The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation has formally filed its promised lawsuit against the Flathead National Forest.

The group is challenging the legality of a statue of Jesus Christ being on federal land on Big Mountain.

According to a press release from the organization of atheists and agnostics, the lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Missoula on behalf of its 17,500 members, including 100 in Montana and some “who have had direct and unwanted exposure to the shrine” near the top of Chair Two at Whitefish Mountain Resort.

The foundation seeks a ruling that “the continued presence of a six-foot-tall statue of Jesus Christ in the Flathead National Forest, on a 25-by-25-foot plot owned and administered by the United States Forest Service, violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.”

The statue was placed on the mountain in 1954 by the Kalispell Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization that has maintained the statue is a memorial to World War II veterans, particularly the Army’s 10th Mountain Division.

Flathead Forest Supervisor Chip Weber decided last August not to renew a special use permit for the statue, but that decision was met with a huge response from people who support the statue as part of the ski area’s history.

Weber’s decision was withdrawn for reconsideration and public comment, resulting in the Flathead Forest receiving more than 95,000 comments.

Last week, Weber announced that the 10-year permit would be renewed, prompting the foundation’s legal action.

U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., has made the issue a cause, gathering support for the statue on his congressional website and pushing legislation that would clear the way for a land swap between the Flathead Forest and the Whitefish Mountain Resort, if necessary.

Rehberg reacted to the lawsuit with a statement Wednesday.

“The Whitefish community and the Forest Service did not ask for this fight, but we’re going to do whatever is necessary to win it,” he said, later adding that the Forest Service has “the overwhelming support of the local community and the American people in their stand against litigious bullies who want to force their narrow beliefs on the rest of us. At the end of the day, the veterans of the 10th Mountain Division fought for us, and you’d better believe we’re going to fight for them.”

Several out-of-state social conservative and Christian groups have lined up with promises to help defend the statue in court. They have argued that the statue doesn’t convey a government endorsement of religion and have said the Forest Service made the correct decision when it decided to re-authorize a special use permit.

The American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative Christian group that engages in legal fights over cultural issues, said it will seek to enter the case on behalf of those who believe such a statue represents the history and heritage of the region.

“It’s clear this legal challenge represents the latest move in a troubling pattern designed to remove any religious reference from our history, a tactic that we believe ultimately will fail in the federal court system,” American Center for Law and Justice lawyer Jay Sekulow said in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.