Now that the Ground Zero Victory Mosque has suddenly inspired a reverence for freedom of religion and property rights on the Left, they will doubtless be getting ready to support the Downings of Vermont:

To Richard and Joan Downing, the 24-foot-tall cross on a hilltop on their property is an expression of their faith. To a state commission that regulates land use, it is out of character with the natural beauty of the rural neighborhood and should come down.

It’s a conflict that has cropped up around the country, pitting religious freedom enshrined in the Constitution’s First Amendment against the local zoning authority and state land-use control laws.

The Downings, lifelong Roman Catholics in their late 70s, own about 800 acres outside the village of Lyndonville. In 2005, they opened a chapel on their property to serve their family: seven children, three of them adopted, and the 35 foster children they raised, mainly at their other home in Sherborn, Mass.

Their website makes clear the chapel is open to the public, however, offering “those seeking peace and spiritual growth a sanctuary of grace and beauty.”

And so it’s all about to go The Shape Of The Pear. Arguments are ongoing as to whether the cross will be permitted.

Eric Rassbach of the Washington, D.C.-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty said the religious person’s burden is usually weighed against a claim by the government that it has a “compelling interest,” such as public safety, in restricting a specific behavior.

Surely this settles the Victory Mosque case? If there is no “compelling interest” for the US Government to prevent a nutter like Imam Faisal Rauf from raising a 13-story shrine to terrorism at the edge of Ground Zero because it’s apparently not outlandish provocation which could lead to violence, how does a cross out in the country threaten public order?

Hat-tip to Van Helsing