Since it's Wednesday, two local newspapers were delivered this morning (the Gazette and the Daily Press) with screaming headlines about the Wren Chapel cross. The stories described the compromise reached by the College's committee studying the role of religion on a public university campus, which will result in the cross being displayed in a glass case.

But the cross is not the issue. That's obvious from what leaders of the "SaveTheWrenCross.org" website and "No Cross, No Cash!" campaign said, when they learned of the compromise. (I'm assuming the Gazette quoted them accurately. Considering the quality of "journalism" practiced by the Gazette, that's a big assumption.) These opposition leaders are predicting that there will be continuing animosity towards College President Gene Nichol. In fact, they are hoping there will be!

I wonder if the people the Gazette quotes call themselves Christian? They are certainly vociferous fighters in the culture wars. But Christians are called to a radically different way of life. Here is one place the Christian way of life is described: in Luther's teaching, in the Small Catechism, of what the Eighth Commandment means, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."

Luther explains: "We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light."

Here is a subject for prayer: that all Christians, on both sides of the cross issue, would open themselves to formation by God the Holy Spirit, to treat each other in the way Luther describes, obeying the Eighth Commandment.