To be accurate, the Wren cross is not in the dumpster and has not been desecrated.  It is available for anyone who wants it present. 
   
  No school in the United States is forced to accept federal money.  Quakers and others have often refused to accept federal funds, so that they can run their schools in any way they choose.  When a school decides to accept federal or state funding, provided by our tax dollars, it must abide by the string’s attached, one of which is to be open to people of all faiths.  [Another is to be open to male and female students.] When William and Mary chose to accept federal and state funding, it knowingly gave up the right to an exclusively Protestant Chapel.  The Chapel, due to Federal laws governing school funds and the U.S. Constitution, must be available to students of all faiths.  Do we really want our tax dollars paying for displays of religious symbols specific to certain denominations? If so – which denomination would that be? 
   
  Many Christian denominations, Anabaptists for instance, don’t believe in using any symbols of Christian faith, and consider it “worshiping symbols”, rather than Christ.  [“Thou shalt not worship graven images”] And wouldn’t it be even more offensive to some Christians if Stars of David,  Buddha,  hexagrams,seven- armed goddesses, crescent moons, and other religious symbols were permanently placed in the formerly Protestant Chapel?  
   
  The school had a choice between removing the cross, but making it available to anyone who asks for it, or adding the symbols of all the other religions represented in the school.  The policy of providing the brass cross, to anyone who wants it, in no way diminishes the students’ rights to pray in whatever way they wish, in or out the chapel.  I would just point out that every University has privately funded youth centers for each denomination’s students on campus.  These are the places where students can enjoy, in addition to their church worship, their specific religious denomination’s fellowship.  When they use Wren Chapel, they can bring whatever symbols they choose to use, or ask that the brass cross be present. 
   
  According to a statement issued by none other than the minister of Bruton Parish Church, Rev. Herman Hollerith, the debate is “theologically insignificant”, and that the real fear is that, “God is being removed from modern American life”.  
   
  The day of government-sponsored religion is over.  That simply means we have freedom of religion and freedom from religion. This does not make me fear loosing my religion, but is a right that I cherish.  
   
  Langdon Hagen-Long
   


Clara Callahan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:  What’s wrong with moving it to the side? Or draping it if the sight is that offensive? ... The only religion in the world that allows other religions to desecrate its places of worship and consign its symbols to the dumpster is Christianity. What ought to be offensive are people who claim to be Christians who stand back and cheer whenever something like this happens. 




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