The War Against the Cross (221 year old Historic Cross to be removed and destroyed?)

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 221 years 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.

Ventura County Star
http://www.insidevc.com/vcs/county_news/article/0,1375,VCS_226_2290947,00.html

New nonprofit makes winning bid to buy cross

Hastily formed group will pay city $104,000 to save Ventura landmark

By John Scheibe,
September 23, 2003
A relieved Ventura City Council voted 6-1 Monday night to sell a contested city-owned cross high above the downtown and an acre of land around it for a bid price of $104,216.87.
The winning bidder was the Grant Park Conservancy, a private nonprofit group recently formed to save the cross, after it submitted the highest of five bids that went before the council.
"I'm beyond thrilled," said conservancy head Christy Weir.
Monday's sale caps months of fund-raising by Weir, during which hundreds of people donated money to her group. Weir said the outpouring of support "has been amazing." According to Weir, her group received over $50,000 in contributions on Monday.
"The donations have come in so fast we haven't even had a chance to count all of them yet," she said.
Kevin McAtee, a Ventura real estate appraiser, submitted the second-highest bid of $77,250.
The city is expected to finalize the sale within about 20 days. But that's provided the bidder pays the city in full for the cross property and agrees to a number of conditions and restrictions there. This includes more muted lighting for the cross and keeping the property in open space. Councilman Neal Andrews voted against the sale because he disagrees with the restrictions.
City officials and others hope the sale will end one of the biggest controversies to face Ventura in years.
The council voted to sell the cross in late July after San Francisco attorney Vince Chhabria warned that city ownership and maintenance of it violates the constitutional separation of church and state. Chhabria told the city to divest itself of the religious icon or face a lawsuit. Chhabria made the demand on behalf of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and three area residents.
Cross supporters claimed the demands were more an attack on Christian symbols than concerns over the constitution.
But in the end, the council agreed to sell the wooden cross along with an acre of Grant Park land around it, despite pleas that it fight the issue out in court.
"This is obviously a great day for the residents of Ventura," Councilman Jim Friedman told a crowd at City Hall following Monday's sale. Friedman said he and other council members agonized for a long time over what to do about the cross. He said they only reluctantly agreed to sell it after learning city taxpayers might be on the hook for anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million in legal costs if the city did not comply with Chhabria's demands.
Ventura Realtor Bill Duston said prior to Monday's meeting he was considering making a separate bid on the cross property after receiving tens of thousands of dollars in donations from a group of wealthy businessmen.
But Duston decided to give the money to Weir's group instead, so it could outbid anyone wanting to buy the land and remove the cross.
"Ventura would lose an important part of its history if that were to happen," said Duston on Monday afternoon. "The next thing they might try and do is to take down the Father Serra statue in front of City Hall."
While Ventura has had some version of the cross ever since Father Junipero Serra founded the mission in 1782, the current cross has stood high above the downtown since 1941.
Stan Kohls of Somis, one of the three represented by Chhabria, said that although he received death threats over the issue, he believes some positive things came out of it.
"I think this has forced people to really start thinking about issues having to do with religious symbols on public land," said Kohls on Monday afternoon. "More people now realize that having these symbols there is not good."

Grant Park, Ventura, CA.

If I were working as a clinical psychologist, I wonder what sort of analysis I'd get
from a secular colleague if I told him/her that I had a patient that:

1. Becomes emotionally disturbed at the sight of two linear objects that
intersect at a 90-degree angle, even when such a construction is simply the result
of accidental forces (e.g., the girder-crosses of the WTC on 9-11).
2. Will lodge legal coplaints about this "X" arrangement, even enlisting
and paying for legal counsel to alleviate their discomfort.
3. And perhaps the most bizarre aspect of this client's predicatment is: he honestly
that the "X" arrangement represents an imaginary person and moral code,
yet the client feels it absolutely necessary to expend time, effort and mental
exertion to fight this imaginary person and all attendent putatative (imaginary)
symbols associated with this poltergeist.

Analysis: obsessive-compulsive, with persecution complex. Sounds like someone
who swallowed too much windowpane LSD (and too many times) while role-playing fanatsy games.
Recommend psychiatric workup, with needed medication to alleviate anxiety.

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