Two days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City in 2001, a worker at the rubble of Ground Zero made an inspiring discovery: a ten-ton, 17-foot-high cross that emerged during the debris-clearing. The steel cross became a symbol of hope amidst the devastation. But the cross will be excluded from the museum section of the 9/11 memorial if some atheists get their way. The group American Atheists filed a lawsuit to this end.¹

Such lawsuits typically invoke the separation of church and state, but this exhibit is not federally funded. It is clear that the atheists’ real objection is not the Constitution but the offense of the Cross to those who dislike its poignant reminder of Christ’s death for rebellious sinners.