Mormons and the Cross

Neither LDS chapels nor temples have crosses on their steeples, nor will you find a cross or crucifix inside. Why? The most commonly given reasons run along the lines given by Bruce R. McConkie , one of the LDS Church's apostles , just after the middle of the last century: The sectarian world falsely supposes that the climax of his (Christ's) torture and suffering was on the cross... a view which they keep ever before them by the constant use of the cross as a religious symbol. The fact is that intense and severe as the suffering was on the cross, yet the great pains were endured in the Garden of Gethsemane. (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine 555) McConkie bases his remark on what Jesus says in the LDS scripture, the Doctrine and Covenants. Speaking of his atoning suffering, he says: Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men. ( D&C 19:18-19 ) That is the warrant for our belief that the suffering of the atonement took place on Gethsemane as well as on the cross. In 1975, Gordon B. Hinckley , then also an apostle, gave a different explanation. He said: I do not wish to give offense to any of my Christian brethren 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. (Gordon B. Hinckley, LDS General Conference, April 1975 ) Since we understand Christ's atoning suffering to have begun and, perhaps, to have reached its climax in the Garden of Gethsemane , and since we want to emphasize Christ's resurrection rather than his death, we don't use the cross as a religious symbol. Those encompass most of the reasons that Mormons will give if asked about the absence of crosses (though we do use paintings of the crucifixion in our chapels as well as paintings of Christ suffering in Gethsemane). But it appears that Mormons used the cross in a variety of ways, though not often as architectural ornament, until the early 20th century. Then, influenced by the anti-Catholicism of Protestant America and by our own home-grown anti-Catholicism, Mormons gradually began to feel less and less comfortable with the cross as a symbol. That feeling appears to have become institutionalized by the late 1950s. (A good summary of the history of Mormon use of the cross can be found here.) I hope we have outgrown our anti-Catholic ideas and feelings. I think we mostly have. But our non-use of crosses has remained the same. As a result, we give apparently post hoc explanations like those above. In my mind, perhaps the most compelling argument, though one not often invoked, is the brief one we find in the LDS Bible dictionary (an appendix to the LDS edition of the King James version of the Bible): "the Lord has established his own symbols for his crucifixion and sacrifice—the bread and the water of the sacrament ( Matt. 26:26-28 ; D&C 20:40 , 75-79 )." We recognize and meditate on Christ's crucifixion each week when we partake of the elements of the sacrament (the Mormon term for the Lord's Supper), so we do not need the cross as an object of meditation. That is an important point: we do not want another symbol to supplant or take precedence over the symbol of the Lord's Supper. But if that argument is an argument against any use of the cross as a symbol, it fails, not least because both the Bible and other Mormon scripture use the cross as the primary symbol of Christ's suffering. Indeed, Latter-day scripture uses the cross more than it uses the Garden or the Lord's Supper: I, Nephi, saw that he was lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world. ( 1 Nephi 11:33 ) My Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil. ( 3 Nephi 27:14 ) It was made known among the dead, both small and great, the unrighteous as well as the faithful, that redemption had been wrought through the sacrifice of the Son of God upon the cross. ( D&C 138:35 ) The Lord said unto Enoch: Look, and he looked and beheld the Son of Man lifted up on the cross. ( Moses 7:55 ) In Mormon scripture the cross symbolizes Jesus' sacrifice as the redemption for all, just as it does for other Christians. I'm not a reformer. Cultures grow according to unseen rules over time, developing their own traits and practices. Mormon practice has developed in such a way that we do not use the cross much as a symbol of Christ's suffering. That is not because we think his suffering is unimportant nor because we need not spend time thinking about it. Our weekly sacrament of the Lord's Supper offers us a way to do so, as do other symbols and practices. I am fine with that. I am not arguing that the LDS Church should change its practices regarding the cross. Nevertheless, I wear a small Canterbury cross as a tie tack and I have several crosses and a crucifix in my office. How do I feel comfortable doing so within a culture that avoids such things? For a long time I did not. When I converted to Mormonism, it was not difficult for me to accept the practice of not using crosses. Perhaps, however, my pre-Mormon background makes it easier for me to use the cross as a symbol now, forty-nine years later. In any case, I began to use the cross again several years ago. I learned of a Roman Catholic colleague at Brigham Young University (where we both work) who was being given some difficulty by a student who objected to her having a crucifix in her office. Over the years I happened to have purchased several crosses and a crucifix that I kept at home as both art objects and expressions of my faith. I hung them in my university office to support her. Since then I have added to them, and several beautiful reproductions of Russian icons, received as gifts, are waiting to be framed and join them. Since hanging them, these have taken on added meaning, and that meaning has led me to wearing my tie tack cross. Of course they remind me that Jesus died for the sins of the world on the cross, that he was specifically sent by the Father to be lifted up on the cross, and that our redemption from sin comes through the sacrifice that occurs on the cross, all things that the Bible and other Mormon scriptures teach. But the cross reminds me not only of Jesus' crucifixion, but my own: my old self is crucified with Jesus ( Rom. 6:6 ). The cross is a reminder of that crucifixion of self and the new life we find in Jesus Christ ( Gal. 2:20 ). The cross reminds me not only of what Jesus has done for me, but of what I must do: I must take up the cross to follow him ( Lk. 9:23 ; D&C 112:14 ). Like him I must be willing to empty myself even of that spiritual, physical, emotional, and monetary substance which (I think) makes me what I am so that I can imitate his blessing of all humanity. That means taking on the form of a slave—not in abject servitude, but in service to others in which I don't take heed of myself. The cross reminds me of Jesus' humility and obedience and, so, serves to remind me of the need to be humble before all and obedient to the Father ( Phil. 2:7-8 ). In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Mormon writes to his son Moroni and sums up why I am comfortable using the cross as part of my religious life, though Mormons in general do not. He says: My son,... may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever. ( Moroni 9:25 ) The cross helps me do what I covenant to do when I eat and drink the sacramental elements each Sunday. Both help me keep in mind Christ's suffering and death, and the resurrection that he proved with appearances to those of the New Testament and those of the Book of Mormon; they remind me of his mercy and long-suffering toward me and all others, as well as the hope of his glory to come and the hope of eternal life that comes with that glory.