Lawsuit to Remove Crosses from City Logo
There’s a town in New Mexico that has crosses in their logo. A federal lawsuit has been filed to get the crosses removed from the logo because, “The crosses serve no purpose other than to disenfranchise and discredit non-Christian citizens.”
From Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Main Entry: dis·fran·chise
Pronunciation: (“)dis-‘fran-“chIz
Function: transitive verb
: to deprive of a franchise, of a legal right, or of some privilege or immunity; especially : to deprive of the right to vote
Main Entry: 1dis·cred·it
Pronunciation: (“)dis-‘kre-d&t
Function: transitive verb
1 : to refuse to accept as true or accurate : DISBELIEVE
2 : to cause disbelief in the accuracy or authority of
3 : to deprive of good repute : DISGRACE
Yep, those crosses serve no purpose other than to disenfranchise and discredit non-Christians…
The lawsuit alleges city officials are violating the First Amendment by placing religious symbols on public property and by spending public money to promote religion.
The lawsuit also accuses the city of violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by requiring prospective employees to sign job applications that include a religious symbol.
Weinbaum and Boyd accuse the city of invading the privacy of their homes with government-sponsored proselytizing.
Weinbaum and Boyd said they have been made to feel excluded from public participation in government activities.
“This symbol serves no governmental purpose other than to be divisive, to alienate, and disenfranchise Weinbaum, his minor daughter and Boyd,” the lawsuit says.
The name of the town is Las Cruces. The Crosses.
The city of Las Cruces is going to fight this, and rightly so.
Why is it that just the sight of a cross is so offensive to the non-religious? Non-religious is the right term here, not non-believers. I grew up in a town that was mostly Christian and Jewish. The Jews were not offended by any Christian religious symbols and the Christians were not offended by any Jewish religious symbols. In the public school system we all sang both Channukah and Christmas songs. That two week break encompassing Christmas and New Year’s was called Christmas break and there wasn’t any big to-do over changing it to Channukah break. The high school’s auditorium was often used to hold Yom Kippur and Rosh HaShanah services. Those days, the Jewish kids got off and the Christian kids didn’t. Oh well. Big deal.
People of faith, any faith, are secure in their faith. The sight of a religious symbol of another faith doesn’t cause them to lose their faith.
People of no faith, on the other hand, seem to be insecure in their non-faith. This makes every religious symbol (especially a Christian religious symbol) a threat to that non-faith.
Main Entry: pros·e·ly·tize
Pronunciation: ‘prä-s(&-)l&-“tIz
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -tized; -tiz·ing
intransitive senses
1 : to induce someone to convert to one’s faith
2 : to recruit someone to join one’s party, institution, or cause
transitive senses : to recruit or convert especially to a new faith, institution, or cause
Now, how exactly is a cross an inducement to convert to one’s faith? Only if you are so insecure in your non-faith that the presence of a relgious symbol poses a threat.
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