October 10, 2017
If I may, I would like to add my voice to the conversation about the Bayview Cross lawsuit. Based on the legal logic of the ones who want to remove the cross, its presence demonstrates the government’s endorsement of the Christian faith. So they want the government to remove it. Thus, clearly demonstrating that the government does not endorse the Christian faith. End of story. Well, not really.
If the City government, representing the good people of Pensacola, is forced to do this, the gnarly law of unintended consequences goes into effect. Consider this, using the same legal logic referenced above. The removal of the cross, an overt, though legally forced action by our local government, to make a statement about the endorsement of a religion, is itself an endorsement of a religion. Consider this:
1. The removal of the symbol of Christianity, or any other religious symbol, makes the statement that our government endorses atheism, no God, and no symbol. To take this action simply replaces one faith for another. Every bit as much a statement, and using the same logic, just as wrong.
2. An alternate solution I am sure must have been considered is to leave the cross and welcome the addition of the symbols of other faiths. This too, is in itself, an endorsement of a religion—Polytheism, the belief in many gods. This action, using the same logic, would also be a statement by our government, and, just as wrong.
In short, taking down a symbol of faith which supposedly implies governmental endorsement, and leaving none in its place, or adding the symbols of other faiths, only serves to establish a different faith now endorsed by our government.
Thus, the only reasonable, logical, and perhaps, legal solution is to leave the cross. In this way
• To the average, informed citizen of Pensacola the cross will be an historical symbol of our founding as the first settlement with the first Christian worship in the new world.
• To Christians it will remain as the symbol of our faith in the crucified, buried, and resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.
• To the indifferent and uninformed, it will be a landmark, as in, “you know, the park with the big cross.”
I’d like to hear what you think. Send me a response.
I agree with your assessment, Bob. Atheism is a religion and their core belief is there is no God. I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that although they don’t believe in God, they are angry in their opposition to those of us who do. Is this an oxymoron…maybe kind of?? If I were an atheist, I would just blow believers off with a “bless their hearts” and go on my way not caring why they have to have a God to believe in. Not my business I would say.
In the day we are currently living in, the anti-Christian movement is gaining momentum in every aspect of daily living, whether TV, movies, advertisements, newspapers or the media and especially politics. We must remember that we are living on Satan’s turf and our real home is not on planet Earth. The battle we engage in is not between us and them, it is a spiritual battle between wicked powers and principalities in high places. Unbelievers do not understand as this is spiritually discerned and they are blinded to the things of God. God has told us in His Love Story to us that He would send a spirit of deception upon the world in the last days. Looking around, I believe it is already here. But I have read the back of the Book and I know who wins.
My heart grieves for those, especially in the West, who will not bow their knee to a loving Father and want to live for Him out of gratitude for the price Jesus paid for our sin debt on the cross. There are so many really persecuted Christians world-wide who have seen their little children cut in half or had their heads cut off because the parent would not deny Christ. I wonder if we would have the fortitude to not deny our Lord if such a thing came to this country. We can get upset over a cross on the beach and the antics of atheists determined to take it down, but the Cross is a living symbol engraved upon our hearts and that can never be taken away from us. It would not surprise me if the beach cross were taken down, bowing to the repercussions of an extended lawsuit. But the Cross still lives and the Blood still saves and we who have embraced this Truth are still redeemed. No person or government entity can take us out of the Father’s hands…not even we, ourselves! (Didn’t mean to preach….but you know how I am! 🙂 )
Oops! Forgot to add:
Q: What does a Christian and a dead atheist have in common?
A: They both believe in God.