Group to sue over Jesus statue decision

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Wisconsin-based atheist group has said it will sue the U.S. Forest

Service over the presence of a statue of Jesus Christ on Big

Mountain.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation

announced its lawsuit last week after the Forest Service said it

would reauthorize a special use permit for the Knights of Columbus

to keep the statue in place.

The permit is for 10 years and is for

the display of the statue on a 25-foot by 25-foot parcel of land

near the top of Chair 2 at Whitefish Mountain Resort.

In a press release, Freedom From

Religion said it had a legal complaint ready and expected to file

it in federal court in Montana.

“The U.S. Forest Service has unlawfully

misused federal land owned by all of us to further Christianity in

general, and Roman Catholicism in particular,” the group’s

co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor said. “This diminishes the civil

and political standing of non-religious and non-Christian

Americans, and shows flagrant governmental preference for religion

and Christianity.”

Flathead Forest Supervisor Chip Weber

re-authorize the permit.

“I understand the statue has been a

long-standing object in the community since 1955, and I recognize

that the statue is important to the community for its historical

heritage based on its association with the early development of the

ski area on Big Mountain,” Weber said.

The statue’s historic value and

eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places

is in part directly linked to the current physical location of the

statue.

A decision last year by the U.S. Forest

Service by the statue in jeopardy for remaining on Big Mountain.

Renewal of the permit was originally denied.

The forest service delayed its final

decision last fall to seek public comment on the issue and received

about 95,000 comments on the issue. The comments did not identify

substantive concerns related to environmental conditions, according

to the forest service.

After the public comment, the forest

service issued a new permit to the Knights of Columbus.

The statue has been in its current

location since 1953 and is considered to be a memorial to local

World War II veterans. The Knights of Columbus and veterans of the

10th Mountain Division erected the statue.