The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing: The World's Largest Cross, Effingham, IL

Alongside Interstate 70 in southern Illinois is a massive cross – 198 feet tall, to be exact –made out of aluminum siding. Do I even have to write this one to convey to you our shared thoughts on it?

Imagine a world where a religion adopted a method of execution as their central symbol: a noose, a guillotine, a lead pipe in the billiard room…now imagine that symbol stamped all across the United States. The cross, too, at least historically, was the device for one of the most popular execution methods of its era: crucifixion. There are crosses everywhere in this country. In regions with higher concentrations of Baptists, it is usually a trio of crosses. Roadside are makeshift memorials to loved ones who died in automobile accidents, marked by crosses. And yet, there is never a roadside assemblage of crescent moons and stars, six-pointed stars, the Sanskrit depiction of “Om,” Buddha’s wheel of dharma…

For those who don't know - and want to - the Christian Cross, Jewish Star of David, Hindu Om, the Star and Crescent of Islam, the Buddhist Dharmic wheel, the Shinto Torii, the Sikh Khanda, the Baha'i Star, and the Jain Hand.

Image credit: Wikimedia.

Now is as good a time as ever to restate that I find nothing wrong with the core precepts of Christianity. Whatever belief system helps you become a better person without being a self-righteous ass about it, I say go for it. My dad is a good Christian. My grandparents are good Christians. There are plenty of good Christians the world over. This isn’t for them or even about them – and with that, I hope more Christians stand up for themselves and the true messages within their religion, of love, acceptance, and service to mankind, not just as an affront to the clinically insane claimants of the faith, but also to reshape popular perception.

Theological conundrums aside, and I assure you the book will have a much meatier take on the subject, the important question I have asked as we traveled across the United States is this: “What about non-Christians?” What about non-Christians who wish to buy alcohol on a Sunday in any number of states? What about non-Christians who see a billboard telling them evolution is a lie, and to call 1-855-FOR-TRUTH to hear the real story? What about those pro-life billboards?

Not even the worst.

Image credit: Plunderbund via Gender Focus.

For people living on either coast, this may seem baffling, but it is a reality throughout the Midwest and the South. (That said, I would love to know the rates of teen pregnancies in regions with those awful “LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION” billboards.) If this was a phenomenon limited to a single state, it would not be as bad. It would be a problem as easily resolved as my version of censorship: if you do not like it, turn it off! If you don’t care to see these messages, avoid the one state that has them. Unfortunately, this presentation of a warped, distorted Christianity that is anti-gay, ferociously anti-abortion, and anti-science, whatever the numbers actually are for practitioners and church memberships, is loud, proud, and preachy.

People are entitled by the Bill of Rights, their own free will, and some level of divine inspiration to pursue and practice the belief system of their choice. Where I draw the line is when one narrow school of thought is considered superior, influencing not just popular culture, but public policy. My gripe is with how in-your-face certain types of Christians can be. For the most egregious example of this, look no further than the Effingham Cross.

Interstate 70 serves as a major route for transportation from Baltimore to Utah, spanning just over 2,150 miles. Anyone who has passed through Illinois on this road has seen it, almost popping up out of nowhere: a giant cross, illuminated by a circle of spotlights on the ground. A close inspection reveals it is covered with aluminum siding, looking more like the weekend project of a crazed Home Depot employee than an earnest testament of faith.

No idols...no graven images...but a cross that towers over the nearest grain silo? Totally okay.

At the cross’ base is a relatively new church facility. Its sanctuary has at its front a wall of glass, granting visitors a view of the enormous cross and the relaxing vista of four lanes of constant Interstate traffic. Staffed by elderly volunteers, the church also offers a ten-minute video detailing the construction and installation of the cross. For reasons that I do not understand, both the video and their literature makes a big deal out of the fact that the cross was completed and put in place in the weeks after 9/11.

Alexa Altman: 5 foot 4 inches of fierce.

I was also left with a bad taste in my mouth when I learned the designer deliberately planned for the cross to stand 198 feet tall. What sounds like an arbitrary number is in fact two feet less than the minimum height listed in an FAA regulation requiring a blinking red light on top. Something about that struck me as so unnecessarily defiant, as if a cross twenty-four inches taller would somehow be cheapened by a blinking red light in compliance with federal law.

It was (literally) a hundred degrees out, with that Midwestern humidity to boot. I promised Alexa a cake pop to stay there while I walked back far enough to get the entire cross in the frame. 

The worst thing about this incredibly well-lit monstrosity is in knowing the resources invested into it, the time, money*, and manpower that could have built a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen, or a Boys & Girls Club. Jesus was a champion for the weak, for those in need, and for children. My Biblical knowledge is rusty, I’ll admit, but I definitely do not remember him insisting his followers build a cult of personality around praising him, much less to construct a replica of the device used in his brutal public execution.

Jesus' execution, as depicted in a film that parents who otherwise protest violence in cinema took their children along to see.

Christianity is not the only religion in our cultural landscape, and with increased globalization, its numbers will continue to drop so as to make room for different belief systems and philosophies. This does not mean it is going away – and I would not want that to happen– but instead that other ideas will enter our cultural lexicon. After all, is America not the land that, even today, boasts room for all? Or did that go away along with habeas corpus and payphones?

The Effingham Cross would be less obnoxious if, along that same stretch of road, there were massive replicas of the symbols of every major world religion. But then again, it would not be too long before Muslim extremists would attempt to blow up the Star of David, Zionist war-hawks would build a barbed-wire fence around the Star and Crescent after vandalizing it, while the Baha’is would wonder aloud why we all just can’t get along.

Then again, religion is a subject much like sex. A private and deeply personal matter, it is best discussed in small groups, where experiences and pursuits can be discussed in a climate of respect and understanding, with an unwritten law in effect that those who talk the most frequently, the most publicly, and the loudest about it are the ones who are getting the least enjoyment from it.

Credit: Photobucket. 

*Actual retail price: $1,000,000.00. It wouldn’t exactly be the Ritz-Carlton, but that could build a homeless shelter or seven.