Selected Article Excerpt:
“We put it there for all our brothers and sisters,” Book said Friday. “It has no serious connotation toward Christianity. We were bearing the cross for the guys we lost, the guys we’re losing today and the guys we’re going to lose.”
But former U.S. Army Capt. Jason Torpy, who heads a group called the Military Association of Atheists and Free Thinkers, says a cross is clearly a Christian symbol that has no place on federally owned land, including military bases.
Defense Department policy prohibits the military from endorsing any specific religion.
“It is not an appropriate location and the government should not be doling out special privileges or taking sides, no matter what the Marines have sacrificed,” Torpy said. “They don’t get a free pass because of that service.”
