Home Sweet Houston

It was wonderful to be home in the land of warm weather, cowboy boots, and tamales over fall break. However, a giant billboard on the side of the highway gave a more sarcastic dimension to my otherwise Dorothy-esque expression that “there is no place like home.” As I made the drive from the city back to my small suburb, I passed a giant megachurch, looked up and saw “Marking Our City, 150 ft. Cross, Coming Soon” written on a picture of a giant cross and the Houston cityscape. This billboard isn’t new, it has been up for at least a year, but over last 4 months in the Princeton Bubble I had forgotten. So for those of you who don’t have the pleasure of living in the city where bigger is always better, here are the details of the campaign. Grace Church launched a fundraising campaign with the intent of building two 200-feet white crosses at the north and south entrances to the city (the church happens to have a campus on each location). Well the FAA shot down the 200 ft goal because of a nearby airport, so the revised plan describes 150 ft. crosses. Legally, the church owns the land and has every right to build the colossal crosses, but the language of the campaign is upsetting. Pastor Steve Riggle wants to start a movement that would initiate similar campaigns in every major American city to celebrate the Christian heritage of our nation. Perhaps, there is no controversy here as the crosses will be constructed on private land but, I can’t but imagine that a similar campaign to build a 15-story tribute to pagan gods or a Muslim star and crescent or a Star of David would be met with some resistance. Luckily there will probably be a long time to debate the issue, since the recession will definitely slow the collection of the necessary funding. We know everything is bigger in Texas, but should one of the city’s many religions dominate the cityscape?

Sources:
1. http://www.foxnews.com/video-search/m/20453933/cross_controversy.htm?pageid=23006
2. http://www.grace.tv/ministries/citywide_prayer/
3. http://thesop.org/index.php?article=12784