The cross has a long history in religious culture. Even before Christianity, variations of the cross were used as a symbol of life and consecration. The cross became a popular symbol among Christians a few hundred years after Christ’s death. It has become a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice and the Atonement.
Mormons don’t use the cross. If you ask a handful of Mormons why that is, you’re likely to get a handful of answers. Because it is a symbol of death, because we focus on Christ’s life, because it is idolatry, etc., etc. None of that is true. The truth is that David O. McKay was trying to separate Mormons from the rest of Christianity, especial Catholics, and so eliminated the use of the cross from Mormon worship. Before then, Mormons happily adorned themselves and their homes with crosses.
Since I have the desire lately to distance myself further from Mormon social mores and customs that make us more like Pharisees than faithful disciples, this Easter I have been focusing on what the cross means to me. Associating it with the death of Christ doesn’t make sense to me anymore. It makes more sense to associate with what came next, and what that makes possible for me. The Resurrection is what matters.
In Matthew 10, Christ directed us to take up the cross and follow Him. He carried The Cross on His shoulders as part of the ultimate sacrifice and has asked that I do the same in my life. To serve Him, to become like Him, I must learn to live, love, and give as He did. The cross reminds me of Christ’s willingness to die for me, and his admonition that I love others as He does. But, He hasn’t called on me to lay down my life, but to raise my life up to Him. The cross isn’t a symbol of death to me because it is a symbol of the life I should be living to honor Him.
In other faiths, like Catholicism, where the cross in a more prevalent part of their worship, they will make the symbol of the cross over themselves, moving their hand from forehead to heart and then from left shoulder to right. When in need of blessings or protection from the Lord, this gesture is used as a prayer and a plea. The same prayer and plea is constantly in my own heart, and to me the cross symbolizes the relief I long for. Through the Atonement every fear and hurt that I encounter in this life is succored, and I am who I am because of it. The cross symbolizes my wholeness, only made possible by my Savior.
Mormons aren’t strangers to symbols and ritual, and so the use of the cross doesn’t seem like a foreign concept to me. I’ve come to a place where I have envy for churches that employ this symbol as a constant reminder of the Savior’s role in our lives. This Easter, I’m going to start doing the same.
Leah Marie
Leah Marie earned a BA in Political Science, and a Masters in Public Administration. She is currently working towards her PhD in Public Policy. She is wife to an English professor, and mother to 3 beautiful boys.
All posts by Leah Marie
Huh. I didn’t know that. In recent years I’ve looked into the origins of the cross, and different religious contexts about it that I guess I just never thought about why it isn’t part of mormonism today. I really did just assume the answers I was given as a child about it being idolatry, and the focus should be on the life of Christ not his death as the truth, or at the very least as good enough answers at the time.
Isn’t the reason that any non-catholic church in the 1830s saw the cross as popish idolatry, and like many things that sprung out of the culture at the time, the tradition was handed down and assumed to have been divinely revealed.
Nope.
I would recommend Michael Reed’s book, “Banishing the Cross.” He goes into great detail showing how the cross slowly became a taboo within Mormonism well after the Utah period. He has great pictures of at least one of Brigham’s wives wearing a cross. At one time, the SLC city council was going to put a cross on top of Ensign Peek.
http://www.amazon.com/Banishing-Cross-Emergence-Mormon-Taboo/dp/1934901350
This topic was covered extremely well in the Deseret News in 2009 highlighting the findings from a sunstone author:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705378769/Sunstone-speaker-attempts-to-explain-LDS-aversion-to-cross.html?pg=all
Eric,
Thanks Eric. The book that Leah Merie Silverman (in bold text) and Jacob Barker provided links for expands on the research that I had presented at Sunstone. I am glad you enjoyed the Deseret News article. Michael DeGroote did a wonderful job. If you are interested in seeing additional photos that are not published in my book, I have periodically uploaded several on my book’s fb page: https://www.facebook.com/BanishingTheCross?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
Mike Reed,
Well done Mike, whenever the conversation comes up, I love showing them that article. Most are quite surprised.
Perhaps so many are “surprised” to learn about the cross being used, because they were members of the church well before David O McKay, and never owned a cross in their lives. Ask your grandparents… Never owned a cross.
There are dozens of photos of Mormons crosses (used prior to David O. McKay’s presidency) published in my book, including a photo of my own GGG Grandfather, Benjamin F Johnson, wearing a cross at the end of his watch-chain. Many other photos are found on the book’s fb page (link provided above) that I upload periodically.