Controversy over great big roadside crosses

There’s something quintessentially American roadtrip-y about driving past those huge steel crosses. And, come to think of it, there’s something kinda Texan about it, too.

Texas is home to some pretty big crosses, including a 190-footer in Groome, along I-40 outside of Amarillo. There’s also a 100-foot cross with a chapel in Ballinger. And plenty more that passersby catch on cell phone cams.

Houston’s biggest is Sagemont Church’s 170-foot cross at I-45 and Highway 8. (It’s taller than the Statue of Liberty and was built that tall “Because the FAA would not let us build it to 250 feet tall. That’s why,” said the church’s pastor John Morgan, at its dedication a year ago.) Plus there’s the white-neon cross on the side of the St. Joseph Professional Building downtown. And plans for two more, up to 200 feet tall, along I-45. (Rev. Matt Tittle, a local Unitarian Universalist minister and blogger, was not a fan of their proposal to make Houston a city of crosses.)

From Coming King

But, turns out, the process for building these enormous crosses isn’t easy. Even though they’re on private land, zoning regulations or angry neighbors can cause a legal stir.

And that’s why a 77-foot-tall brown cross has been laying flat on a Texas hillside since November.

Neighbors filed suit to keep the Coming King Foundation in Kerrville, west of Austin and San Antonia, from erecting the central sculpture in its $7 million Christian religious garden, but they’ve come to an agreement that allows the cross to finally stand… once the organization builds a fence to keep neighbors from seeing it and situates a parking lot at its base. And raises more money to pay for all that.

“Other churches have called us and shared similar situations,” said Ryan Huff, a trustee and office manager for Coming King. “There’s always the possibility (that people will respond negatively), but we’re at peace with it. It’s God’s timing, and we’ll trust him.”

The organization says the cross, which will go up as soon as it raises about $150,000 to cover final costs, will pioneer “eye-gate evangelism,” reaching out to those who drive past. Many churches that have also erected giant crosses see it as a way to counter trashy billboards for gentlemen’s clubs.

Click the image below to check out some of the country’s largest crosses:

Courtesy of  http://www.chron.com/channel/houstonbelief/photogallery/Giant_roadside_crosses.html

National Religious Freedom Group Condemns Atheist Campaign to Desecrate Roadside Crosses

MEDIA ADVISORY, Feb. 10 /Christian Newswire/ — Rt. Reverend Council Nedd, II, National Chairman of the national advocacy group In God We Trust, publicly denounced today an anonymous atheist Internet campaign that urges activists to tear down roadside memorials to individuals killed in car accidents. The AtheistActivist.org website even goes so far as to recommend specific contractor-grade power tools for cutting down crosses constructed of metal.

The controversial website may be found at atheistactivist.org.

The site calls the memorials “macabre eyesores and dangerous distractions that invite rubbernecking and visitors to already hazardous roads.” and “Atheists and other non-christians [sic] find them offensive, annoying and depressing. … There is nothing stopping us from taking down these religious symbols. We don’t need any new laws, we need direct action.”

The website further instructs activists to purchase heavy-duty power cutting tools made by Dewalt or Makita in order to cut crosses made of rebar or metal.

“This campaign is an affront to common decency, and the cowardly individuals or groups who are behind this campaign should let the American people know who they are,” says Nedd. “I dare these people to even try to take down a memorial to someone’s loved one in front of me,” Nedd says. “The atheist movement is becoming more and more like the eco-terrorists who advocate spiking trees and burning down housing developments that are under construction.”

The website provides no way to contact or identify the individuals behind the anti-cross effort other than through a form for submitting an email. The site does however, quote Robert R. Tiernan, an attorney from the Freedom from Religion Foundation, the nation’s largest atheist group, justifying the destruction of roadside memorials. The FfRF is know for promoting a radical atheist agenda that recently included protesting the U.S. Post Office’s issuing of a stamp honoring Mother Theresa.

In God We Trust is a national political advocacy organization with over 70,000 supporters of various faiths. Council Nedd is a traditional Episcopal priest and serves as the Bishop of the Chesapeake and Northeast for the Episcopal Missionary Church. In God We Trust can be found on the Internet at www.InGodWeTrustUSA.org.