There may be no atheists in foxholes, but there are some in the Badger State, where the Freedom From Religion Foundation makes its headquarters. And it’s the FFRF, representing at least one member in Montana, that on 26 May 2011 advised the U.S. Forest Service that renewing a permit for a religious statue on Big Mountain was illegal.
The supervisor of the Flathead National Forest agreed, issuing a decision on 24 August 2011 to deny the permit. The atheists were in heaven. Then all hell broke loose. The FNF withdrew the denial decision last week to “consider new information,” reported the FNF in a press handout.
I’ll get to that new information in a moment. First, a bit of background information. The 10-foot statue of Jesus stands on a 25-foot-square of National Forest land leased (possibly at no cost) to the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization, which, with help from the U.S. Army’s Tenth Mountain Division, helped place the statue in 1953 near the top of Chair 2. The stone Jesus, maintained and frequently repainted by the Knights, faces south, arms raised to bestow blessings. If you know where to look, it might be visible from parts of the valley near Whitefish.
The law favors denying the permit. The politics — Dennis Rehberg, semi-unemployed while he fiddles in Congress while the economy burns, is siding with those who want to keep the statue where it is until hell freezes over — favor some kind of Forest Service capitulation based on “new information.” The new information, of course, is political pressure from Congress and zealously religious Americans who oppose separating church and state.
So now we’ll go through a formal review process, probably an environmental assessment, with opportunities for public comment at several stages, beginning with the formulation of a set of reasonable alternatives. That shouldn’t be hard to do, as there are not a lot of options. Here’s what the final list of alternatives might look like:
Renew the lease. Let the statue stay. Negotiate suitable terms.
Deny the lease. Require removing the statue from National Forest Land. Allow a one-foot-square bronze on granite secular marker to be permanently placed on the vacated site. I’ll be glad to write the inscription.
Sell the leased land to the Knights for full market value. This might require an act of Congress.
According to various news reports, supporters of keeping the statue where it is argue that it’s (a) well maintained and in good condition, and (b) too fragile to move. This is the Humpty-Dumpty argument. Don’t believe it. We can safely remove a skier with a broken leg from the mountain and gently set into place delicate equipment weighing tons. I think it can be airlifted by helicopter to private land with very little risk. And if Humpty-Dumpty breaks, a new statue can be built.
I favor denying the lease. Put the statue somewhere on private land. It’s ultimate location shouldn’t matter to believers because they contend that God is everywhere, even in places where religious structures are not allowed.