[/caption]GHN Editor - "The hostile and discriminatory actions by the Veterans Affairs officials in Houston are outrageous, unconstitutional and must stop," said Jeff Mateer, Esq., general counsel of Liberty Institute.
With this the Liberty Institute sets forth its concern that the separation of church and state in its interpretation by the Veterans Affairs has gone too far. So with VFW District 4, American Legion Post 586, National Memorial Ladies they have joined a lawsuit against the VA as well as the Director of Houston National Cemetery for Religious Hostility.
This lawsuit represents the continuing controversy over how much religious symbolism and behavior and of what type should be presented in a public place. Some organizations have even been set up to fight for the right to celebrate Christmas publicly.
Recently the Louisiana legislature passed a bill allowing a monument of the Ten Commandments to be placed on government grounds in Baton Rouge. A similar memorial was upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court. But there are instances where the conflict has been over Christmas displays, prayers and religious meetings that take place in areas and gatherings that have no intrinsic religious orientation.
Liberty Institute protests the inability for people to have Christian readings and prayers at veterans funerals at a national cemetery. The organization maintains this level of restriction in religious practice is discriminatory. In a recent press release, the Liberty Institute points out how it successfully represented a Houston pastor by the name of Scott Rainey in a suit in federal court where the Houston VA had prohibited him from saying a prayer in Jesus name on Memorial Day.
“Government officials who engage in religious discrimination against citizens are breaking the law. Sadly, this seems to be a pattern of behavior at the Houston VA National Cemetery."Mateer maintains.
The VA has violated the First Amendment is Liberty Institute's claim, describing its concern that the VA will not allow God to be mentioned at the funeral of Veterans and that prayers have to be submitted to the Government for approval. The Institute further maintains that the one of the government officials, Jose Henriquez, had told key VFW leadership that the word “God” is forbidden on greeting cards and at burial services.
In 2010 the Supreme Court in a vote of 5 to 4 overturned a decision that had been made by a federal judge objecting to the erection of a white cross that had been constructed in the Mojave desert 75 years ago to honor World War I war dead. The objection to the cross had been made by the ACLU that had contended practitioners of other faiths, such as Judaism, would not want to be memorialized by a cross and that it did not represent all people since the cross was a religious symbol only for Christians.
Liberty Institute believes there is precedent for veterans to have prayers and religious symbols at their funerals whether on public or private property, and in doing so it brings up the argument once again over church and state, one that continues despite the previous decisions made on the subject.
