On Monday I blogged on Anti-Christian Bigotry in a California School District. I also mentioned the recent Supreme Court victory allowing a Cross to stand in a War Memorial Park on Federal land in California. It has now come to pass that someone who did not like the decision destroyed the Cross which has stood there since the 1930s.
I wonder if you have seen this in the news?
Here’s the Fox News Report:
The vandalism of the cross/war memorial is dreadful. You ask, Msgr, what the reaction to the destruction of a Jewish or Muslim smybol would have been. I believe that the Supreme Court’s rationale for voting in favor of keeping the memorial was that the cross was not just a Christian symbol, but one that had broader meaning in this particular case – that the cross commemorated everyone who died in the war, not just Christians, etc. I wonder if it is a good thing to have the cross become a general cultural symbol, rather than a specific Christian one? Rather a Phyrric victory, I think.
Also, recall that a few months ago, the famous Arbeit macht frei sign from Auschwitz was stolen – initial suspects were neo-Natis. Turns out it was a band of common thieves. Let’s see who is responsible for this particular crime.
Yes, thanks. Just for the record, I removed my question to which you refer because I had second thoughts about bringing that aspect into the discussion. But I appreciate your responding to it. You may be right about the phyrric quality of the victory given SCOTUS’s reasonong. However I was still glad the cross could stay even if I could wish for better reasons.
I heard about the theft on ABC radio. And the story was really just an excuse for them to go on the attack and tell about how “some people” think that it is a violation of “church and state.”
As for the Cross becoming a general cultural symbol, there is that danger of trivializing it, e.g. Christmas, but at the same time, part of the Christian mission is to universalize things like the Cross and not merely keep it in the Christian ghetto.
I’m curious- would this be considered and treated as a hate crime?
It is a hate crime.
But it won’t be considered one or treated like one.
Like they did with the radio reports I heard, they will treat it as a justified act.
I think you are right Bender.