CROSS-ON-COUNTY-SEAL PETITION FAILS.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

As a petition drive failed Wednesday for a ballot initiative to restore a Christian cross to the Los Angeles County seal, some local religious leaders worried that governments - or the nation's highest court - would banish depictions of the Ten Commandments from public buildings across the land.

And if the Ten Commandments are consigned only to Sunday schools and synagogues, some fear that pillars of American law - and decency - will disappear from sight.

``Our entire judicial system is based on those Ten Commandments,'' said the Rev. Dudley Rutherford, pastor of Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch, who supported returning the cross to the county seal. ``If you go to our law books, all laws are based on those 10 pillars.

``In our society, there are those who don't believe in God or respect God, but our our nation is based on those principles.''

In Washington, D.C., the Supreme Court considered oral arguments on the legality of displaying the biblical Ten Commandments on government property.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles County, organizers of a ballot initiative to restore the cross to the county seal halted their efforts after collecting only 109,000 of the 170,606 valid signatures needed by the March 1 deadline.

``I'm disappointed. We worked hard, but there weren't enough of us,'' said Sandra Need, an executive board member of the Committee to Support the Los Angeles County Seal Ordinance.

``From our perspective, this wasn't about the acknowledgment of religion, but of history - of you take the cross off (the seal), you wipe out 100 years of California missionary history.''

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to adopt a new seal to replace one that had a small Christian cross, after the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California threatened to file suit over the decades-old emblem.

Similar challenges have prompted several Southern California cities to dismantle crosses in civic venues or to sell the publicly owned land on which the Christian symbols were erected.

The ACLU declined to comment Wednesday about the county-seal issue. An ACLU attorney for the First Amendment in Los Angeles was not available to comment on the Ten Commandments case.

Need said that, in addition to the cross, she supported public monuments to the Old Testament commandments.

``The founders (of America) all believed in God and lived by the Ten Commandments,'' she said. ```Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill' - what's wrong with that? 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.' These are the founding principles of the United States.''

In the San Fernando Valley, religious leaders expressed concern about the loss of religious symbols in public life.

If opponents of government-supported displays of the cross and the commandments are successful, they could soon take ``In God We Trust'' off U.S. currency, said the Rev. Beverly Gaard of Chirothesia A Way of Life Church in North Hollywood, who had collected hundreds of signatures for the county-seal petition.

``It's founded on God, based on God; it's where we came from,'' she said of the Ten Commandments. ``(They) show us how to live. We need them. If we forget, we'll be subjected to all kinds of tyranny, dictatorship, everything.''

The Rev. Zedar Broadous, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church of Pacoima, also signed the petition - and supports the commandments displays.

``It's the doctrine of God,'' he said. ``Everything we know is based on those 10 principles. I do believe they should be let alone.''

For Rutherford, the cross and the thought of losing an estimated 4,000 monuments to the Ten Commandments in town squares, public courthouses and other government buildings across the nation is almost too much to bear.

``There is no question - our public schools would be better off with those Ten Commandments on their walls,'' said the pastor of 10,000 conservative Christians. ``When you get rid of moral absolutes, then there's absolute chaos in our society.

``We're heading down a slippery slope,'' he added. ``Everybody has rights and freedoms except Christian churches. It's freedom from religion, not of religion. I have a cross on top of my church.

``The day will come when the government will try to take it off.''

Dana Bartholomew, [phone]

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

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Challenges from civil liberties groups have prompted several Southern California cities to dismantle crosses in civic venues or to sell the publicly owned land on which the Christian symbols are erected.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer