CaliforniaKid wrote:If Mormons are "Christian" like they claim to be, then why wouldn't they use the cross as their symbol as well?
Ninetheenth century evangelicalism generally opposed use of the cross as a symbol. In this respect, Mormonism just followed the crowd. Then when the Mormons moved West to Utah and isolated themselves, the rest of evangelicalism changed its mind on the subject, whereas the Mormons did not.
I know that this is the explanation that Richard Bushman, **Robert Rees, Terryl Givens, and Paul Anderson have given. But in all due respect to you (Californiakid) and these great scholars... this explanation is only half correct, I am afraid.
It is true that mainstream 19th Century American Protestants generally rejected the symbol of the cross on grounds that it was a symbol of popery (Historian Ryan K Smith has a good book on this). Puritans in particular avoided not only the cross, but also just about all other religious symbolic artistic expressions. They stripped their altars and minimized their ritual, thereby making their services quite plain. This void of ritualistic and symbolic expression was too much for some Protestant Americans… and so they turned elsewhere to fill it. In fact, many turned to Freemasonry and Folk-magic. Both of these undercurrent movements thrived largely in consequence to the over-sterilization of Protestant Christianity. While it is true that several converts had puritan roots, this observation should not be used to explain the 20-21st century Mormon aversion, because several of these same converts were also involved in freemasonry and folk-magic. Both freemasonry and folk-magic were very accepting of the symbol of the cross, despite the general protestant rejection of it.
The cross taboo was a late development in the LDS Church's history, first starting as an aversion at the grass roots level around the turn of the twentieth century, and then as official protocol from the Church presidency in the 1950s under the direction of David O. McKay.
Prior to this time several Saints had used and promoted the symbol of the cross. Not only was cross literary symbolism fairly popular among LDS, but the material depiction was common place in LDS funeral floral arrangements. I have also gathered dozens of additional examples of the cross being used by prominent Saints. Cross necklaces (and even a few rosaries) were worn by Several LDS women in the Church (including Brigham Young's polygamous wife Amelia Folsom Young), the official Church brand was a cross, crosses were sewn into quilts, divine manifestations of crosses were envisioned, crosses were drawn as notation symbols, and many Church buildings were constructed in cruciform designs. In 1916 the Church had even petitioned the SLC council to erect a cross monument on Ensign Peak, to honor of the pioneers and to make the statement to the world, "You see... we are Christian too!" Granted, the petition was eventually dropped due to several factors, including public protest that the monument's design was in violation of the separation of Church and State (since the location was public property), nevertheless the Church's proposal shows clearly that the no-cross protocol hadn't yet come to fruition.
Again, the official protocol wasn't born until the 1950s under the direction of President David O. McKay, and the reason that he gave was that wearing and displaying the cross was purely a "Catholic form of worship." So essentially, the protocol came about fundamentally because the Church's desire to disassociate themselves from the Catholic Church. This is the same reason why Protestants of the early 19th century avoided the use of the Cross, but the Mormon taboo actually came a century later.
Edit to add: **A few weeks ago Dr Rees accepted my invitation to join my Thesis committee.
