Man’s NASCAR headstone banned by church; widow sues
Fair warning, you may have to scrap those NASCAR-themed tombstone plans depending on your body's future place of rest's regulations.
Jason Carr died in a 2009 car crash and his wife Shannon spent nearly $10,000 on a custom headstone in the shape of a couch featuring the NASCAR logo, the logo of the Indianapolis Colts and a deer and a dog. However, the couple's church said it didn't meet the specifications of its cemetery and therefore wouldn't be allowed as his grave marker.
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Shannon Carr is now suing. From the AP:
The Rev. Jonathan Meyer, priest at St. Joseph Catholic Church, notified the monument maker that the headstone didn't meet the cemetery's standards and couldn't be placed in the church's century-old graveyard, The Republic
reported. But Carr says in her lawsuit that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis Properties Inc., which owns the cemetery, never produced any regulations for the plot until more than a year after she tried to have the headstone installed in 2010.
Meyer says that the church knew about the plans for the headstone six weeks before Carr purchased it and that she was informed of the decision not to allow it in the cemetery and was encouraged to not purchase it. However, he did say that the regulations weren't formally official until after Carr purchased the headstone. The archdiocese of Indianapolis says that issue is out of the court's jurisdiction as it doesn't fall within the bounds of the first amendment.
And Meyer also took a dig at Carr's decision to purchase the tombstone. "Our culture breaks all the rules to make people feel good," he said. "Faithful Christians know rules and regulations are set up so there can be good for everyone."
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