A central Indiana town has decided to remove the cross perched atop the Christmas tree as part of their Christmas display due to a lawsuit brought on by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Knightstown Town Council has decided to remove the cross from the Christmas tree, but many of the town’s residents are protesting the town’s decision, WLFI reported.
A local resident, Joseph Tompkins, filed a lawsuit with the ACLU Thursday against the town because the cross on display violates the separation of church and state.
The town council responded in a statement on Monday, saying, based on legal counsel, it “could not win the court case brought by the ACLU.”
After the council made its decision, “dozens of residents took to the streets to protest.”
“One man shouldn’t dictate how the rest of us express our religious freedoms. We have that freedom under the First Amendment,” Knightstown local Aaron Magee said to WXIN.
The protesters stood in front of the tree holding wooden crosses in protest.
“It just made me sick to my stomach, literally sick to my stomach, when I come in and seen that the cross was down, seen that the cross was gone,” resident Lora Lewman said.
Reportedly, town council members plan to “pass a resolution that would keep the cross off the tree for good,” WXIN reported.
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