LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: ATHEIST ACTIVISTS MAY RALLY FERVOR FOR RELIGION IN U.S.

The Wisconsin-based group of atheists calling themselves the Freedom From Religion Foundation touched a nerve in Cape Girardeau last week.

The group challenged the location of a cross commemorating the visit nearly 300 years ago by French missionaries. The monument is alongside Kingshighway near where the street crosses Cape LaCroix Creek at Mt. Auburn Road.

Although the cross has been there since the 1940s, it isn't a prominent part of the highway landscape. Newcomers to Cape Girardeau often have to ask where to find the monument even after learning about it.

So why did a woman in Madison, Wis., hundreds of miles from here, suddenly decide that last week was the appropriate time to launch a campaign against having the cross located on highway right-of-way?

The Freedom From Religion folks are avowed atheists. They have a lengthy agenda, which includes targets similar to the cross on highway right-of-way here. They oppose Christmas displays on courthouse lawns. They fight the saying of prayers at school graduations. They challenge city halls when local ministers are asked to open council meetings with prayers. They think the chaplain of the U.S. Senate is acting unconstitutionally when he prays for divine guidance as the country's laws are made. They want "In God We Trust" banned from U.S. currency. They want "under God" removed from the pledge of allegiance to the U.S. flag.

So last week the Freedom From Religion group finally made it down its list to the Cape LaCroix Creek cross. Pretty small potatoes, actually. But the Freedom From Religion folks are clever. They know how to push a community's hot button and create chaos. They know they have the Constitution and 200 years of court rulings on their side. They know they can push the establishment clause of the First Amendment to limits far beyond anything ever imagined by our Founding Fathers.

The tide may be changing. And, believe it or not, the prickly activities of groups like Freedom From Religion may even hurry along a religious fervor that ultimately could change how America stands on issues like prayer in school and crosses alongside highways.

It wasn't too long ago, after all, that women were denied full participation as citizens. The legacy of rulings from the highest court in the land regarding citizenship for blacks and the whole slavery issue is exactly opposite the fundamental civil rights ensured today by the same court and acts of Congress.

If America can change so dramatically in these areas, it isn't difficult to think -- even hope -- that the nation's mindset could change about the goodness of religious values and their importance to the undergirdings of the country.

Readers of the Southeast Missourian made it clear where they stand on this issue through hundreds of calls to Speak Out and several letters to the editor. Out of all those responses, there was just one Speak Out call that agreed with the Freedom From Religion stance. This caller suggested keeping the monument on highway right-of-way -- but cutting off the cross.

Perhaps this was the atheist who enlisted the help of a small but effective anti-religious group to stir up Cape Girardeau.

~R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian.