Displaying The Sacred Symbol

IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY in the town where I live sits a miniature replica of an ancient instrument of torture and death. A ten inch tall wooden cross. adorned with a crown of thorns, reposes on a wooden pedestal between too smaller, similar crosses. Front and center for the torturing to death of the main criminal, with his own, larger cross. How appropriate. The ancient romans nailed thousands of prisoners of war to full sized versions, and positioned them along the main highway leading into Rome, as a display of imperial power, brutality, and as a warning to all: dare not defy Roman power. Jesus was crucified because Roman power prevailed in far flung places. His fellow Jews would have stoned Jesus to death. This replica in our library was fashioned by a local artisan-entrepreneur, who sells each one for, if memory serves, about forty dollars a cross. Slightly larger, better adorned ones cast a bit more. Cash on the barrel. No credit. Exploitation of torture and death for personal financial gain. How Christian. In a daring act of defiance, a new sacrificial cult made this tool of torture a sacred symbol, and it grew into a religion predicated on torture, death, and resurrection. The grotesque result of justice denied. To display a religious symbol in a publicly owned building is probably illegal,, but secular legalities are but minor matters to the devout. the devout have a higher calling than mere civic responsibility. If another member of the public library ownership were to place a statue of the Buddha or a Wiccan symbol next to the cross, she would likely be challenged by the devout library Director. Who dares challenge the Christian monopoly? Any non Christian symbols would be accepted only grudgingly, under threat of legal action. The Christian religion and its votaries has have murdered millions of people in the name of the Prince of Peace, and is not yet finished. Aside from the crusades and the Inquisition, the seventeenth century was a perpetual war of blood letting between the protestants and the Catholics. During the twentieth century over one hundred million people were killed in wars, and a preponderance of both the killers and their victims were Christians from Christian nations. Thus, in a grotesque sort of way, it is entirely appropriate that our local library proudly displays a symbol that is both an instrument of torture and death and sacred religious symbol. It is equally fitting that the world's bloodiest religion retains an instrument of vicious brutality as its sacred symbol, remindful of a brutal and unjust murder committed long ago. Or maybe our local library might, with equal pride, display a hangman's noose, a guillotine, or perhaps even a blood soaked dagger, lodged deeply into the rib cage of a virtuous and innocent man of peace.