Cross does not represent all people
Regarding the July 2 U-T editorial on the Mt. Soledad cross, the editorial stated the cross ”is not religious statement“ and implied it is somehow an appropriate symbol to represent everyone who has died for our country.
For the umpteenth time, a Christian cross is a religious symbol. It is a symbol for Christians worldwide who wear it and show it as an identifier of their faith. But let us look at the historical record, and at how it may be viewed by some non-Christians:
It was a symbol carried by the crusaders as they sought to religiously dominate the middle east by murdering every Muslim and Jewish person they could find.
It was a symbol of the Inquisition as they systematically robbed, imprisoned, tortured, and murdered or deported Jews for over 600 years, from the 12th to the 19th century. It was the religious symbol of the conquistadors as they invaded the Americas: Enslaving the natives, destroying their writing and culture, stealing their gold and silver and sending the riches back to Europe to the church and their own governments, which were deeply entwined.
The cross is the symbol of a religion that for 600 years preached anti-Semitism in their sermons, writings, and illustrations, so that the hatred of Jews was institutionalized throughout Europe, the Americas, and the Christian world. The Nazi atrocities did not happen in a vacuum; there were many collaborators who had been prepped by the teachings of the cross/church.
I do understand how the idea of a theocratic nation can be so comforting. Right now there are sectarian fighters in parts of Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan who seek to establish their own theocratic nation/states. Supposedly, we in the U.S. are a pluralistic society with equal rights for all, not special rights for some. If it were a star of David or a crescent moon at Mt. Soledad, no doubt it would have been moved a long time ago. Remove the cross, and have a war memorial that represents all members of the military, and our nation.
As we live near the monument I show very slightly more interest in the eventual outcome of the seemingly perpetual lawsuits. But what appalls me is the sad ignorance the general populace seems to have regarding the (bloody) history of the cross as a symbol.
People seem to have no idea how many millions have been slaughtered throughout history for the sake of the cross. How many hundreds of thousands have had to endure the humiliation of being subjugated and being forced to accept the cross or being tortured or burned.
It is all right that Christians feel comfortable being buried under this symbol, it is their intrinsic identity. But please don’t have a cross hovering over the burial ground or over a memorial which honors the valor of all men regardless of their faith.
I could not agree more with the “Cross does not represent all” letter, and also disagree more with the “Cross is traditional for remembering vets” letters that appeared together.