Monday, April 21, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Cross covered, but desert residents keep Easter

Park Service placed tarp on religious symbol because of constitutional fight

A tarp covers a cross in the Mojave National Preserve as worshippers gather for an Easter Sunday morning service. The National Park Service placed the tarp. Photo by Christine H. Wetzel. Several dozen people gather Easter Sunday morning at the site of a cross in the Mojave Desert to listen to a sermon by the Rev. Larry Craig. The Easter services, held at sunrise, have become a tradition among people who live in Southern California's desert communities. Photo by Christine H. Wetzel.

MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE, Calif. -- Their religious symbol has been hidden from view. But no one has told them they can't pray here -- at least not yet -- so that is what a few dozen desert residents did on a cold Easter Sunday morning.

"This," said Mountain Pass resident Wanda Sandoz with a sweep of her hand, "is our closest church."

The congregation did not haphazardly choose this spot in the middle of Southern California's Mojave Desert. On a very special rock, dubbed Sunrise Rock by locals, stands a 10-foot-high steel and concrete cross that has made this a place worthy of religious services, the people say.

The cross, erected by a group of World War I veterans in 1934 as a tribute to their fallen comrades, has become controversial in recent years. Now, unlike when it was built, it sits within a national park, the Mojave National Preserve.

Because the cross is a religious symbol and because the National Park Service, which is in charge of the area, will not allow other religious symbols in the area, civil libertarians object to the cross's presence.

Locals argue it is primarily a war memorial, not a religious symbol, though they have been gathering at the site for sunrise services on Easter for about 30 years. Services took place at the cross in the 1930s, people say.

Two years ago, after discussions with the Park Service failed, the American Civil Liberties Union sued in federal court to have the cross taken down. The organization won its legal fight, and a judge ordered the cross removed.

But the area's congressman, Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., has blocked the order's enforcement, at least temporarily.

The debate stood that way for a while, until the Park Service last month put a tarp over the cross while the legal mess was worked out.

On Sunday, a thick, white tarp was held to the cross by a tightly wound steel chain padlocked at the bottom. At times, the cross resembled a kite, until the sun peeked over the mountains at 6:45 a.m. and the cross' silhouette could be made out as the people prayed and sang hymns.

Carle Martin, who said he first came to Easter services at the cross in 1934, when he was 8 years old, returned this year after all of the attention the controversy has brought to the cross.

"I made a special trip from Orange County, where I live," he said. He owns land nearby, and he knows the area well. He said he remembers that ceremony from way back when. He said he thought the cross was made from wood then, not two steel pipes filled with concrete.

"I've got a lot of fond memories of this place," he said.

The Rev. Larry Craig, a former pastor of a church in Mountain Pass, said he has led Easter services at the cross for 18 years, and the tarp's presence did not bother him all that much, though it did bother others.

"I don't think it distracts from what we're here to do," he said, which is to honor Jesus Christ on the day Scriptures say he was resurrected.

The mission of the 40-plus people who came to the services is not to draw attention to themselves or to win any arguments with lawyers about constitutional issues, he said.

"We're not really out here to fight anybody," Craig said. "Nobody is. But we do have a right to make our opinion known. We do, just like anybody else does."