Group questions ban of crosses in parade

An evangelical Christian group planning a prayer vigil and demonstration near the inaugural parade has criticized a U.S. Secret Service ruling prohibiting crosses and other structures along the route.

The Christian Defense Coalition sent a letter Jan. 6 to officials of the federal agency that protects the president and requested that it redraft the rules to remove crosses from the list.

“We were stunned on a number of levels that somehow crosses are included on a Secret Service letter detailing what items should be prohibited from the inauguration parade,” Patrick Mahoney, director of the Washington-based group, told Religion News Service.

“To somehow single out a cross and imply that it can be used as a weapon is ludicrous.”

A Secret Service letter-which the group received with its permit to gather along the parade route on Jan. 20-outlined items that would be excluded from the event, including firearms, explosives and structures.

“The prohibition on structures includes props, folding chairs, bicycles, displays such as puppets, papier-mache objects, coffins, crates, crosses, theaters, cages and statues,” said the mid-December memo.

Tom Mazur, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service, told RNS: “The reference to crosses is strictly in regards to structures, certainly not the symbol. There is no prohibition against signs or images of a cross or other symbols made out of approved materials.”

Cardboard, poster board and cloth materials are permitted. He said someone choosing to wear a cross necklace would be allowed to attend the parade.

Mazur said the goal of the Secret Service is to have a safe inauguration. “Without question, the Secret Service respects the right of the public to ... demonstrate,” he said.

Religion News Service