WHITEVILLE, Tenn. — In the beginning, it was just a cross — two simple perpendicular white bars placed on top of the town water tower.

But some say the cross crossed the church-state line into government promotion of religion, turning this small town 45 miles east of Memphis into a target for a First Amendment lawsuit by a secular organization.

“It’s simply bad manners and rude and ignorant to put a cross on government property and proclaim that property for Christians only,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, who said the display could send a message to non-Christians that they are not welcome.

Last month, the Wisconsin-based foundation sued the town, its board and its mayor, asking a federal court to force local officials to remove all crosses on town-owned property. The town filed its response Jan. 13. A hearing date has not been set.

For some residents, the water tower cross, illuminated at night, has become a symbol of solidarity in a fight to voice their values.

“We just need to stand up for our right as Christians to display it, our belief,” said Roger Alston, an outspoken critic of the lawsuit.

It began quietly eight years ago after members of a Sunday school class at Whiteville’s First Baptist Church saw a cross atop a water tower in nearby Somerville and asked to install one in Whiteville, Mayor James Bellar recalled. The class raised $4,400 to build, erect and light the 10-foot cross and asked the mayor for permission to put it on top of the town’s 147-foot water tower.

“At the time, they came to me as mayor, and this was pretty much a town-wide effort, had the support of all the people,” Bellar said from his storefront office on Whiteville’s Main Street. “What was I supposed to do? Tell these folks we’re not gonna do it?”

Despite questions in the back of his mind about whether the display would violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, Bellar decided that it was the town’s residents, not their government, who were making a statement of faith.

Bellar signed off on the display and it stood just off U.S. 64 without public outcry until December 2010. That’s when Bellar got a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation stating they had received a complaint from an unnamed person in the area.

“It is unlawful for the Town of Whiteville to display a patently religious symbol such as a Christian cross on public property. The Whiteville cross, displayed on the Town water tower, unabashedly creates the perception of government endorsement of Christianity,” wrote foundation attorney Rebecca Markert.

It wasn’t the organization’s first foray into the Mid-South. Last August, the 17,000-member organization was successful in forcing schools in DeSoto County, to discontinue public prayers before school athletic events. In 2009, the group unsuccessfully sought to get the Memphis City Council to end its prayers.

The foundation also sent a letter to the town of Somerville, requesting removal of that town’s water tower cross, which still stands. City Administrator Austin Edmondson responded that Somerville’s situation was different because a private individual rents space on the tower for the display.

Bellar ignored the group’s demand for nearly a year. He said he didn’t think the unnamed source of the complaint lived in Whiteville. But last September, when the foundation threatened legal action and the case drew media attention, Bellar took an unusual course of action.

He removed the right arm of the cross.

“There is no longer a Latin cross atop the Whiteville water tower,” Bellar wrote in a letter to the FFRF.

“I’ve never seen anybody tear off an arm of a cross,” said Patrick Elliott, FFRF’s staff attorney.

The foundation responded by thanking the mayor for his compliance, but that didn’t end the dispute.

Not long after the water tower cross was disarmed, the town installed two crosses in front of town hall and decorated them with Christmas wreaths. Bellar also put a cross in the window of his insurance company. Foundation officials said they also heard that the mayor was thinking about leasing the tower to a private owner who could restore the cross.

“That’s why we thought it was necessary to address this because the mayor just didn’t get it,” Elliott said.

Whiteville residents have responded to the lawsuit. White wooden crosses sprang up in front yards across town just before Christmas in quiet defiance. Residents told Bellar they want him to fight.

“The individual that complained about this probably didn’t count on the unity that this would cause,” said Alston, who’s been passing out hundreds of wooden crosses to folks at his Whiteville Auto Parts store.

Bellar, who admits he’s “probably not the best Baptist” and lets an occasional profanity slip in conversation, said in his 18 years as mayor he’s gone to great lengths to run a secular government.

He says he has never opened a town meeting with a prayer or the Pledge of Allegiance. He also says he has turned down offers from national conservative organizations to defend the town.

Bellar says he never meant for the one-armed cross to be seen as a sign of protest. He was trying to be practical. And he says he was ready to remove the cross entirely, until a nearby telecommunications company had another idea.

CrossRoads Tech told Bellar that the water tower — and the one-armed cross — could be used for wi-fi equipment to bring broadband Internet service to the town. The company has similar arrangements with other West Tennessee towns.

If a private company leases the top of the tower for business purposes, the one-armed cross would technically be on private property, Bellar thinks.

“We are not in the cross business anymore,” Bellar said.