More words were exchanged between the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the city of Ozark on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the city first announced, then walked back, a decision to take down a Christian cross decorating a holiday lights display in Finley River Park.

After a day of contradictory statements on the matter, Mayor Rick Gardner said Tuesday that the city would keep the cross lit and set up until he and the board of aldermen could examine the legalities of the matter.

Wednesday, the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation responded with a pair of letters sent to Gardner, Ozark City Administrator Steve Childers and news organizations.

Reached by the News-Leader at 4 p.m., Gardner said he had not yet seen the letter.

"Probably another saber-rattling," he said, noting he was not surprised due to the national media attention that the Ozark cross received Tuesday and Wednesday.

Background:Ozark embroiled in controversy over cross in Finley River Park holiday lights display

Gardner said he could not comment on the letter in detail but added, "We are sticking by our second press release (from Tuesday). We are not thumbing our nose at them. We're not ignoring them. We've got to look into this."

In a letter addressed to Gardner, the foundation's co-president, Annie Laurie Gaylor, said she was "writing to express dismay at your recent media comments about the large Christian cross in Finley River Park."

Gaylor then misquotes a comment Gardner made to the News-Leader Tuesday, attributing the words "This is a Christian county, for Pete's sake" to the Ozark mayor.

The News-Leader quoted Gardner as saying, "This is Christian County, for Pete's sake."

Gaylor wrote, "You may claim to be 'a Christian county' but this is not true in any meaningful sense," noting that the county is named for William Christian. (Christian is described as a "Revolutionary patriot" from Kentucky who died in 1786 in a guide to place-names published by the State Historical Society of Missouri.)

Citing Pew Research Center data from 2015, Gaylor estimated that 1.2 million of Missouri's 6.1 million residents are nonreligious.

"They are part of your community," added Gaylor, "and when the Ozark government endorses Christian beliefs, it ostracizes non-believers and non-Christians. We, as Americans, should be better than that. You as a public leader, must be better than that."

The letter goes on to cite U.S. Supreme Court decisions supporting the foundation's stance that erecting a Christian cross on city land is a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits government sponsorship of religious messages.

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A second letter, penned by the foundation's legal director, Rebecca Markert, said that the city's announcement that it would reverse course on the cross, at least for now, was "upsetting."

"We understand that there was immense pressure from the community to keep the cross lit," Markert wrote.

She cited Supreme Court rulings on religious displays located on public property, noting, "Even in cases upholding nativity scene displays, courts have found Christian crosses to be different. The addition of secular items does not alter the premise that a government display of a Christian cross in observance of a holy day is unconstitutional."

Markert ended her letter by urging the city to return to its earlier decision to take the cross down.

The cross remained on display at Finley River Park Wednesday afternoon.

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