep the cross, they need to remove the Democrats," he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union says the Establishment Clause "requires the separation of church and state," and it opposes the use of any religious symbol or speech on public property.