According to an article in the Blade last Sunday, featuring the roadside cross memorial for our friend Tim Conklin, the Freedom From Religion Foundation sees the roadside crosses marking accident sites as “religious” and thus offensive. They encourage atheists to tear them down because they are on government property. I wish the members of the FFRF had something better to do with their energies. This is so petty.
First of all, I bet some of the crosses are really on the easement rights the government maintains on private property for the potential of enlarging the roads.
Secondly, they ARE warnings that we should be careful in our driving and may mark a dangerous curve, as Tim Conklin’s cross memorial does.
Thirdly, they ARE comforts and expressions of grief and remembrance for those who have suffered a terrible loss. Crosses symbolize life after death, salvation for eternity. They ARE more than generic memorials in that Jesus’ death on the cross resulted in Resurrection of the Dead for all who believe. Any one may choose to believe this or not, so why does the symbol enrage or sadden the unbeliever??? Perhaps because he thinks there may be truth in it and he’d rather there be no such hope? Is that rational?
Many such memorials disappear after many months of deterioration. We assume road maintenance or the families might take them down because they were neglected over time as people move on with their lives. Moldy teddy bears, tattered signs and withered flowers are cleaned up –but a cross endures a while longer as a sign that someone cared about this life that was tragically taken.
“That government is best which governs least” seems applicable to such memorial crosses as to national health care. It is liberals and atheists who seem to want to control every aspect of our lives –and deaths –with their vitriolic hatred of all things religious and free.
Tim's father, Joe Conklin, a Christian lay leader at my church, had the last words in the article, including these about the FFRF types: "I think these people are nuts to start out with. This country was brought up with the cross. You won't find the term 'separation of church and state' in the Constitution or in the Declaration of Independence." EXACTLY!
"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible
Showing posts with label cross memorials. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cross memorials. Show all posts
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