Ban the Cross!

This situation is one that is difficult to write about without venturing into political realms, but I am going to try.

Today, just prior to his sermon (with visual aids) tied to the Service Propers and in particular the Gospel (Luke 4:16-24, go read it!), on how we compartmentalize our lives in service to property, employment and family, leaving the least proportion to our faith --and those of us who attended Scripture Study this morning were at east prepared for this much-- he delivered a bit of a shocker to us in terms of his his wish to post a notice about the upcoming choir camp (more details forthcoming) at some local public schools.

Okay, there was a submission deadline missed by a day and I have no problem with that; the schools are off the hook. (In my day job I too have to set submission deadlines and there are good reasons for those deadlines.)

But Fr. Daniel was told that his notice might be rejected anyway for content... and the offensive content was the cross in the background of this photo (approximately as appears below, and there was text about the camp in front of the photo -- you really had to study the notice to even see the cross.) This is "offensive"?

But after that Deacon Ed advised us that the local Veteran's Administration (VA) hospital recently removed the cross from its (tiny room, used mostly by Roman Catholics) chapel because "it might be offensive" to others.

This picture, taken less than 6 months ago in Vienna (Austria) is part of what upsets me. The Viennese today might feel some guilt about what happened decades ago, for all that it's in living memory, but... a public display of a Menorah on a central city street in a place once upon a time less than friendly to Judaism...? From the position of one who has friends of other faiths, I hope it's out of something more than guilt.

In the U.S., it seems, Christians are being driven into compartmentalizing our faith by those who would as soon see it dead. And maybe we here in the Pacific Northwest, the least-churched part of the country, are going to be in the forefront.

Stay tuned.