Cross as Sacred Symbol

This week, a federal appeals court ruled that the Mt. Soledad cross war memorial in California was unconstitutional since it is on public land. The memorial has been the subject of lawsuits for twenty years, including a Supreme Court decision. Now, the case is likely to head to the top court in the land yet again. Don Byrd at "Blog from the Capitol" provides several good excerpts from the recent decision. The basic argument of the court is that the cross is a religious symbol. Here is the best line:

Overwhelming evidence shows that the cross remains a Christian symbol, not a military symbol.

Amen! If the only way the cross can stand on public land as part of a veterans memorial is to strip the cross of its Christian meaning, then Christians should not want the cross to stand there. Yet, some Christian groups seem more concerned with the cross standing on that spot than the cross holding its sacred meaning. Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice attacked the decision as "a judicial slap in the face to the countless military veterans honored by the memorial." But to take away the Christian symbolism of the cross is a much more significant and insulting slap. Symbols matter.