Kentucky City Fights to Save Cross on Water Tower

Residents of a Kentucky city are pushing back against an atheist group that is attempting to have a cross removed from a water tower with the help of like-minded Christians from across the nation.

A Pro-Cross Rally is scheduled for this upcoming Saturday in Wilmore, Ky., a small city with a population of 6,000. Hundreds of white crosses this week have appeared on residents’ front lawns throughout the city to show support after the Freedom From Religion Foundation demanded that the city remove the cross and a picture of the water tower from the city’s website. The group claims that the cross “unabashedly creates the perception of government endorsement of Christianity” and “has an exclusionary effect, making non-Christian and non-believing residents of Wilmore political outsiders.”

The cross has been located for over four decades on top of a water tower on Asbury University, a Christian school. The city owns the water tower, but the university pays the electric bill for the cross.

Harold Rainwater, the town’s mayor, told a local newspaper he does not plan to remove the cross, and several attorneys have offered to represent the city in its fight against the foundation if it files a lawsuit.

One resident, Sheila Nighy, started making wooden crosses this week, and many have been placed throughout the city. Nagy said if the group disliked one cross, they would dislike hundreds more.

“We saw the letter and I said, ‘Take down our cross? We’ll put up more!’”

The residents of Wilmore are not alone in their fight to save their cross. Many on social media from across the country have weighed in. Some from as far away as Arizona have asked Nighy whether they could purchase a cross.

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