Cross ban has group troubled

WASHINGTON – A conservative group is threatening to sue the Secret Service for discrimination over guidelines that would ban Christian crosses from President Bush’s inaugural parade route.

The Secret Service said Monday the guidelines were meant to prohibit large structures that could be used as weapons. Crosses were the only religious symbols on the list of banned items.

In a Dec. 17 directive to the National Park Service, the Secret Service mandated that signs and placards along the inaugural parade route down Pennsylvania Avenue be made out of cardboard, poster board or cloth. They may be no more than three feet wide or 20 feet long.

The directive also prohibited folding chairs, bicycles and other structures, and displays “such as puppets, papier-mache objects, coffins, crates, crosses, theaters, cages and statues.”

“The way it’s written, it’s an unequivocal ban on crosses,” said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition. The group seeks to have the prohibition overturned in federal court if the Secret Service fails to retract it.

The Secret Service was working on a clarification to resolve the flap. Spokesman Tom Mazur said the ban on crosses “is strictly in regards to structures – certainly not the symbol.”

“There is no prohibition on crosses, symbols or messages based on content – only structures made of materials or of a size that could be used in a potentially threatening or harmful manner,” Mazur said.

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