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Houston makes it into the national news with the expected frequency of the fourth-largest city in the United States. Too often it's for terrible things -- like a mother drowning her children or a spurned wife running down her husband in a hotel parking lot or a man shooting burglars at his neighbor's house -- but sometimes it's for downright silly things, too.
In the category of "silly things" comes news from Grace Community Church, where the leader of this local megachurch south of The Woodlands has put forward a plan for his congregation to erect giant, 150-foot tall crosses at two points in the city.
The crosses would be located at the "north and south entrances to the city" (actually, the north and south campuses of the megachurch) and would, in Pastor Steve Riggle's words, "mark our city for God." His original plan was to erect 200-foot tall crosses, but FAA regulations have forced a downsize for now (and for sake of comparison, the statue of Sam Houston which graces Interstate 45 outside of Huntsville is a measly 67 feet tall, less than half the height of the proposed crosses).
It isn't enough that Houston is a city of oil, a city of space exploration, a city of diversity, a city of acceptance, a city of technology, a city of restaurants, a city of higher education, a city of families or a city of friendly, welcoming people. Apparently, the congregation at Grace feels the need to publicly identify Houston as a "city of God" as well, despite the fact that the existence of myriad other churches, mosques, synagogues, temples and shrines already clearly delineates that idea in a much less obtrusive and obnoxious way. They feel that the best use of their congregations' tithed money wouldn't be to help the poor, the hungry, the abused or the unwanted -- it would be to toady up to God by displaying their "acts of righteousness" for everyone to see.
This story, originally published in the Houston Community Newspaper, made its way onto the front page of FARK.com, a website that aggregates top news headlines (serious or otherwise) and invites people to comment on these ludicrous, asinine or hotly debated stories.
When a story about Houston makes it to the front page of FARK, Houstonist always has a good time reading the replies and comments that get posted about our fair city. We thought we'd share a few of those today, in response to the Grace article above.
FYI God:
Wait ... what? Is this supposed to be like a Post-It Flag on Houston for when the Rapture comes? "Oh hey, God, in case you forgot about us, this is so totally your city! See, we marked it and everything!" This guy makes his God sound like an idiot or a chihuahua or something. -- ThisIsNotSubtle
More quotes and news on the future of the crosses themselves after the jump.
A firsthand encounter with Grace:
I was dragged to this church a couple of years ago. It was kind of like being in the audience of game show only no one won any money...the church did, though. In fact, my friend had her own church account number so she could give her money to Jesus without all the fuss of having to write a check or hit the ATM. I didn't give a dime. Something told me they didn't need my money. The pastor basically gave a long motivational speech with God and Jesus thrown in a few every once in a while. I left feeling kinda dirty. -- ohmyvariousgods
Someone who's clearly never been to Houston or has been to Channelview exactly once:
Seriously, has the moron ever friggin' BEEN to Houston? It's hot enough to melt lead and the air smells like a skunk ate five tons of sulfur and let out one enormous fart. Houston is about as close as you can get to hell on earth. -- Abstruse
Mysteriously absent from other news sources:
News Flash: Houston is being over run by Vampires. Senior Pastor Steve Riggle wages a campain against these creatures. His new secret weapon is to prevent any more vampires from entering the city by erecting 150ft tall crosses at each entrance way to the city. He can then hunt down the remaining creatures with his other Holy weapons. -- noblewolf
A poignant trip down memory lane:
Everything is bigger in Texas.In 70's there was a men's club in North Houston that erected ~50 tall statue of a woman just outside the club. Patrons had to walk between her legs to enter club. Saw it once or twice on way to IAH. Houston had no zoning ordinance so there was no zoning violation. The statue was not attached to the building so there was no building code violation. City was stymied in finding a way to force removal. Don't know how things turned out but haven't seen the statue in many trips back to Houston. -- CowboyDave
From an outnumbered Houston defender:
Houston is actually quite a hotbed of cosmopolitan religious diversity. From a simple Google search, a number of Hindu temples come up in the greater Houston area, with more planned. There also seem to be at least 3 Buddhist temples as well. -- Somacandra
An often-overlooked point of view on Christian symbology:
Empty crosses creep me out. It's like Christians are saying "come on back Jesus, we got some fresh pine waiting for you." If I were Jesus and saw a 150 ft empty cross you wouldn't see me near Houston. -- EL_FABREZ
And if you're wondering where all the humility has gone, here's your answer:
You must be unfamiliar with the Epistle to the Texas Megachurches. It's a lesser-known Pauline writing, believed to be dated to the century of Never, A.D., and is considered by many outside of the evangelical movement to be apocryphal, but in Chapter 3 verse 49, the Apostle writes that God hath given to the Great Churches the blessing of pride, and commands not that his subjects be given succor but instead that monuments to his glory be created, including golden statues and graven images. -- Lane83
Whether or not the crosses will actually be financed and built remains to be seen. But in the meantime, Grace has erected something equally tacky along Houston roadways: billboards announcing their intentions and, of course, the times of their televised church services.
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Photo courtesy of flickr user gwenturnerjuarez.
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If you put a cross up, you really should crucify someone. Right?
at least we don't live in Dallas?
Wow, they've managed to either commit or incite all seven deadly sins in one tidy package.
(ok, sloth is a stretch, but Houstonians regularly top that list anyway so I threw it in for free.)