People praying to a secular monument
On Monday there was another victory for the Christian right. A three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court decided that that Ground Zero Cross is a “historical artifact,” and therefore deserved to be included in the government-funded National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The panel also had the temerity to write that “the actual purpose in displaying the Cross at Ground Zero has always been secular.”
The origin of the Ground Zero Cross, of course, is entirely secular. It is a cross beam section of steel that once made up one of the Twin Towers. The whole building was, quite literally, made up of cross sections of steel. It would be more shocking if there was no such chunk of metal left behind after the 9/11 attacks than if there was. I might go so far as to say it would miraculous for there not to have been a single intact cross beam left in the destruction. (In fact, multiple “sacred” cross beams were found during clean up, and some have made their way to various social organizations)
Yet the mundane and utterly expected appearance of cross beam was deemed a miracle, and worshipped by many. Christian priests and ministers flocked to endorse and bless the girder. St. Paul’s Chapel, a nearby church that escaped destruction on that dark day, even started cashing in on the miraculous cross beam by selling miniature replicas. Those Catholics sure know how to make a buck.
It was included in the National September 11 Memorial & Museum strictly because of this. No one denies this is true. Yet the judges of Second Circuit Court, seemingly desperate (much like the Supremes in the Hobby Lobby travesty) to maintain the Christian religion’s taint of American secular society, summoned an argument for “Historical Completeness” as a justification for including a religious icon.
“… a reasonable observer would view the primary effect of displaying the cross at ground zero, amid hundreds of other (mostly secular) artifacts, to be ensuring historical completeness, not promoting religion.”
What reasonable observer, living in a world where Christianity is the most practiced religion, would think that a cross was a secular sign?
It appears to be that the only way possible for this to make sense is to assume that the Christian cross has become a symbol not of Christianity, but of Ceremonial Deism.
1 Comment
I agree with your thesis, but there’s no need for the hostility. Wow Theodore, you really hold some sort of grudge against Christianity. “Twisted morality”? That’s pretty gratuitous, Ted. Most of the Founders were in fact NOT Deists. Neither Jefferson nor Adams considered themselves Deists, but unitarians and Christians. Even Thomas Paine didn’t call himself a Deist, though his critics did, and worse. Most of the Founders were Protestant in some sense or Catholic. I suggest you read “The Myth of American Religious Freedom” by Andrew Sehat (Oxford University Press, 2011) for a better understanding of America’s religious background during the Founding era (and after). You could also try Gregg L. Frazer’s “The Religious Beliefs of America’s Founders” (University of Kansas Press, 2014). I would also recommend Vincent Phillip Munoz’s “God and the Founders” (Cambridge University Press, 2009).