Crosses in government office defy lawofland

At the invitation of an Austinite who’s upset by something he saw in the Caldwell County district clerk’s office, I recently made the 30-mile drive south to Lockhart to take a look at that something.

He’s right. It’s wrong. And we’re not the only two who think so.

The outside door to the district clerk’s office has a holiday wreath. Festive and seasonal. Nothing wrong there. It’s what’s inside on the wall that has drawn criticism. Unavoidable and unmistakable and prominently hanging on the wall are a pair of symbols of one of the world’s great religions.

But crosses have no place in a government office. Ditto for a symbol of anyone’s religion.

FYI, the Caldwell County district clerk’s office is in the county’s Justice Center, not in the county’s beautiful courthouse. The clerk’s office — where the public goes to transact all manner of official government business — is in an impressively repurposed former Walmart.

I went into the office, saw the crosses and asked to speak with Tina Morgan Freeman, the district clerk who’s had the job since 2007. I asked her my question. She made it clear she didn’t want to talk about the crosses. I turned off my voice recorder and she offered me some background that I’m going to treat as off the record.

I turned my recorder back on and re-offered an opportunity to discuss the crosses.

“Do you consider those crosses to be religious symbols?” I asked.

My recorder captured her silence and the sound of the door she closed on me as she headed back to her office. So I don’t know if she considers the crosses to be religious symbols, which, of course, would seem inappropriate in a government office. I also don’t know how long they’ve been displayed or who paid for them.

Neither does the Anti-Defamation League, which says it’s been waiting for an answer since it asked Freeman about them in an Aug. 4 letter.

“On behalf of the Anti-Defamation League, we write to express our deep concerns regarding reports that the District Clerk’s Office has Latin Crosses prominently hanging on its office wall,” said the letter from Dayan Gross, the league’s southwest regional director, and Rachel Bresner, the league’s southwest civil rights counsel.

To be clear here, the league, prior to my inquiry, had not publicly released the letter.

More from the missive: “We believe that the best way to safeguard religious freedom is through the separation of church and state embedded in the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which allows