The Cross and the Water Tower
By Randall Murphree – Guest Columnist
Every Christmas for 40 years, the little town of Wauconda displayed a lighted cross on its water tower. It was a tradition everyone looked forward to. But this year, the town found itself embroiled in a battle that caught them totally by surprise. Someone had complained about the cross on public property.
But thankfully, a children’s club comes to the rescue. Casey Wilkerson, president of the Water Tower Club, calls members together to decide how to deal with the debate over the cross. They can’t imagine Christmas without the symbol of the cross, so they come up with a plan.
The Cross and the Water Tower is a new children’s Christmas story written and illustrated by teenage cousins and based on real events in 1989 in Wauconda, Illinois. That was when American Atheists challenged the village’s annual practice of a lighted cross on the water tower.
In the fictional account, local resident Thomas Birdie contacts an outside organization to come and help him get the cross removed. The organization is not named in the book, but its representative, William Hebert, interrupts a town meeting to declare, “We believe in a constitutional separation of church and state.”
Hebert then threatens the town with a lawsuit and the town leaders realize they cannot afford a costly legal battle. Hebert gives them until Christmas Eve to remove the lighted cross, and officials comply with his demand.
That’s where the kids come in – with an ingenious way to counter the outsider’s demand that the cross be removed.
Seventeen-year-old Patrick Mangan, co-author of the book, says, “The true story of the town’s heroic stand was the inspiration for our book. Kids today inherit a culture hostile to our faith – and so we share this story with other children to give them hope and a positive way to deal with the attacks on Christianity they will probably experience.”
“This is a great story,” said Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association. “It addresses the reality of what the next generation faces in our nation, and it reflects precisely the kind of issues AFA has tackled for more than 30 years.”
More information on this book is available at TheCrossandtheWaterTower.com
(Source: OneNewsNow.com)
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