Fred Edwords remembers the first time he saw the giant cross rising over this small town in Prince George’s County.<\/p>\n
The Peace Cross, as it’s known locally, commemorates the county’s World War I dead. A plaque at the base of the 40-foot structure lists 39 names, and includes a quote from President Woodrow Wilson. There’s no figure of Jesus, or religious imagery or text of any kind.<\/p>\n
But to Edwords, who lives in nearby Greenbelt, it looked unmistakably like the Christian crosses of his Protestant youth, standing on a government-owned median strip at the intersection of Maryland Route 450 and Alternate U.S. 1.<\/p>\n
“I thought, ‘Well, that’s odd. What’s that doing there?'” he recalled. “That certainly gives the impression of government endorsement of religion. \u201d\u00a6 I just wondered how that kind of thing had continued.”<\/p>\n