Friends defend tribute to crash victim; Atheist group wants crosses axed

The day after 22-year-old Tim Conklin died in a one-car accident in January, 2007, a group of his closest friends got together, unsure what to say or do but needing to share their grief.

"We were sitting around together, feeling so helpless, just staring into space, crying. We wanted to do something," Aaron Baldwin, 26, said.

The group decided to make a cross and put it alongside the road where their friend had died, a heartfelt memorial to Mr. Conklin.

The plain wooden cross, decorated with hand-written messages from grieving friends, was "a good reminder that something happened there - something important," Mr. Baldwin said.

And it was not just any marker, they pointed out, but a cross - a symbol of Mr. Conklin's strong Christian faith.

"For people who really knew Timmy, that's who he was," Noah Wells, 24, said.

But the religious message conveyed by some roadside mem-orials has sparked cries of outrage from an atheist group that is urging supporters to take matters into their own hands and remove crosses from public highways. "Atheists and other non-Christians find them offensive, annoying, and depressing. When you do see them, remove them as soon as possible," the group, Atheist Activist, said in its call to action.

"Every day that they stand gives some motorists the impression that the state condones religious symbols being placed along the road on state property. There is nothing stopping us from taking down these religious symbols. We don't need any new laws; we need direct action."

The Web site, atheist activist.org, even recommends specific power tools capable of slicing through crosses made of thick steel and anchored in cement. "The usurpers of public property must be shown that we will not be deterred in righting this wrong," the group states.

The atheist group did not respond to requests by The Blade for an interview.

Robert Tiernan, a Colorado lawyer who has represented the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation in a number of cases, agrees that roadside crosses defy constitutional requirements for separation of church and state.

"My feeling is that if somebody puts up religious material on public property and the government allows it to stay there, it ends up being an endorsement by the government and violates the Constitution," Mr. Tiernan said.

In 2001, he successfully defended a Denver man arrested for removing a roadside religious memorial. His client, Rodney Lyle Scott, was charged with "knowingly desecrating an object of veneration by the public."

Mr. Scott, who did not admit to the action, testified that he drove to work every day on a road that had so many roadside crosses that "it looked like a cemetery."

While Mr. Scott was exonerated, it was not a precedent-setting case, said Mr. Tiernan, 76, who described himself as "a fallen-away Catholic" but "not an atheist."

Although he strongly opposes roadside crosses, Mr. Tiernan understands why people feel moved to mark the loss of a loved one with a roadside memorial. His son died as a result of an auto accident in West Virginia in August, 1981, going into a coma and dying a year and a half later at age 15.

"My God, it's awful. It's just awful. But I don't know what else to say other than this is a constitutional issue that has to be dealt with," Mr. Tiernan said. "We shouldn't sacrifice the Constitution for anything."

Howard Friedman, a professor of law emeritus at the University of Toledo, said the church-state separation clause gets complicated when it comes to memorial crosses.

"It's certainly OK in Arlington National Cemetery to use a cross on a soldier's grave, even though it's a government-owned cemetery. But the roadside crosses are a little harder to decide," he said.

Some people contend that a cross is "a generic symbol for memorials," Mr. Friedman said. "But I don't think that flies because a lot of people recognize the cross as religious."

Others have argued that the crosses warn motorists that a particular stretch of highway or an intersection is dangerous, he said. But once again, Mr. Friedman said, a religious symbol on government property raises serious questions about church-state separation.

Aside from constitutional issues, Mr. Friedman said he disagreed with the atheists' tactics.

"I certainly don't think cutting them down, taking the law into your own hands, is the answer," he said.

Dawn DeFalco, a bereavement counselor for Hospice of Northwest Ohio, said placing a memorial cross along the side of the road can serve as an outward expression of grief, helping people get through the "grief journey."

It's like a firefighter putting black tape over his badge when a colleague is killed, she said, or athletes wearing a black arm band to honor a teammate who died.

"It's very important to people when they're grieving to show their mourn,ing," Ms. DeFalco said.

Rob Boston, senior policy analyst for the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said he believes roadside crosses are more of a threat to public safety than to the Constitution.

"I think the overwhelming reason for removing them is that they can be a distraction or even an obstruction. Certainly government entities have the right to remove them," he said.

Debbie Klostermeier of Liberty Center, Ohio, said the atheist group is wrong in calling for people to cut down roadside crosses.

"I can understand why some people oppose them, but they should respect families that lost someone," she said. "The crosses are not trying to bring distraction, but to bring awareness that a life was lost."

Ms. Klostermeier's 18-year-old daughter, Taneeca, was killed in December, 1994, when the car in which she was riding was struck by a train in rural Fulton County. The driver of the car, James Miller, 17, also died.

A number of crosses marked the crash site for years, Ms. Klostermeier said, and a large sign with photos of her daughter and the Miller youth is still displayed at the location.

"I see crosses all the time where people have gotten killed on highways and it never bothers me," Ms. Klostermeier said. "Maybe it's because I lost someone."

Joe Conklin, the father of Tim Conklin, said he was touched that his son's friends put up a cross on Strayer Road in Tim's memory. He also believes the atheist group is misinformed when it comes to the Constitution.

"I think these people are nuts to start out with," he said. "This country was brought up with the cross. You won't find the term 'separation of church and state' in the Constitution or in the Declaration of Independence."

Mr. Conklin said that when he sees a cross on the side of the road, it has a positive impact on him.

"It reminds you that life's fleeting and you better be careful."

Contact David Yonke at:

dyonke@theblade.com

or 419-724-6154.