Have You Noticed

Posted on May 21, 2006 in Myths & Mysticism

Have you noticed that there are those who look to Jesus as a counsel and a check on their lives and there are those who troll him like bait? It’s similar to my concern about seeing the cross as a Sign and using it as a Trademark.

When I was young, I was chastised for being Catholic by a classmate who felt that the crucifix that we used in our church was an idol. The painted blood that dribbled down the glazed sides of plaster Jesus were certain to take me to hell. Christ has Risen, she said. so the cross must be empty.

On my way to Trader Joe’s yesterday, I saw a new suburch under construction, facing Trabuco Creek. The most prominent feature of this winged amphitheatre was a black cross, waiting to be filled with glass. The position of the suburch aimed to project that symbol at the bridge many needed to cross to enter Rancho Santa Margarita.

And when I thought of the money that that congregation and its minister must have brought in to build that church and the money they expected to build more on that spot, I realized that the cross had nothing to do with Christ’s martyrdom and everything to do with marketing a product called Americanism.

It is so easy to hold forth a cross or wave a flag and grab some people’s allegiance. I mourn for these, but I can do nothing about them except speak about the way the symbols can be used to entice and bind. It is a difficult chore for one who lives upon a fossil dune and I can only speak of these things in passing while I am on the way to other matters.

I am not out to save the world, merely to speak truth to the power of copied views, copied words, and copied uses of symbols.