National Park Service Asked To Create Policy On Religious Displays

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a national non-profit alliance of local, state and federal scientists, law enforcement officers, and land managers, yesterday issued a press release complaining that the National Park Service has failed to create a policy regarding religious displays on federal park lands.  The group points to two recent controversies that remain unresolved.  One involves a Buddhist stupa on the grounds of the Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico. The other involves bronze plaques with biblical verses in Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park. The stupa was on land purchased by a national park. The bronze plaques, which were removed by Park Service officials, but whose placement is being reconsidered, belong to the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary. Yesterday's Denver Post reports on the situation.