MN town set up ‘free speech’ vets tribute area and got a satanic monument – TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press

BELLE PLAINE, Minn. A veterans memorial park in Belle Plaine will soon include a satanic monument among its tributes, as an unintended consequence of a free-speech debate.

The city of Belle Plaine, about 45 miles southwest of the Twin Cities, is allowing the monument in its Veterans Memorial Park after the Freedom from Religion Foundation threatened to sue over another statue that features a soldier praying over a grave marked with a cross. The cross was removed once the issue was raised, but more than 100 residents rallied to put it back.

City Administrator Mike Votca said the city knew it had to include everyone, so it created a free speech area for all as long as the tributes honor veterans.

The memorial from the Satanic Temple in Salem, Mass., features a black cube with inverted pentagrams, a soldiers helmet and a plaque honoring veterans who died in battle.

Doug Mesner is founder of the Satanic Temple and its nonprofit group Reason Alliance. He said the group doesnt worship Satan, but is a nontheistic religious group.

Its certainly better to preserve the First Amendment than to preserve your notions of religious supremacy on public grounds. Thats certainly not what America was founded on and certainly not what our soldiers fought for, he said.

Some residents of this town of about 6,700 felt the citys initial decision to remove the cross was an insult to veterans who sacrificed their lives, and they accused groups like the Satanic Temple of preying on small towns. For nearly a month, protesters occupied the park daily and put their own handmade crosses in the ground.

The residents feel a sense of duty, Andy Parrish, a Belle Plaine resident who led the effort to restore the cross, said at a city council meeting. Our veterans defended us and its our duty to defend them.

While some residents arent fans of the satanic memorial, Parrish said everyone understood something like that was a possibility.

Its more annoying than it is offensive, he said.

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MN town set up 'free speech' vets tribute area and got a satanic monument - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press