Myth:
Godless liberals are doing nothing less than trying to alter history by removing legitimate expressions of our religious history from public view, thereby changing history as the Soviet Union always tried to do.
Response:
One of the most popular defenses of government-sponsored, government-financed, and government-maintained displays of religion or religious expression is to argue that these displays really only serve to honor the historical importance of this religion or these religious beliefs in America, not to recommend or promote them today. Atheists who seek to end government involvement in these displays are thus accused of trying to change history and hide the truth about religious history in America.
There are lots of examples of government officials in the old Soviet Union changing history in order to make the past fit in better with contemporary ideological positions. People who were once important to the communist revolution, for example, would be removed from texts and even photographs if they ever fell out of favor, and it was deemed necessary to conceal the past involvement of those later judged to be counterrevolutionary.
The popular association of atheists with communism among conservative Christians is probably a leading reason why such historical actions are associated with contemporary atheists' defense of church/state separation — not to mention the fact that church/state separation has itself been associated with Soviet communism. This is, however, a false and even malicious misrepresentation of what's really going on. For the above claim to be even remotely true, atheists would have to be pushing for the removal of any references to religion in America's history from public view — and this simply isn't happening.
What atheists are doing, and they are supported in this by religious theists who agree with keeping church and state separate, is to eliminate government favoritism towards any religion and or any religious beliefs. Appropriate and neutral references to religion in America's history have their place, for example in school text books and museums, but not necessarily in the form of large monuments given a special, favored place on government property. Such monuments almost never actually reference or discuss history. Instead, they present religious beliefs, figures, documents, doctrines, ideas, etc. without context — just as would be expected if the purpose is to recommend, encourage, promote, or endorse them.
This is what atheists oppose: government endorsement of the doctrines and beliefs of theistic religion (almost always Christianity, thus further revealing the true purpose behind these displays and monuments). If private individuals or institutions (such as churches) want to erect monuments with their own money and on their own property, they are more than welcome to do so. If they want monuments which explicitly endorse religion, they can have them. If they want monuments which blur the line between endorsement and neutral observations about history, they can have them.
No one, including atheists, will try to stop them out of any desire to conceal religious expression or claims about the history of religion in America so long as they are doing it as private institutions. What atheists, and more than a few religious theists, oppose is doing any of this in a way that gives the impression that the government endorses or approves of the religious message being conveyed. That's the truth, and it's something which quite a few Christian Nationalists seek to conceal with myths like the one above.
