City-Owned Cemetery Refuses to Engrave 'Jesus' on Preacher's Wife's Headstone

The family of a Colorado preacher’s wife is still fuming after the director of the city-owned cemetery refused to engrave her final resting place with the name ‘Jesus’ because it might offend people. The city eventually reversed course under public pressure.

“We were in disbelief,” said Stacy Adams, the daughter-in-law of Linda Baker. “Who tries to censor Jesus from a cemetery?”

Linda Baker lost her battle with cancer last week. She was the wife of Mark Baker, the pastor of Harvest Baptist Church in Ovid.

Adams said her mother-in-law was passionate about her Christian faith and her family. Her final wish was to have her cemetery marker engraved with the ichthys, a symbol of early Christianity. She also wanted the word ‘Jesus’ written inside the fish.

“At first they told us it wouldn’t fit,” Adams told me. “But after we kept pushing them the cemetery director told us that it might offend somebody. They weren’t going to allow it.”

The family was devastated and asked the cemetery director to reconsider. He refused.  “He said, ‘What if somebody wanted to put a swastika?” she recounted. “My reply was, so what if they do? It’s not my business how they want to be remembered.”

The family then took their concerns to the Sterling city manager – but once again they were rebuffed.  “He refused to work with us,” she said. “He said he would have to take it to the city attorney. They were being difficult.”

She said city officials kept telling them that people would be offended by the name of Christ.  “We weren’t asking for a six-foot neon sign,” she said. “We did not want to put a cross on everyone’s tombstone. It’s a six-inch fish with the name ‘Jesus ‘ on it.”

So the family decided to post their plight on Facebook – and that’s when the city had a change of heart.  “We gave them fair warning,” she said. “We gave them time to do the right thing.”

Sterling City Manager Joe Kiolbasa told 9news.com they would no longer censor religious references on headstones and cemetery markers. He said the cemetery manager made a mistake.

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