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.
Not all religions. You can certainly use government funds to promote the atheist faith.
Only the Holy Spirit can convert you heart, mind and soud to believe in Jesus Christ, not words from a man.
If he hasn't then its possible God doesn't like you.
I don't doubt that you're blind. You convinced me completely.
Yes, simply that even in the time immediately after Christ died and rose from the dead many Christians were confronted with people like yourself that felt they were wise when in fact they were considered fools by Christians. Nothing has changed.
I am pointing out that there is a natural impass between Christians and those who think they are wise but don't believe.
Even before the wise knew the earth was round Christians believed that the unbeliever was a fool. Seeing that this condition existed for nearly 2000 years, it is highly unlikely that you and nonbelievers will ever find common ground. Implied in your posistion is that Christians are also fools.
In the eyes of all Christians you would be considered a fool, in your eyes you consider yourself wise. It has been that way for nearly 2000 years.
Without the holy spirit, no Christian is capable of believing that Jesus was the Christ. Its not up to man to convince another, its up to Christ and according to him he never lost one of His own. So if you are one of his own you will be saved by Him and be eternally thankfull, if not then you won't be saved by Him and you probably wouldn't care.
Your problem, and it is a very real problem, is that rather than being too logical or rational to accept Christianity, you are simply too biased and corrupted to accept the truth, rationality, and logic of it.
In the final analysis there are no logical arguments because the premise of "I am" which establishes God is just that a premise which cannot be accepted without the holy spirit. Any attempts at it would be no different than explaining color to a person blind from birth.
MAJOR PREMISE: Only God, if God exists, has the ability to accurately predict the future.
MINOR PREMISE: The future was accurately predicted in the Bible concerning the rise of the Roman Empire, the fate of other political entities, and the events in the life of Jesus Christ centuries before they occurred.
CONCLUSION: God exists.
And another:
MAJOR PREMISE: Only God, if God exists, has the ability to raise human beings from the dead.
MINOR PREMISE: Human beings have been raised from the dead.
CONCLUSION: God exists.
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