c. 2004 Religion News Service

NEW YORK (RNS) Some offended observers saw Christian crosses in the wood panels of lecterns at the Republican National Convention, but others say these critics are cross-eyed.

The debate intensified Thursday when The New York Times ran a front-page photo of Vice President Dick Cheney standing behind a lectern that had multicolored panels forming an image that some are convinced is a Christian cross. To Cheney’s right is a smaller lectern, in which contrasting colored patterns more clearly intersect in a cross-like pattern.

Speaking on CNN, Karl Rove, Bush’s chief strategist, dismissed the notion that Republicans are sending a subliminal message of Christian symbolism.

“My God, where do they come up with this stuff?” Rove said.

Some Democrats were taking the image seriously.

“It looks like a cross to me,” Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe told reporters, adding that religious symbols shouldn’t be used for political purposes, especially if done subliminally.

Jim Siegelman, co-author of the 1982 book “Holy Terror: The Fundamentalist War on America’s Freedoms in Religion, Politics and Our Private Lives,” said in an interview that Republicans have been sending such messages for decades now _ ever since Ronald Reagan began courting Christian conservative voters.

“When you see a symbol like that,” said Siegelman, referring to the perceived cross at this year’s convention, “you’re seeing more overt flouting of church/state separation by the Republican Party.”

The Washington-based National Jewish Democratic Council posted a statement on its Web site expressing dismay.

“It is the very height of insensitivity for the Republican Party to feature a cross at the center of the podium of this convention. … This wooden cross must be at least three feet tall, and it sends a signal of exclusivity loudly and clearly,” said the group’s executive director, Ira Forman.

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: If this is the Republican Party’s idea of Jewish outreach, then I’d hate to see what their idea of antagonism is.”

Rabbi Daniel Lapin, a Seattle Republican attending the convention, said the notion that the GOP would intentionally display such a cross was ridiculous but that even if it did, it would not bother him.

“The notion that Jews should find the representation of a cross offensive is preposterous,” said Lapin, who heads an organization, Toward Tradition, that promotes what it calls Judeo-Christian values.

“Jews are not vampires. This is the frightened squealing of thin-skinned malcontents frantic to find fault with the Republican Party and the president.”

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