Why Don't Mormons Display the Cross?

[Greg West]

If the Romans executed prisoners by hanging instead of by
crucifixion, would this be the symbol of Christianity today?

The following is another chapter from my book, A Mormon Answers the Hard Questions Posed by Anti-Mormons.

Latter-day Saints believe wholeheartedly that the Jesus Christ died on the cross as a willing sacrifice to redeem us from the fall of Adam and to ransom us from death and hell. We believe the biblical accounts of the suffering, humiliation, torture, and execution of Jesus Christ at the hands of wicked men. Likewise, prophets in the Book of Mormon also saw this event in vision and recorded their testimonies.

And I, Nephi, saw that he was lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world. (1 Nephi 11:33)

Like other Christians, we believe that salvation is only through Jesus Christ. Then why is it, many Christians ask, that we do not display the cross in or on our meetinghouses or our temples?

In a magazine article from April 2005, the President of the Church, Gordon B. Hinckley addressed this question. President Hinckley spoke with a group of ministers who were invited to attend a special open house in a newly completed Mormon temple. The question came up about the display of the cross and he related:

"...I do not wish to give offense to any of my Christian colleagues who use the cross on the steeples of their cathedrals and at the altars of their chapels, who wear it on their vestments, and imprint it on their books and other literature. But for us, the cross is the symbol of the dying Christ, while our message is a declaration of the Living Christ.

He then asked: “If you do not use the cross, what is the symbol of your religion?

I replied that the lives of our people must become the most meaningful expression of our faith and, in fact, therefore, the symbol of our worship." (Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Symbol of Our Faith,” Ensign, Apr 2005, 2–6)

In the previous chapter, I discussed the roles of symbols and how they come to have conventional significance. To Christians today, the cross has a powerful significance that stirs their faith, their loyalty, and their emotions. Nevertheless, it must be recognized that the most unique and singular aspect of the life of Jesus Christ is not that he was crucified. Thousands were crucified. Jesus alone rose from the dead.

The Romans used crucifixion as a common punishment. Crucifixion was employed for slaves, pirates, despised enemies, and criminals. It was considered especially disgraceful because it mutilated the body as well as being a particularly agonizing death.

Would it not be a curious thing, if Christ had been executed in some other manner, such as hanging. If that had been the case, would there be a noose on top of Christian churches today? I mean no disrespect by this. I wish to help you understand the difference between the symbol and the thing symbolized. We have defined symbols as arbitrary signs which achieve conventional significance.

Mormons understand that Jesus willingly laid down his life in this most humiliating fashion that he might “descend below all things.” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:6)

A distinctive Mormon belief is that Christ's final hours on the cross ended the Atonement which began in the garden of Gethsemane. In Luke, chapter 22, verse 44, the account describes the suffering of Jesus Christ as he prayed there. His sweat was as “great drops of blood.” There are medical accounts of individuals who suffered such excruciating pain that blood was excreted through the pores in their skin.

Latter-day Saints believe that God laid upon Jesus Christ the burden and suffering of the weight of humanity's sins during that time. Jesus suffered as only he could. Jesus, who was the son of an immortal Father, could only die if he willed it. Yet he had a mortal mother, and he could suffer everything that any man could. The combination of those qualities qualified him uniquely to be our Redeemer. He was able to suffer such anguish that any mortal would have died, yet he lived on, enduring it until the last dregs of the bitter cup were emptied.

Exhausted and drained beyond any mortal comprehension, he was arrested, tried, scourged, and subjected to a humiliating death on the cross. Without Jesus Christ, all mankind would be forever lost. Because of Christ, all mankind may be saved by repentance and obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.

When Christ had finished the work of salvation, he gave up his spirit and died as to the mortal body. Three days later, he arose from the tomb and appeared to Mary and his disciples. He permitted them to touch his resurrected body. He ate a fish and a honeycomb in front of them to demonstrate the physical reality of the resurrection.

Jesus appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaeus and to some 500 disciples over the forty days that followed the first Easter morning. Mormons also know that he appeared to the lost sheep of the house of Israel who were scattered across the world. These were they of whom he said, “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold. (John 10:16) The accounts of his visit to the peoples of the ancient Americas is recorded in the pages of the Book of Mormon.

Later, Jesus appeared to Stephen, who was martyred and to Paul on the road to Damascus. He appeared in vision to the apostle John on the island of Patmos, as recorded in the beginning of the Book of Revelation.

In our day, we know that Jesus appeared with his Heavenly Father to Joseph Smith near his home in Palmyra, New York in the spring of 1820. He appeared also in the Church's first temple in 1836 in Kirtland, Ohio.

Thus, to Latter-day Saints, Jesus is truly the Living Christ. He not only lives, but he speaks to prophets and saints today. He guides and directs his Church by revelation. He reestablished his Church and kingdom on the Earth in modern times and shepherds it personally.

The cross is a symbol of his dying. We celebrate his living. For this reason, the cross is not the end of his story. It was not the end of his mission. He continues his work today as he did anciently. He is not far from his kingdom as it prepares to receive him at the Second Coming.

We do not condemn others for the use of the cross. It is our hope that others will have open minds and receive our testimony that Christ lives today. As President Hinckley stated, it is the lives of the members of Christ's Church that must be the most meaningful symbol of it.

[Ronnie Bray]

The reason why Mormoism grew up without crucifix or cross was the Puritan influence of American New Englanders that were not used to it. Some Latter-day Saints did wear the Protestant [empty] cross, and some still do.

The mouth of Emigration Canyon from out of which came the first Mormon Pioneer Trains was originally marked by a large seven or eight foot tall cross.

The cross and/or crucifix is not a big issue in the LDS Church and its absence cannot be taken to mean anything other than it is not our custom to display them on Church properties.

Perhaps the greatest 'symbol' of our faith is the temples, for they are direct conduits between earth and heaven by which inspiration and other marvels come, and through which faithful Saints can access the eternal kingdom of God.

BTW - There is no accounting for anything Baptist denominations do or don't do.

[Tom Arnold]

Just as a side note. I have been to many "mainstream" churches who have pretty much tossed out the cross because of the command to avoid Idolatry. But they have also tossed out many other "decorations" as well. I have been to a baptist church where there was nothing but white walls and some home interior wheat. So there are some who are questioning the cross as a idol as well.

Just a note,

Tom

[Greg West]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your comment. I have been blessed with the ability to get "inside" a philosophy or doctrine and see it as its proponents do. I think most Christians simply want to honor Christ for what we agree was a horrible, humiliating, excruciating death. I can certainly respect that. I don't fault them for using the cross as the symbol of their faith. One must be careful though, with any religious emblems or icons, to avoid the appearance of idolatry.

The point I was hoping to make is that we can believe in Christ's atonement, his death, AND his resurrection without having to glorify the symbol of his death. Our detractors say that the fact that we don't use the cross as a religious symbol is evidence that we are not Christians. That's the opinion I'd like to dispel.