Symbols, yes; just crosses, no

Responding to the recommendation in The Times’ Jan. 4 editorial on the Camp Pendleton crosses that the Marine Corps should either remove them or invite service members of all faiths to erect their own monuments, reader Carlos Solis of Pasadena wrote:

“The Times argues that, because the cross is ‘an inherently religious symbol,’ the two large crosses erected in recent years on a hill at Camp Pendleton should not be allowed to remain unless other religious symbols are allowed to be put up.

“What is the logic of that position? If one religious symbol -- the cross -- should not be allowed because of the separation of church and state, how does putting up multiple religious symbols solve that problem? Based on the doctrine of separation of church and state that you advocate, there should be no religious symbols allowed.”

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Editorial writer Karin Klein responds:

The establishment clause of the 1st Amendment of the Constitution has been the subject of much interpretation -- and misinterpretation. The actual text reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

People who favor allowing crosses to remain on public property as sole symbols of honoring the dead contend that because the amendment refers only to Congress, it’s fine for national parks, or state governments, or in this case the Marine Corps, to “establish” religion. But the clause has been widely and repeatedly interpreted by the courts to refer to the entire federal government, and state lawmakers and government as well.

On the other side, there are those who believe that the separation of church and state means that government cannot tolerate any religious activities on its dime, its time or its property.

But what the clause is saying is that the government must protect freedom of religion in this country by refraining from establishing a national religion or preferring one faith over another. As a Times editorial said in May 2010: “The Constitution is clear on the subject of government taking steps that establish the dominance of one religion, but it does not eliminate the possibility of any and all public religious activity.”

Government policy and court rulings have been mixed throughout the years on this issue. We allow city councils to begin their meetings with prayers, but differentiate between nonsectarian prayers -- which are, in fact, sectarian, because they leave out polytheistic religions and Buddhism as well as other beliefs -- and those identified with a particular religion. Prayers are not allowed as part of the public school day, yet students recite the Pledge of Allegiance, with its wording that this is a nation “under God.”

Inviting service members of all religions to include their symbols on the memorial hill at Camp Pendleton -- which could include an atheist symbol -- thus satisfies the establishment clause while also respecting the desire of Marines to have a special place to mourn their fallen comrades.