If the “illegal” Ten
Commandments are not the symbol of Western Civilization
and morality, the Cross of Jesus Christ is. It too is
considered a dangerous figure in public and in private.
Recent attacks on the cross have been channeled through
city councils and churches alike.
First, the
City of Ventura, California is under fire for displaying
an historic cross that was erected 221years ago by the
missionary-explorer Junipero Serra. Serra established the
San Buenaventura Mission in 1782, naming it and Ventura
after the Franciscan Priest St. Bonaventure. Today,
Serra’s mission is a registered state landmark.
A group of
three atheists called the Freethinkers of Ventura became
offended by the historical cross and threatened to file a
lawsuit against the city. Last week, the Ventura City
Council voted to sell the cross along with an acre of land
around it. On September 22, the city will accept bids to
purchase the cross.
Unsurprisingly, there is discussion amongst anti-Christian
interest groups in the city to purchase the cross and to
remove it from public view or destroy it. City council
members who are opposed to dismantling the cross are
considering selling the icon conditionally to someone who
will maintain it with respect and reverence. “I would
rather fight it in court than sell it under those
conditions [to someone who would destroy the cross],” said
City Councilman Jim Monahan.
And it
appears that such a court battle is approaching. Americans
United for Separation of Church and State and the
California First Amendment Coalition have threatened a
lawsuit on behalf of potential cross-destroyers if the
city blocks their bids.
To make
matters worse, the American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC)
held a conference in New York last week to promote the
removal of crosses from Christian Churches. ACLC was
founded by the cultic Rev. Sun Myung Moon to eliminate
barriers between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Earlier
this year, ACLC reported that over 285 Christian clergy
“directly affirmed the taking down of the cross” and 123
churches have removed crosses so far this year.
Sounds
like something you’d hear glorified at a meeting of the
Freethinkers of Ventura rather than a gathering of
“Christian” leaders. According to the Apostle Paul, both
the atheists and the ACLC are equally misguided: “The
message of the Cross is foolishness to the perishing, but
to us who are saved it is the power of God.”
Archbishop
George Augustus Stallings of the Imani Temple
African-American Catholic Church in Washington, D.C.
exclaimed, “We have realized that, as expressions of
faith, there are certain symbols that have stood in the
way. The cross has served as a barrier in bringing about a
true spirit of reconciliation between Muslims and
Christians, and thus we have sought to remove the cross
from our Christian churches across America as a sign of
our willingness to remove any barrier that stands in the
way of us coming together as a people of faith.”
Contrary
to the word of Archbishop Stallings, the Word of God says
that the Cross is unifying. “[Christ] has broken down the
middle wall of separation . . . that He might reconcile
[Jews and Gentiles] to God in one body through the Cross,
thereby putting to death the division.”
And if
Archbishop Stallings himself was a “person of faith,” he
might have defended the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ.
As Jesus Himself said, “He who does not take his Cross and
follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” Instead, Stallings
said the history of the Cross is one of “religious
intolerance, forced conversions, inquisitions and even
racism used by white supremacists.”
It is true
that the unreformed church has been corrupt and evil. But
the heinous abuses of Christendom have consistently
occurred when the church has forgotten the essential Cross
of Christ, not when it exalted the cross.
Rev.
Phillip Schanker of the Family Federation for World Peace
and Unification told the ACLC conference that churches
must do more than remove crosses. Schanker said they must
overcome “the religious arrogance, the religious
chauvinism, the narrow-mindedness, the judgmentalism that
often comes from insecurity.”
I don’t
dispute that the Cross has much to do with murder and sin
and intolerance and hatred. Those hideous parts of our
nature were the driving force that nailed Jesus to the
Cross and that made His suffering all the worse. Thus the
Cross has much to do with grace, because there on the
Cross, Jesus Christ the Lord was sacrificed for all of the
sorrow and shame that ever was. There on the cross is all
of the justice that is demanded by an eternal God, and all
of the mercy that is needed by a dying people.
The Ten
Commandments are gone in Montgomery, but we can’t give up.
Its time for the Law and the Cross to be restored in
America.
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Hans Zeiger, 18, is an Eagle Scout and
president of the Scout Oath Coalition. He is chairman of
Washington Young Americans for Freedom and a Seattle Times
columnist. He can be contacted at
hanszeiger@yahoo.com.
