{"id":14209,"date":"2011-11-21T00:30:20","date_gmt":"2011-11-21T05:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=14209"},"modified":"2011-11-21T00:30:20","modified_gmt":"2011-11-21T05:30:20","slug":"camp-pendleton-cross-defended-torpy-ignores-second-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/21\/camp-pendleton-cross-defended-torpy-ignores-second-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"Camp Pendleton Cross Defended, Torpy Ignores Second Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"

A follow-up article to last week’s conflagration<\/a> over the memorial cross raised by Marines on Camp Pendleton indicates the Marine base had no idea the ruckus that was about to ensue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Which, of course, they didn’t, because the Marines were acting on their own<\/a>, not on the part of the Corps or the government.\u00a0 (Of course, local attorney Randall Halmud<\/a> said the group was still culpable<\/a>:\u00a0“When they erected their cross on that hilltop, they violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution…”)<\/p>\n

Public supporters of the cross, many from the Marine base itself, have swarmed news sites with comments<\/a>.\u00a0 The people themselves varied from atheist to religious, military to civilian.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Facebook site has appeared entitled Keep the Camp Pendleton Cross<\/a>.\u00a0 The page highlights some history of the memorial — a site which\u00a0contains more than the cross.\u00a0 Notably, the memorial was rebuilt by more than 100 Marines from RCT-1<\/a>, has been visited by entire units<\/a>, and was even the subject of a prior Public Affairs news piece<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A few supporters of the memorial seem to have found MAAF Jason Torpy’s website, leaving messages of their discontent.<\/p>\n

For the record, no discourse is advanced by advising someone to suck on the end of a shotgun or engage in anatomically impossible sexual acts, as critics did on Torpy’s site.\u00a0 Regardless of someone’s attack on the honor bestowed by a memorial, such insults are reprehensible.<\/p>\n

Likewise, there is no call to assume all who oppose Torpy’s attack on the Marines’ conduct are Christians and “haters,” as some have.\u00a0 In fact, many self-identified as something other than Christian.<\/p>\n

As more information comes out, it seems the memorial has been up there for some years, and it is obvious its intent has not been to advance any particular religion, or even religion at all.\u00a0 It is on the land of Camp Horno, home to several Marine units.<\/p>\n

Besides the cross, the prior discussion noted that Marines have scaled the hill for years and left mementos for their fallen comrades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two of the most common memorial artifacts:\u00a0 Beer and rocks.\u00a0 Not exactly your typical unconstitutional Christian-government intrusion.<\/p>\n

In fact, rocks are hiked to the top for every fallen Marine. Traditionally, those visiting the memorial drink one beer and leave one for the fallen.<\/p>\n

It is entirely possible, and even probable, that the first Marine to climb that hill and remember his fallen friends with a beer did so without any signed approval paperwork.\u00a0 That does not diminish the solemnity of the spot, nor does it require that it be dismantled.\u00a0 As noted above, units have marched the hill and held solemn formations at the site.\u00a0 Marine Colonels spoke highly of their units doing so.<\/p>\n

Had it not been for the (positive) LA Times <\/em>story<\/a>, it seems Torpy would never have known about the site, even though it has been there for years and has previously been in the news.\u00a0 (Despite his claims, it appears the original complaint was his, not local Marines.)\u00a0 In fact, a Marine Colonel said it had become tradition for every unit to climb the hill to the memorial before each deployment.<\/p>\n

Contrary to Torpy’s unsupported assertions, the presence of the cross does not make an otherwise permissible site forbidden (or unconstitutional).<\/p>\n

In fact, there’s another <\/em>cross on Camp Pendleton Torpy either doesn’t know about or has declined to complain about.\u00a0 The land that its on is just as “government” as the Marine memorial, and its even on Christianitos Road.\u00a0 Yes, a US Marine Base has a road named “little Christians.”\u00a0 Which means people entering Pendleton\u00a0have\u00a0to drive through the\u00a0“Little Christians” Gate when they enter the US Marine base.<\/p>\n

As an official Marine news release<\/a> notes, the site on Camp Pendleton, marked with a tall white cross, marks the celebrated first baptism took place in California in 1769.\u00a0 (It was rededicated just this past May<\/a>.) Two Native American girls were baptized into the Catholic faith.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Think Torpy is bothered by that <\/em>symbolism on federal land?<\/p>\n

As this website and others have pointed out, there are similar crosses serving similar purposes to the Marine memorial in other locations that Torpy has <\/em>to have known about for years.<\/p>\n

Problem is, he knows it would be politically unpalatable to demand the government tear a cross out of the\u00a0hallowed grounds of Arlington<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It seems Torpy’s politics supersede his principles.<\/p>\n

Photo by Lance Cpl. Mike Atchue<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A follow-up article to last week’s conflagration over the memorial cross raised by Marines on Camp Pendleton indicates the Marine base had no idea the ruckus that was about to ensue. Which, of course, they didn’t, because the Marines were acting on their own, not on the part of the Corps or the government.\u00a0 (Of course, local attorney Randall Halmud […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[20,889,2469,891,54,96,4,82,162,253,107,149,17,10,171,40],"class_list":["post-14209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-atheism","tag-baptism","tag-camp-horno","tag-camp-pendleton","tag-catholic","tag-christian","tag-churchandstate","tag-constitution","tag-cross","tag-jason-torpy","tag-maaf","tag-marines","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom","tag-tradition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}