Changes afoot at the College of William and Mary:
As a Catholic, Vince Haley often went to Mass at the College of William and Mary’s historic Wren Chapel when he was an undergraduate in the 1980s. Also a Catholic, school President Gene R. Nichol often goes to the 120-seat chapel alone at night to think in the quiet.
Both agree the chapel is a sacred space meaningful to students, alumni, faculty and staff of the public school who use it for religious services and secular events.
They clash, though, over what to do with an unadorned, 18-inch brass cross that had been displayed on the altar since about 1940.
Nichol ordered the cross removed in October to make the chapel more welcoming to students of all faiths. Previously, the cross could be removed by request; now it can be returned by request.
“It’s the right thing to do to make sure that this campus is open and welcoming to everyone,” Nichol said. “This is a diverse institution religiously, and we want it to become even more diverse.”
Because diversity is a goal, in and of itself – an unadulterated good. Questions will not be taken. You may sit down.
What was the tipping point, I wonder? The moment wherein the chapel cross – which had sat in the same spot for nearly 70 years, night after night – changed from an increasing source of embarrassment into an irresistible provocation? It happened one day, finally: Yesterday it was good enough and today it was not.
“Some of these people that are upset about the cross issue have a notion that it is a predominantly Christian community and Christians have more rights than other people,” Blayton said.
Or even the same rights.
Silly Christians.
Funny thing, folding to the minority. After all, that’s what is really important, allowing the loudest and smallest group of whiners rule the day. If this continues, we may as well just fold up the Constitution into a very expensive paper airplane and give it a whirl off one of the bow cats…
Just where will people draw the line on the PC-BS. The college was founded, and largely funded, by the Church of England through the royal family. I realize it’s a public school, but we are talking about a CHAPEL that was built by Christians for Christian worship. And while they are so busy being PC, they are insulting their Christian students by denying them the right to worship with one of their most sacred symbols. Oh wait, they aren’t denying them – they have to ask for permission to use it.
If they want to be all-inclusive, then build a meditation center.
Ironically, this is NOT the way a mosque would be treated.
The king and queen would never, NEVER have authorized or funded a public place that did not honor God.It’s a sorry day for Virgina and the rest of us who honor, through symbols and icons, the very God that raised up and blessed this land above all others in this world.
I encourage visits to our capitol and especially the monuments where the marble is inscripted with quotes that person spoke.It won’t take you long to figure out these were Christian men whose intention it was to give honor to God.
If you have to ask which God, or whose God, you haven’t done enough reading.
I was in Scotland a few years back and they have turned many historic churches into shopping arcades. Maybe that is what the College of William and Mary should do.
I am a Scouter; that is, an adult registered in the Boy Scouts of America. Every camp has a chapel for worship, meditation, etc. Some are simply set-apart quiet spaces. Some have benches and fences and a lectern. Some have actual structures.
Given the predominant religious faith in the U.S., it should be no surprise that most of these have Christian crosses on display. Generally, they are permanently mounted. However, recently, at a camp owned by my Council, a cross was taken down and burned.
The BSA’s standards for worship spaces is now (and has been for years) that no religious symbol is to be permanently displayed if the camp has only one chapel. The symbols of various faiths, as required, can be made up in a portable form and brought out and used as appropriate for the service being conducted; what’s appropriate and how it should be used is pretty much up to the people running the service and whether it’s meant to be an inter-faith service or for one service. Permanent symbols can only be put up if the chapel is to be dedicated to one specific faith, and that’s not going to be done if there’s only one chapel.
So, what to do with all these crosses? The cross in question was made up of locally-cut logs and was too big to use as a portable symbol. My council called up the Catholic archdiocese, and they suggested that it be burned – privately, reverently, and completely. It took quite a while to find someone willing to do it, but it got done. When the rest of the Council’s members found out, a number got quite irate.
From the viewpoint of what’s going on at William and Mary; that chapel was built to be a Christian chapel. If other faiths want a chapel, let them build one.
There have been other stories on this one – what it basically comes down to is a minority of one, the college president, wanted the cross removed. I believe his wife works for the ACLU? Ah yes, I believe this should help:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MikeSAdams/2007/01/12/a_tale_of_two_bigots
Let’s see… this is a Christian Chapel, paid for by Christians, worshipped in by Christians. Hmmmm… Deutoronomy 5:7 comes to mind.
Thanks to SGT Jeff, we can go to the site he left and sign a petition to end this persecution. Read the background; the President of William and Mary and his wife have a history of going after Christians.