The city of Tega Cay, South Carolina has removed a monument honoring fallen police officers following a controversy over the inclusion of religious words on the stone.
According to the Rock Hill Herald, the Tega Cay Women’s Club presented the monument to the city’s police headquarters earlier this month with a policeman’s prayer and Bible verse inscribed on the stone. A Tega Cay resident then protested the religious inscriptions at a city council meeting on last week, arguing that words with religious meaning should not be included on public monuments.
The city initially decided to paint over every mention of the word “Lord” and removed the Bible verse from the memorial in an attempt to compromise with both sides, but ended up taking down the entire monument when complaints continued to increase.
“At this time, we have removed the monument while we continue to seek a solution that expresses our unwavering support and gratitude to those who risk their lives every day for ours,” Tega Cay city officials said in a statement to the Rock Hill Herald on Thursday. “We will continue to welcome feedback from our residents and seek further guidance from our legal team until we can find a viable solution for all concerned.”
Some critics of the monument supported the decision to remove the memorial, applauding the city for upholding the separation between church and state.
“It’s nice, but why is there a Christian bible verse and prayer on it?” one woman posted on the Tega Cay Facebook page. “This violates separation of church and state.”
However, South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman posted a video on Facebook condemning the decision to censor the monument.
“You know the last time I checked, it was ‘one nation under God.’ To have this scratched out is sad, to say the least,” Norman said in the video. “That’s why we’re fighting in Washington, D.C. to put God back in public buildings like this and put God back in our schools.”
