{"id":17400,"date":"2023-04-21T11:45:18","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T15:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=17400"},"modified":"2023-04-21T11:45:18","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T15:45:18","slug":"is-america-post-christian-startling-nyc-images-of-crosses-on-skyscrapers-reveal-a-changed-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/04\/is-america-post-christian-startling-nyc-images-of-crosses-on-skyscrapers-reveal-a-changed-nation","title":{"rendered":"Is America Post-Christian? Startling NYC Images of Crosses on Skyscrapers Reveal a Changed Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_17406\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17406\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/04\/good-friday-skyscrapers_credit--scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17406\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/04\/good-friday-skyscrapers_credit--scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17406\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">An <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlexMcFarland\/status\/1644376193871773696\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">image<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0of three large crosses displayed across three Wallstreet skyscrapers to celebrate Good Friday in 1956 on social media has stirred up laments from people of faith for what may be a \u201cpost-Christian\u201d America. The image shows three large 150-foot crosses lit up in the windows representing the three crosses on Calvary 2000 years ago. Sharing the image, Alex McFarland, president of McFarland Ministries in North Carolina, wrote, \u201cOnce upon a time New York City looked like THIS&#8230;we were not ashamed to invoke not only God but invoke Jesus Christ.\u201d New York City now faces\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/bronx.news12.com\/small-business-coalition-demands-accountability-amid-shoplifting-spike-in-new-york-city\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">spiking burglary and crime rates<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, promotes\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/04\/12\/nyregion\/abortions-out-of-state-nyc.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">abortion \u201ctourism,<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201d and has hired its first \u201c<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2023\/04\/12\/politics\/new-york-city-rat-czar-kathleen-corradi\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">rat czar<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201d to deal with the city\u2019s growing rat problems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sbaprolife\/status\/1090364997069406208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1090364997069406208%7Ctwgr%5Ea0c6149dab0f7168524ac368d7bcad8a2cbce173%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Flifestyle%2Fgood-friday-years-ago-nyc-skyscrapers-lit-up-crosses-showed-nation-embraced-faith\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">SBA Pro-Life America<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0shared similar sentiments on social media, posting the image of the three crosses alongside a skyscraper being lit up pink in support of abortion rights. \u201c1956: Skyscrapers in New York City display crosses for Easter to celebrate Jesus who says: I give my life for you. 2019: Skyscraper in New York City lit up pink to celebrate abortion which says: YOU give your life for ME,\u201d the tweet read. In 2012, the Empire State Building\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/empirestatebuilding\/photos\/in-recognition-of-nyc-pride-the-official-nyc-lgbt-pride-organizer-and-the-43rd-a\/490996260917550\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">was lit up<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0in rainbow colors to celebrate gay pride. Of course, not everything in 1956 America was all rosy. The\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1956_in_the_United_States\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Montgomery Bus Boycott<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0was in full swing to protest segregation on buses. Segregation wouldn\u2019t be ended nationwide until 1964 with the passage of the\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dol.gov\/agencies\/oasam\/civil-rights-center\/statutes\/civil-rights-act-of-1964#:~:text=In%201964%2C%20Congress%20passed%20Public,hiring%2C%20promoting%2C%20and%20firing.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Civil Rights Act<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">However, Russell Moore, in his article \u201c<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/sbts-wordpress-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/equip\/uploads\/2010\/07\/sbjt_082_sum04-moore.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Crucifying Jim Crow: Conservative Christianity and the Quest for Racial Justice<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">,\u201d stated that the civil rights era was successful not because of progressive Enlightenment thinking but because Christians who had not spoken out against segregation were being confronted with their own theology and made to turn back. Christians had turned away from the clear teaching of humanity \u201cmade in the image of God\u201d (Genesis 1:27) and had embraced southern tradition over truth. \u201cInstead, segregation and racial injustice were, at the gut level, a repudiation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Conservative evangelicals had their segregationist views confronted, not with an alien ideology, but with their own theology\u2014a theology that emphasized both the dignity of the individual and the reconciliation of the community in ways inconsonant with racial bigotry,\u201d wrote Russell.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Today, those Christian values that turned the heart of a nation away from racial bigotry continue to decline. A 2019 Pew Research Center survey found that the number of Americans who identify as Christian had <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/religion\/2019\/10\/17\/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">dropped 12 points<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. Another study posited that Christianity could\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/christianity-quickly-diminishing-us-pace-become-minority-religion-decades-study\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">become a minority religion<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0in America as early as 2045.\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aei.org\/press\/is-the-us-a-post-christian-nation-heres-what-ross-douthat-thinks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Ross Douthat<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, author of\u00a0<\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Decadent Society: How We Became Victims of Our Own Success<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, stated he believed the decline could be traced back to the sexual revolution. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what shifts in the course of the sexual revolution,\u201d he said, \u201cthat \u2026 conventional, middle-class morality stops thinking of Christianity, a Christian morality, New Testament sexual ethics as generally good wisdom, and starts thinking of it either as an ideal that people can\u2019t live up to or as a patriarchal, misogynist, homophobic burden that we\u2019re better off without.\u201d Russell Moore, however, in 2015 wrote that Christians shouldn\u2019t hold on to the past but look to the future. \u201cWe are not time-travelers from the past. We are pilgrims from the future. We have not come to reclaim something that was lost. We have come to proclaim Someone who has found us\u2026 If we take the opportunity to be the church, we may find that America is not \u2018post-Christian,\u2019 but is instead maybe \u2018pre-Christian.\u2019 It may be that this land is filled with people who, though often Christ-haunted, have never known the power of the gospel, yet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An image\u00a0of three large crosses displayed across three Wallstreet skyscrapers to celebrate Good Friday in 1956 on social media has stirred up laments from people of faith for what may be a \u201cpost-Christian\u201d America. The image shows three large 150-foot crosses lit up in the windows representing the three crosses on Calvary 2000 years ago.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":17406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is America Post-Christian? Startling NYC Images of Crosses on Skyscrapers Reveal a Changed Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many people share their thoughts on the question, &quot;Is America Post-Christian?&#039; after image of crosses on skyscrapers resurface.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/04\/is-america-post-christian-startling-nyc-images-of-crosses-on-skyscrapers-reveal-a-changed-nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is America Post-Christian? 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Startling NYC Images of Crosses on Skyscrapers Reveal a Changed Nation","description":"Many people share their thoughts on the question, \"Is America Post-Christian?' after image of crosses on skyscrapers resurface.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/04\/is-america-post-christian-startling-nyc-images-of-crosses-on-skyscrapers-reveal-a-changed-nation","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is America Post-Christian? 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