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The New York Times says, "As a millenniums-old symbol of Christian faith, the cross would seem somewhat immune to trendiness. But cross necklaces and pendants have been in vogue before and may be again as some feel more comfortable embracing their faith and seek community with others."
The Times article labels the Cross as a fashion trend.
Millions of people view it as something much more than the latest trend in fashion. Or "community."
Be informed, not misled.
"When Arianna Salerno first moved to Washington, D.C., in 2022 to attend Catholic University she didn’t see many people wearing cross necklaces," the Times says. "But in the past year, she says she has noticed an uptick of the jewelry each time she takes the Metro, and they are now a regular presence on Capitol Hill, where she’s held multiple internships."
The Times article continues, informing the reader that crosses are appearing everywhere, from Red-Carpet events to fashion shows to the current political environment in the Capitol.
"Lately, the cross necklaces flash across cable news screens several times a week, suspended between the collarbones of Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, and Attorney General Pam Bondi," they notice.
Ms. Bondi, 59, wrote in a statement that her necklaces are an expression of her “strong Christian” upbringing: “My faith is very important to me,” she said. “It is what gets me through each day.”
Across TikTok, young Christian women have been sharing the meaning behind their own cross necklaces, saying they help cultivate a sense of belonging and connection with others.
Sage Mills, a student at the University of Oklahoma who has posted videos about her cross necklace, said that seeing women in government like Ms. Leavitt and Ms. Bondi wear their own “makes me feel good. It makes me feel like God is the important thing for people that are governing our world.”
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said she wears her cross pendant “because it serves as a reminder of the strength that can only be found through faith.”
The Daily Caller notes, "The New York Times has discovered a 'hot accessory': Jesus Christ. To be precise, his cross, worn as a pendant on a necklace."
The Caller says, "The New York Times covers non-metropole American culture like an anthropologist venturing into the deepest recesses of the Amazon. One imagines their intrepid reporters puzzling over apple pie: 'A strange concoction native to the Heartland, often served at Fourth of Joo-lie gatherings.'"
The Trump administration has “welcomed religion,” writes The New York Times, establishing the White House Faith Office and inviting “pastors with Christian 'nationalist' beliefs” to the West Wing.
Translated: “High-profile Christians aren’t hiding their faith, and we don’t like that.”
And if that may be too uncharitable of an interpretation to attribute to The New York Times itself, it is certainly true of their readers. What the outlet refrains from saying outright, their comment section does not.
“I like the cross on figures like Chappell Roan because, in a way, it’s a subversion of norms for a queer person to wear it,” writes a commenter under the name Edith. “It’s a lot more meaningful for me when she has it on as a sapphic person instead of someone trying to take away our rights like [Attorney General Pam] Bondi.”
“Subversion” is an appropriately deranged goal for the left. The word, in its earliest form, was synonymous with destruction, demolition, and ruination. Leftists are more than happy to see the cross demolished into parts for their own twisted religion — one which vaunts the unnatural and ugly to the heights of adoration. Carpenter herself filmed a macabre music video inside a Catholic church, twirling around the altar surrounded by coffins of men she’d axed in the prior scenes. Carpenter offered a flippant response to critics, telling Variety, “Jesus was a carpenter.”
The Daily Caller also noted that "Readers also appeared confused about the concept of separation of church and state, as leftists often are. “It’s inappropriate for a government official, while conducting government business, to wear a symbol of a specific religious affiliation,” reads a comment. “It implies that the government will favor that religion over another, or over none.”
Apparently, President Biden had no problem with the "separation of church and state."
Wokeness has no formal church, so it easily escapes the same restrictions and critiques one attracts by wearing a cross necklace. But make no mistake: its adherents have their unassailable articles of faith. They have their priests and sacred cows, too. The nation’s most prestigious universities are little more than seminary schools.
Liberals like to frame Christianity as an ancillary imposition on a “neutral” reality. This neutrality, of course, is not — it is a bundle of leftist priors which asserts itself as apolitical fact. The most pious Woke bristle, even if they don’t quite know why, when they see Christians worshipping a different god.
Takeaway
RE: a different god.
In 1 Corinthians 1:18, Paul writes, "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God."
Here's the break point between fashion and faith.
- Matthew 10:38 - "And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me."
- Luke 14:27 - "And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple."
- Galatians 2:20 - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Fanny J. Crosby (1820-1915) was the author of over 8,500 gospel songs. Though blind at 6 weeks of age, Crosby began composing texts at age 6. She later became a teacher at the New York School for the Blind, where she was a student. A friend of several presidents, Crosby became one of the most influential advocates for the blind in the United States.
Among the hymns she wrote is "Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross."
Jesus, keep me near the Cross,
there a precious fountain,
free to all a healing stream,
flows from Calvary’s mountain.
In the Cross, in the Cross,
be my glory ever,
till my raptured soul shall find
rest beyond the river.
The Cross is a place where the pain of earth and the joy of heaven come together. A kind of spiritual altar to which we might draw near for refuge and solace. From it flows a “precious fountain.”
Though an instrument of cruel punishment and torture, the Cross is a source of a “healing stream” (stanza one) and a place where “the bright and morning star sheds its beams” on us (stanza two).
Stanza three invites us to meditate upon the Cross—“bring its scenes before me.” The “shadow” of the Cross falls on my daily path.
The famous evangelist Dwight L. Moody once asked Crosby the following question toward the end of her life: “If you could have just one wish granted, what would it be?”
Moody expected her to ask for sight. Sensing this, she replied, “If I could have one wish, I’d wish that I might continue blind the rest of my life.” Moody was taken aback and asked, “How can you say that?” Crosby responded, “Because, after being blind for all these years, the first face I want to see now is the face of Jesus.”
That's what the cross means to hundreds of millions of us who "take up our cross and follow Him."
Be Faithful.
