NORMANDY, France – Everyone remembers the iconic opening scene in the movie Saving Private Ryan, where Matt Damon's character walks through rows and rows of crosses at the Normandy American Cemetery looking for the grave of his former comrade-in-arms.
Now a group of atheists is suing to have all those crosses, part of the 125,000 maintained around the world by the American Battle Monuments Commission, removed on the grounds that they constitute a government endorsement of religion and violate the First Amendment.
Bill Weinberger, founder of the Military Foundation for Religious Freedom (MFRF), has filed the suit in a U.S. federal court. Weinberger explained his amazement that the U.S. government was paying to maintain what he called "overtly Christian religious symbols" in the 21st century.
Relating his experience on a recent trip to France, Weinberger said, "I was walking through Normandy, paying my respects, when I suddenly saw all these crosses in a field. I thought, 'This is weird. Is there some sort of Christian revival going on?' Then one of the officials said they were military graves."
