As a William and Mary graduate (class of 1946),I too was angered and shocked by the decision of President Gene Nichol to remove the bronze cross from Wren Chapel [Herald, Nov. 23]. Having attended many services in that chapel when I was a student and having conducted a memorial service there in 1996 for my deceased classmates, this decision for me is mind-boggling.
With you I am both angry and fearful. I am indeed fearful at a number of points: Perhaps our readers do not fully aware of the pressure placed on the pastor when he is invited to give the invocation at a community event—like a banquet or a ballgame—only to be told at the last minute that “he is not to mention the name of Jesus Christ.” I have been a minister of Jesus Christ for 59 years and I am not permitted to mention the name of Jesus Christ as I pray?
I cannot forget that we as Baptists have stood for religious liberty since our beginning. that liberty cuts both ways: I expect other people to respect my faith as I respect theirs. Is the Christian faith not a vital part of our national heritage and culture? Where would we be as a nation without that heritage and culture?
If we are not very, very careful in our country, we can become so “culturally correct” that we lose a very vital part of our belief in God that was instrumental in the founding of this country.
It is as if the apostle Paul was our eternal contemporary as he reminds us that for some “Christ crucified” is a “stumbling block” and for others “foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:21).
Julian A. Orrell, Fort Defiance