Aunt Lydia Refuses To Remove Cross At Gov’s Mansion

The Christian Post reports:

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is standing her ground by refusing to remove a chalk-drawn cross from the entrance to the governor’s mansion after Americans United for the Separation of Church and State demanded its removal, claiming it violates the U.S. Constitution.

The uproar began on Monday after Sanders shared a photograph of her three children standing behind a large image of a cross and stained glass they colored with sidewalk chalk. Captioning the image “New artwork to welcome people into the Governor’s Mansion,” she posted it on her Facebook page.

The post provoked a response from the secular Americans United, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. The group wrote a letter to the governor, arguing that the chalk artwork conveys an “impermissible message that those who do not share the favored faith are unwelcome and will be treated differently.”

From Americans United:

The religious display at the entrance to the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion violates the Establishment Clause because it sends a message that the Governor’s office—and by extension, the state of Arkansas—favors one religion over others. Such favoritism is unconstitutional.

You and your family are free to display and create religious images and art in private areas of your residence, but a public-facing display in front of an entrance intended “to welcome people into the Governor’s mansion” is plainly on the wrong side of the constitutional line.

Sanders responds in a press release:

I have received your letter and my answer is no. I will not erase the beautiful cross my kids drew in chalk on the driveway of the Governor’s Mansion or remove my post on social media, and I will not now or ever hide that I am a Christian, saved by Christ.

You are wrong to claim that our Constitution prevents public officials, let alone their families, from making earnest expressions of religious faith. Our founding documents are riddled with religious language – stating plainly that the very rights you claim to defend are ‘endowed by our Creator.

You are asking me to ignore that truth and hide a crucial part of my identity and the identity of my kids. That, I will not do. In Arkansas, we stand up to bullying liberals. We won’t let you power-wash our kids’ chalk drawings off our front steps.

We won’t let you tear down Christmas decorations and stomp our traditions into the dirt. We don’t live our lives in fear of strongly worded letters coming down from Washington. I am offended by the implication that, just because I am a Christian, I am somehow a bigot.

All people, of all faiths, are welcome in our state. All Arkansans are welcome in the Governor’s Mansion. We are all citizens of this same great country – one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.