Fringe sect's lawsuit delays monument to fallen WWII soldiers

A Utah religion whose followers practice mummification is at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court case that is delaying a permanent home for a World War II monument honoring fallen American servicemen.

Because the case centers on the constitutionality of erecting a donated religious monument on city property, the Army has backed off deciding whether to accept, and where to permanently place, a memorial to 40 U.S. troops who perished in a 1943 plane crash in Australia.

The service said it will wait before accepting any donated marker to see what position the Supreme Court ultimately takes on whether the city of Pleasant Grove, Utah, must allow the spiritual group Summum's monument in a city park.

It's unclear when the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Summum v. Pleasant Grove or rule on it. Duchesene City is also a party to the case, because it has a similar monument.

As a result, the delay means there is no chance for an Army decision by the crash's 65th anniversary on June 14. Shortly after takeoff on that date in 1943, the ill-fated troop transport crashed at Bakers Creek in Queensland, Australia. Forty servicemen aboard died, while just one—the late Foye Kenneth Roberts of Wichita Falls, Texas—survived.

The cause of the crash remains unknown.

"Honor delayed is honor denied," said Robert Cutler, executive director of the U.S. branch of the Bakers Creek Memorial Association, which hopes to place the monument in the Washington D.C. area.

At issue is a controversy over a Summum monument to the religion's seven guiding principles. The group believes God originally gave its "Seven Aphorisms" to Moses, but then found they were too advanced for the Israelites to understand. So Moses destroyed the original tablets, went back and got the simplified Ten Commandments.

Summum is a nonprofit organization founded in 1975 by the late "Corky Ra", who was born Claude "Corky" Nowell, according to the religion's Web site, www.summum.us. The IRS declared the practice tax exempt in 1986.

Ra said he had encountered "beings not of this planet" who passed spiritual knowledge on to him. As for mummification, the Summum followers believe that treating a person's remains in that manner makes for a smoother transition to the afterlife.

The religious group says it has the right for its monument to be placed on government property. Its Web site requests donations for Summum's free-speech campaign.