A lawsuit seeking the removal of a statue of Jesus at the top of Montana's Whitefish Mountain Resort will proceed now that a national group of atheists have found a local actually offended by the religious statue. This quirky battle over the separation of church and state has even caught the attention of The New York Times, and now marches further along since the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation has found what seems to be the only local person, northwestern Montana resident William Cox, who is actually offended by the statue.
Cox, who lives 15 miles away from Whitefish, says he skis the resort regularly and is offended by the presence of the statue, which sits on U.S. Forest Service land. The Freedom From Religion Foundation claims that the statue, built by the Knights of Columbus 57 years ago to honor the 10th Mountain Division after World War II and mimicking similar statues the 10th Mountain saw in combat in the Italian Alps, is unconstitutionally sanctioned by the Forest Service. Now that a documented individual actually offended by the statue has been named, the lawsuit can proceed, and a trial is set for March 2013.
· Jesus Statue Lawsuit Moves On With Help of Local Atheist [Whitefish Pilot]
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