Illinois activist files lawsuit against Bald Knob Cross group, state officials

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Just before noon Thursday, retired radio talk show host and atheist Rob Sherman filed a federal lawsuit against the Friends of the Bald Knob Cross and several Illinois officials and departments, claiming a grant to restore a 111-foot tall cross in Southern Illinois was unconstitutional.

Sherman filed the lawsuit at the U.S. District Court in Springfield, where Judge Michael P. McCuskey was assigned to the case.

Sherman first threatened a lawsuit in May, when he appeared at a Friends of the Cross meeting and asked them to return a $20,000 grant received from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to replace exterior panels on the Bald Knob Cross in Alto Pass, Ill.

The Friends of the Cross board made no announcement following the May monthly meeting that the group would return the state grant.

Steve McKeown, a pastor and administrator of the cross, said he was confident Sherman would not win. He said Bald Knob drew roughly 1,000 visitors last weekend, underscoring its sway as a tourist draw.

"What Mr. Sherman fails to recognize is there's a long-standing precedent for the fact the just because an organization may have a sectarian purpose, it does not exempt them automatically from receiving tax dollars," McKeown said.

"What Mr. Sherman wants is a United States that's free from religion," McKeown said. "Our founding fathers never meant that to be the case."

Sherman wrote in his six-page lawsuit that public funding shouldn't be used for sectarian purposes. In the lawsuit, he asserts the establishment clause of the First Amendment doesn't allow public money to be spent on Christian crosses.

The Friends of the Cross, formed two years ago to help raise money to renovate the cross, requires members to be Christian.

"There has never been any question, outside of Southern Illinois, that this state grant is blatantly unconstitutional," Sherman wrote in a news release on his website. "The only questions have been whether I could get the Christians to voluntarily obey the law by returning the money, or if I would have to drag the Christians into court to get them to obey the law."

Defendants listed in the lawsuit include Friends of the Cross Inc.; its president, Jeff Lingle, and former president, the Rev. Bill Vandergraph; Jack Lavin, former director of Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity; Warren Ribley, current director of the department; Gov. Pat Quinn; and former governor Rod Blagojevich.

In his website news release, Sherman said Quinn and Ribley had nothing to do with the awarding of the grant "but were named as defendants because they were asked, this year, to rescind the grant but declined to do so."

As of Wednesday, Friends of the Cross has raised more than $400,000 for renovations, just more than half of the goal. According to the group's website, the board has no immediate plans for additional fundraising.

Public meetings of the Friends of the Cross board have been postponed until further notice; the website doesn't state a reason.

Friends of the Cross has maintained the grant was spent long ago, though Sherman counters that the $20,000 remains in a certificate of deposit readily returnable to the state.

"Nobody's hiding any money anywhere," McKeown said.

No hearing date was immediately set.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ehevern@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

Alto Pass, IL

Springfield, IL