In yet another blow to the narrowing line between church and state, the Supreme Court ruled that a twenty foot cross was essentially a secular symbol.
Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito outlined a position stating the twenty foot cross at a busy intersection in Bladensberg, MD, could remain on state property. Positing that the Latin cross was a strong symbol from the World War I era, it primarily honored the men who died in the war and did not conjure a particularly religious sentiment.
Other war memorials surround the huge cross on the small spate of state-owned land. The state has maintained it for some time at a cost of over $117,000 to taxpayers. In 2014 the American Humanist Association filed a suit in District Court that alleged the cross on public land and the use of public money violated the First Amendment Establishment clause.
In summary judgement the court maintained there is a difference between erecting such a monument and maintaining a long standing memorial. Since the cross was erected in the early 1900’s it was impossible to know the original intent of the founders. The judgement also said the purpose multiplied with time, meaning that even if the original intent was religious, the purpose was obscured by time.
An additional point was that the message of the monument evolved with time. Finally, the judgement asserts that as time passes there is a strong presumption of constitutionality.
This is legal bullshit at its best. The main point of the judgement is that the cross originated as a Christian symbol and retains that meaning in many contexts. It does not change the fact that the symbol took on added secular meaning when used in the World War I monument. It represents the symbolic resting place for those who never returned home.
Writing the dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg commented from the bench. This is a sign of profound disagreement in Supreme Court practice. “The majority vote undermined the Separation of Church and State.” Citing a decision from years ago, she noted that the Court “…recognized the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment demands neutrality among religious faiths and between religion and non-religion. Today the Court erodes that neutrality commitment, diminishing the precedent designed to preserve individual liberty and harmony in favor of a presumption of constitutionality for long standing monuments, symbols and priorities.”
Could it be that a feisty Jewish woman has a better grasp on the meaning of the cross than most of the bench? Justices Kagan (Jewish) and Sotomayor (Catholic) joined the dissent.
The cross has no place in the public sphere in a country that supports individuals’ right to religious practice or to no religious preference at all. If this were a twenty foot Torah scroll or Koran it would have been history a long time ago.
None of this is good news for the Christian faith. By co-opting the central symbol of the faith, the Court has essentially emptied the cross of its power and promise. In the mind of the Court, the monument could be a hand flipping the bird to motorists. While the primary meaning has been “screw you,” the meaning has evolved with time.
The cross is NOT a secular symbol.
While the theology surrounding the cross is widely divergent among people of faith, the truth remains that it is a religious symbol associated exclusively with the Christian church in its many forms.
The cross was a symbol of torture and an agonizing death, the instrument of Roman oppression and the collusion of religious leaders. Jesus’ death on the cross was the embodiment of complete love and commitment to God’s realm that refused to be co-opted. Jesus was single minded in purpose; he came to establish the reign of God as the power and promise of justice, peace and wholeness for all people.
The empty cross is the central symbol for much of the church that focuses on Jesus’ ongoing life in the lives of his followers. Those who choose to follow in his way are God’s instruments of peace, justice and wholeness for all people in the world.
To make the cross a secular symbol shows the degree to which the Christian church is captive to the culture of our time. Abandoning the way and will of Jesus, the Church embodies lack of commitment to the truth for which Jesus lived and died.
It’s a travesty of the first order. The lack of outcry from the Church serves to further drive home the point. It is time for the Church to be the Church, take back what is ours and speak truth to power in the name of the One whom we claim to be Christ.
The Irreverent Reverend 