Why does the kkk burn crosses

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Kianna Savion. Manish Gaekwad. Security News. Dan Clendenin. The evolution of the Patriot. The Lutheran church uses the symbolism. When the Klan was founded there was not electricity.

They could not light up a cross the way we light up a Christmas tree. Fire was used. The fire was used to symbolize the fiery light of Christ — a metaphor often used in the Bible. The Cross obviously is a symbol of Christianity. The Cross lighting ceremony gives honor to Jesus Christ. It is no more a desecration of the cross than it is for the American Legion to respectfully lay to peace an American flag by setting it on fire — which is the correct procedure.

Other references echo the sentiment that, instead of destroying, they feel that they are honoring the cross. The reasoning appears to be primarily based on tradition rather than a particular scripture passage.

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The practice dates back to 14th century Scotland, where tribes burned crosses as signaling devices. The modern use of cross burning is directly linked to a revival of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 20th century. An earlier version of the Klan, which was created by former Confederate officers to impede Reconstruction in the South and to terrorize newly freed slaves, did not burn crosses.

In the film, Klan members chase and catch an African American man who had pursued a white woman, and ultimately lynch him in front of a burning cross.

Shortly thereafter, a cross was burned in nearby Marietta, Georgia, to celebrate the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager who had been accused of raping and killing a white Christian girl.

As the Klan grew in numbers and influence, cross burning became an important ritual of group solidarity. Crosses were burned not only at lynchings but also more generally to terrorize African Americans, Roman Catholics , Jews, and others hated by the Klan.

As the Klan declined in the late s and s, intimidation became the primary but not exclusive use of the cross. During the civil rights era beginning in the s, white supremacists burned crosses to express opposition to desegregated schools, to frighten civil rights workers, and to show support in for the Republican presidential candidate, Richard M.

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