Atheist Group: 'Ground Zero Cross' An Insult

Talon News ^ | 09/10/03 | Jimmy Moore

[bedolido]

NEW YORK (Talon News) -- An atheist group is fighting an effort to place a cross at the site of the World Trade Center towers as a memorial to the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The American Atheists, which was begun by renowned anti-Christian activist Madalyn Murray O'Hare before she died, are opposed to displaying the 20-foot tall cross that was found by a rescue worker named Frank Silecchia in the midst of the rubble just a few days after the buildings collapsed.

Silecchia said he "cried for 20 minutes after his discovery," the Associated Press reported at the time. "Some people will say it's velocity of physics that put it there. To me, it's an act of God."

That cross, along with many smaller crosses around it, served as a source of comfort for many of the construction workers, firefighters, policemen, and family members of the victims in the weeks following the loss of thousands of American lives.

The cross bears the names of police officers and firefighters who gave their lives on September 11, 2001. Also inscribed on the cross are the words "God Bless Our Fallen Brothers."

Nevertheless, American Atheists has threatened to sue for the right to keep this cross from becoming a part of a World Trade Center memorial.

"Tax money must not be used to construct any sectarian memorial," remarked American Atheists President Ellen Johnson.

Johnson said allowing the cross in the memorial would "insult the victims, rescue workers, and other Americans who are not Christians, who do not believe in a deity, and are not religious."

The project developer, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, indicated previously that the cross should be included as part of the memorial display.

Supporters of the "Ground Zero Cross," as it has become known, believe it should be a part of the memorial as a lasting symbol and tribute to the victims of the September 11 attacks.

Copyright © 2003 Talon News -- All rights reserved.

[Trampled by Lambs]

People like this make me want to take up religion if only to make sure that I a never asscoiated with such idiots. If it comforts anyone involved, how could it be a bad thing? These guys really piss me off.

[Bikers4Bush]

I'm sick of the whiney atheists.

[stuartcr]

True enough, thanks for a civil answer.

[mr.pink]

How many of the 343 firemen who died on September 11th 2001 were athiests? How many were Roman Catholics?

I'd like to see this "atheist" walk into the nearest Firehouse and declare the cross "insulting".

I'd advise anyone who wants to try to move it to make their attempt in the dead of night.

[stuartcr]

There could be symbols representing the different religious beliefs, not a generic one for all.

[Bikers4Bush]

Maybe, maybe not. If not maybe it's because none of them were found created out of the rubble.

[stuartcr]

Where does anything say that ours is a Christian nation? As you said, we force no one to believe in any specific religious teaching.

[Afronaut]

Cross? doesn't look like a cross to me. What Cross? I see metal from the WTC... you see a Cross? What Cross?

[Porterville]

Are we ready to get "our arms" together yet??? Well let me know when the revolution begins.

[meg70]

Fine, if you can prove to me that Muslim religious symbols were found standing unbowed and upright in the rubble, let them stand there!

[stuartcr]

Might be because a cross-member is a pretty standard structural piece, as opposed to a Star-of-David, or a Crescent, or a Buddhist Wheel of Life.

[SAMWolf]

Bite me, Ellen Johnson

[Havoc]

Sorry, the atheists are wrong. And so are the guys at ground 0. Sifting through the rubbel they find a bit that looks like a cross in the midst of a bazillion bits that don't and Eureka - nutcase city. Someone will call it a miracle if it hasn't been so labeled already. Those are the nuts that don't know what a miracle is to begin with.
Oh well....

[stuartcr]

Please see my #31.

[anoldafvet]

"Johnson said allowing the cross in the memorial would "insult the victims, rescue workers, and other Americans who are not Christians, who do not believe in a deity, and are not religious."

So basically, their gripe is that they don't believe in God but they don't want any symbols around to remind them that there may be a God. I am offended that one of the symbols of my religion is denigrated by others, but I guess I don't count.

Incidentally, Madalyn Murray O'Hare is responsible for our children not being able to pray in school. She is believed dead, but they have never found her body after she disappeared.

[jwalsh07]

I'm curious. Why would a religious symbol offend someone who sees it as nonsense? Why isn't it simply a cross member of the building rather than a symbol of Christ?

[meg70]

As I said before, if the Buddhist 'Wheel of Life' can be found in the rubble..put it in the Memorial

[Sabatier]

The atheist lack of faith is a type of faith in its own way, a faith in nothingness. For them, faith in nothingness is to be sanctioned, faith in God is not. The atheists want to make their faith in nothingness the state religion. You don't have to be religious to tire of the truly atrocious public art that comes from the faith in nothingness. And if you are religious you also get tired of them forcing their atheist faith on the rest of us.

[meg70]

Because you are looking with the eyes of the blind.

[BlueLancer]

I agree ... I'm a Deist and it doesn't offend me any more than a Star of David or any other religious symbol does. If it means something to somebody else and gives them comfort, more power to them.