A few weeks ago, I attended the unveiling of portraits honoring nine distinguished alumni at Morehouse College. As the honorees gathered for a group photo in the Martin Luther King Jr. Chapel, a student photographer asked, “Is the cross in the way?” A brass cross on a nearby table was blocking the shot. My Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Vincent Wimbush, one of the honorees, quietly remarked, “Isn’t that typically the case?” His response has stayed with me. In a space dedicated to peace and justice, we couldn’t fully see the people advancing those ideals because the symbol of our faith was obstructing the view.

That moment raises a hard question: has the cross, or a distorted version of it, gotten in the way? Amid political chaos, economic suffering, global violence, and the rise of Christo-fascism, we must ask whether the cross has been co-opted and weaponized. For many, what should point us to Christ has instead obscured Him. This is not the cross Jesus calls us to bear, but one shaped by Western power. In Matthew 16, Jesus invites his disciples into radical self-denial—a path we are called to reclaim today.