A Valiant Warrior Passes

Philip Kevin Paulson, who fought a 17-year legal battle to remove the Mount Soledad cross from public property, died Wednesday of liver cancer. He was 59.

I heard Paulson speak at the Freedom From Religion Convention in San Francisco earlier this month when he accepted the Atheists in Foxholes award. He was passionate, and angry, and funny - and moving. It was impossible to listen to him without understanding how deeply emotional about this he was.

I personally will never forget his voice as he denied the canard "There are no atheists in foxholes" by describing his Vietnam tour:

We did that. I've seen it. I was there.
You can read his essay I was an atheist in a foxhole here.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Paulson, a 6-foot-5 Vietnam veteran who lived in City Heights, became so passionate about the separation of church and state that he filed a civil lawsuit against the city of San Diego in 1989 without an attorney. He won the case, and as the appeals dragged on he became one of the county's most reviled and respected characters.

“The real message is equal treatment under the law, and religious neutrality. That's the purpose of why I did it,” Paulson said. He said he wanted people to understand why he pursued the removal of the cross, and that he was never motivated by a hatred of Christians. “I don't harbor those kind of feelings. My mother's a Christian. I was raised a devout Christian. I'm not anti-Christian. The reason I did it is because it's not fair to the other religions. America is not just the Christian religion.”