Why tear down Christian symbols if, as they claim, the Bible isn’t true? Why fight to remove crosses from coast to coast as if you’re threatened by something you don’t even believe in?
Because this is war. The spiritual battle manifests itself in the natural, physical realm, though we know our struggle is not against flesh and blood (Eph. 6:12).
In California, intolerant leftists driven by forces of darkness finally tore down a 28-foot tall cross that stood for more than fifty years in a small town. You see, they can’t handle reminders of the only living God.
They attack, bully, cancel, censor, and suppress the truth because they hate us, the God we worship, and they hate what the cross of Jesus Christ represents. To them it’s all a big joke.
1 Corinthians 1:18 states:
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Another legal battle is underway, this time in Albany Hill, CA, just outside of San Francisco over a cross and religious freedom. Okay, so it’s California. Bear with me.
A very small group of Christians in an overwhelmingly anti-Christian city in one of the top five demonic strongholds in the nation are fighting the odds to put the cross back up after it was removed last summer.
The cross has lived on a hill overlooking California’s East Bay since 1970. The Lions Club was granted an easement a few years later and the land was turned into a public park where the cross was built.
The metal and plexiglass cross has been illuminated for Christmas and Easter, but in 2015 a group called East Bay Atheists demanded it be taken down claiming the display was against the Constitution.
Two years later in 2017, Mayor Peggy McQuaid, Albany’s liberal mayor (at the time) criticized the Lions Club and declared:
“I want to reiterate that neither the City Council nor the City of Albany endorses in any way the lighting of the cross for any occasion, religious or nationalistic, or supports its continued presence on public property,”
There is absolutely no reason they would tolerate the “presence” of the cross in public, basically.
The next year (2018) an activist judge ruled the cross violated the Establishment Clause and the city “was forced to either sell to a private party the small plot of ground where the cross rested or acquire the easement through eminent domain…”
Just last year, the city council voted and passed a resolution to acquire the small plot of land and deny the Lions Club who offered to purchase it. The cross was quietly removed and taken off the property on June 8, 2022.
The new Mayor of Albany, Aaron Tiedemann implied the cross and what it stands for is against the values of the people there. He stated:
“The city has actually put its money where its mouth is, and our city looks a little bit more accepting now in a way that we think is consistent with our values; “For the small local group of people that really want to see the cross stay, when you’ve had such privilege for so long, losing it feels like being oppressed. That’s going to be an adjustment for folks, but I think we will all get used to it, and I think it’s a real benefit.”
The California town is “more accepting” now by rejecting the faith of a majority of Americans? That’s right, this is near San Francisco. Their values? No reminders of the truth of Christ.
Also, did he play the “privilege” card? Christian American heterosexual privilege. Got it.
One thing I agree with him about is that he predicts people will just “get used to it” with the cross gone. This is sadly true in our recent history when we consider the removal of the Bible, God, prayer, and even the Ten Commandments from government schools and property as well as the public square.
How much more ground are we willing to surrender?
Lions Club President Kevin Pope recognized the fact the liberal leaders there want to eradicate any evidence of the Christian faith from the public. The same thing has happened across the country in recent decades as hatred of the Bible, the cross, God, and His followers has become practically accepted.
Commenting on the removal of the cross, Kevin Pope states:
“The City Council seems to hate what it represents, and rather than take an amount of money for the land and sell it to the Lions Club, they’ve decided to spend what we think is probably close to $1 million to resolve this issue, instead of doing the easy thing… “That’s how much they hate it.”
He believes a lot of people supported the cross in question and the Lions club is appealing the decision. Mr. Pope argued saying “a lot of people go up there and pray and have church services.”
To some, it was sacred ground and the bullies once again exposed “their intolerance toward Christian values.” It’s as if they want to ‘cancel’ Christianity. Someone should write a book about that.
The bench trial began last Tuesday and will determine whether the city must give the cross back to the group or if the Lions Club will receive a settlement from the city for its removal. This is another example of how much Bible-believing, freedom-loving Americans have surrendered in the last fifty-plus years.
Hebrews 12:2 states:
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
No matter how dark it gets and no matter how much enemies of God drive their agendas, we can consider those who have gone before us including our ultimate example who endured unimaginable suffering, Jesus our Lord and King.
