Posted on 06/18/2002 2:52:56 AM PDT by Bad~Rodeo
Decry plan to use symbol as part of 9-11 memorial
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The organization American Atheists is protesting a proposal to use a large steel cross found in the rubble of the World Trade Center in a memorial to victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Describing itself as a "nationwide movement which defends the civil rights of nonbelievers," the group said in a statement yesterday that use of the cross in a government-funded monument "would violate the separation of church and state, be insensitive to those victims who had no religious beliefs and would incredibly pay homage to religion the prime motivating factor in the faith-based attack of Sept. 11."
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation is the local agency in charge of planning for the rebuilding of the site.
Ed Malloy, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council and a board member of the agency, has asked that the cross be made a permanent part of any future memorial.
According to the New York Daily News, construction workers, firefighters, police officers and family members have held weekly Sunday services at the site of the cross since Sept. 11.
"We're hoping it will stay right where it is and become part of any permanent memorial," Malloy was quoted as saying in the Daily News.
Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists objects to the possibility that the cross might be used in a taxpayer-supported project.
"This is an inappropriate use of taxpayer money," she said in the statement, "You can't take government funds to promote religion, especially sectarian religion in the form of a cross or any other religious symbol."
Johnson added that any memorial to the victims of the attacks "should bring Americans together, not divide them on the basis or religion or anything else."
Ron Barrier, national spokesman for the group, stressed that Muslims, Hindus and other non-Christians were killed in the attacks as well.
What about them? he asked. "Are we going to turn the site of the WTC into a religious shrine with competing religious slogans, symbols and displays? Any monument to the victims, and those who helped in the aftermath of Sept. 11 should be tasteful, as well as a unifying statement about America and humanity.
"Christian symbols are as inappropriate as a Muslim crescent or some other religious label," Barrier said.
Construction worker Frank Silecchia happened upon the perfectly symmetrical cross in the midst of the WTC wreckage just a few days after the attacks. It was standing straight, 20-feet high, surrounded by many smaller crosses.
"When I first saw it, it took my heart," Silecchia said. "It helped me heal the burden of my despair, and gave me closure on the whole catastrophe."
Said WorldNetDaily columnist Ann Coulter in an October column : "The cross at Ground Zero was not simply the cross beams remaining from an existing building. It was formed out of beams from Building One plunging, splitting and crashing into Building Six."
"There's no symmetry to anything down there," an FBI chaplain said at the time, "except those crosses."
Johnson said that her group would go to court if necessary to challenge the use of government money for the placement of any religious symbol at the WTC site.
was on Hannity and Colmes tonight being just as intolerant as she was in this article.
I am telling the Truth! If you look at the daily sky and draw the conclusion that there is NO Creator, you are without excuse, no matter what you call yourself. The fact is you are worshipping "yourself".
God's Words are put there for those who have ears to hear...AMEN!
The cross, in this case, is used much like the crosses used for battlefield burial grounds and not to promote the Christain religion. If this had happened in Israel, they would have put up a "Star of David" and nobody would have said a word about it, myself included. I don't find the symbols of other religions to be as "poisonous" or irritating as you do.
I am trying to understand what your 'problem' with a symbol is and why you let it 'get to you' the way it does.
I see all kinds of 'devil worship' symbolism and teenagers with their 'goth' symbols on a regular basis. It flies in the face of my beliefs, but I don't let it bother me. It's called tolerance.
I underlined the part where I wrote: THESE atheists.(As opposed to the 'many atheists' that you referenced) I was not talking about atheists in general. I realize that there are some atheists who put everything they've got into not believing in anything.
Firstly, thanks a lot for not immediately taking a hostile tone, as opposed to many other people who responded to my post. I greatly appreciate it. As far as your question goes, I know that, as a religious Jew, if I would have had a (Jewish) friend or relative die at the WTC I would feel uncomfortable if what is going to pass for his unofficial tombstone is a giant cross. It would be the same feeling of discomfort I would feel if I found out that the same friend or relative died alone someplace and ended up buried in a churchyard.
I can tolerate seeing someone walk by with a satanist, goth symbol, even when it seems to play a role in his/her belief system. The difference is, they aren't trying to make me wear the images. Here, this could very easily be seen as an attempt to "Christify" the WTC site. You do feel a bit like an outsider trying to visit a Jewish gravesite under the shadow of a cross; believe me, I've tried.
I would therefore suggest the cross be placed in the yard of the local Church, as many other people on this thread have already suggested. Let each person who visits the memorial, however it's built, let his own faith define the site, as opposed to having to come as an outsider.
By the power of God He has revealed His specific revelation through the life, testimony of Jesus Christ, also known as the Word of God, (see John 1) to those who He has changed their hearts, ears and eyes so they may humbly receive His Truth.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
Romans1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
Your denial of the existence of God doesn't make Him non exisistent. Therefore I rest with my initial statement that the diety you worship is yourself.
Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
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