BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. – Tokens of Christianity, including crosses and religious mottos, are found in schools and government buildings all over Harrison County. The amenities in a women’s bathroom at the Board of Education offices even include a leather-bound pocket copy of “New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs.”

The board of education has decided that Bridgeport, a town of 8,000 people served by 40 churches, will fight to preserve its decidedly Christian aesthetic.

And they’re not going to let the theft of a painting of Jesus from Bridgeport High School stand in the way of that battle.

Two civil liberties groups, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the West Virginia American Civil Liberties Union, filed suit in June to remove the painting, “Head of Christ,” saying it sends the message that the public school endorses Christianity as its official religion.

The county Board of Education said last week it will fight the lawsuit, promising it would not spend public money defending itself. The Christian Freedom Fund raised more than $150,000 for a defense fund, including $6,700 raised by students at the school.

The Alliance Defense Fund, a national legal organization founded in part by Christian group Focus on the Family, was selected as lead counsel in the case.

“We have decided to step up to the plate here. This is important to us and reflects what our community wants in the schools,” school board member Mike Queen said after the decision to go to court was announced.

Early Thursday, the painting that had been at the school for 37 years was stolen from a wall outside the principal’s office. The theft was caught by security cameras, but the thief hid his face.

Despite the theft, the legal battle will continue.

“The most logical question is ‘Now that the picture’s gone, is it moot?”‘ said Harrison County School superintendent Carl Friebel.

“We’re all in uncharted water here, but if it resurfaces, then the case wouldn’t be moot.”

The school board hopes the community will help identify the thief, and Friebel said local churches had offered to replace the painting.

Communities all over the country are fighting to keep Christian monuments, crosses and portraits in place, encouraged by the Bush Administration’s conservative appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court, says Douglas Laycock, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Texas and an expert in separation of church and state cases.

“Schools are considered the most sensitive location because with children, personal matters like religion are to be left to parents, not government,” Laycock said.