Why do clan members burn crosses?

Question

Why do racist, ignorant, uneducated, immature, rednecks called the klu klux klan burn crosses if they are supposed to be religious( some religion i know they're not christians in any sort of way possible). Is it to show how evil they are?

Answer 1

To answer, from Wikipedia:

"In Scotland the "fiery cross", known as the Crann Tara was used as a declaration of war, which required all clan members to rally to the defence of the area. It is important to note that in Scotland it has absolutely no racist connotations. The practice is described in the novels and poetry of Sir Walter Scott. A small burning cross would be carried from town to town. The most recent known use there was in 1745, during the Jacobite Rising[1], the best part of a century before the foundation of the KKK. Although many of the members of the KKK were descended from immigrants from Scotland, there is no evidence to suggest that their ancestors brought this tradition with them to America.

The Reconstruction-era Klan did not burn crosses, but Thomas Dixon's 1902-1907 trilogy of novels portrayed a romanticized version of the Reconstruction Klan that did burn crosses (see The Clansman). Dixon may have based the idea on Scott, or on other literary or historical sources. The Klan-glorifying 1915 movie The Birth of a Nation was based on two of Dixon's novels. Birth of a Nation quotes Dixon's novel The Clansman as saying:

"In olden times when the Chieftain of our people summoned the clan on an errand of life and death, the Fiery Cross, extinguished in sacrificial blood, was sent by swift courier from village to village...The ancient symbol of an unconquered race of men."

The burning cross is a symbol used by the Klan to create terror. Cross burning is said to have been introduced by William J. Simmons, the founder of the second Klan in 1915.The 1915 lynchers of Leo Frank burned a cross two months after the lynching. They probably got the idea from Birth of a Nation, which was released in the same year. William J. Simmons, who founded the new Klan later in the same year, burned a cross at the mountaintop founding ceremony. Many of the participants in Simmons's ceremony were the same men who had helped to lynch Frank.

Many Christians consider it sacrilege to burn or otherwise destroy a cross.

The Klan, however, claims to not be destroying the cross, but "lighting" it, a symbol of their faith."

Answer 2

It is Ku Klux Klan. Not "Klu."

I got the following information from a Website. Take it as you see fit:

The Scottish apparently originated cross-burning.

In 1810 the Scottish romantic writer Sir Walter Scott, a great admirer of ancient Scottish traditions, brought the "fiery cross" to modern attention in his poem "The Lady of the Lake." In the poem the cross is set ablaze on the hilltops to summon the Scottish clans. Scott's work was especially popular in the American south, where much of the populace was of Scotch-Irish extraction.

However, the fiery cross of Scottish legend wasn't the upright Roman cross commonly used by the Klan. Rather it was the X-shaped cross of St. Andrew. St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, and an X-shaped cross probably also was a lot easier to make a signal bonfire out of.

Answer 3

I think you answered your own question in your description of the losers.

On a side note, my Dad and Stepmom were married in 1974 (he's white, she's black) and two months after they settled in Colorado someone burned a cross on their front lawn. They received hate mail for quite some time and found dog excrement burning on their doorstep twice. It shook my father up pretty bad and he sat up nights with a shotgun waiting for the ignorant racist creeps, but my stepmom handled it with aplomb and calmed my father down. She was right, the cowards stopped hassling them after a month or so. I was 18 and it was the first time I had first hand experience with societal misfits like this. It was the main reason I went into Sociology and Psychology at college.

Answer 4

very properly its like this. KKK Burn Crosses. Christians have self belief in made up beings in our sky. KKK Hate Jews. Christians are annoying while they communicate approximately faith. KKK Hates greater stuff. Christians nonetheless argue there religions. KKK hung people. Christians burned them at stakes. KKK placed on white robes. Christians particularly circumstances placed on white robes. KKK had there suited techniques. Christians have there suited little heaven. KKK = Christians = Going to Hell which does no longer exist via fact the earth's middle has 0 existence varieties via fact that its ******* too warm to even host a devil. advance up Christians, end being KKK individuals.

Answer 5

The KKK do consider themselves to be Christians. They are quite similar to the terrorists who consider themselves to be Muslims. They would tell you that burning a cross is a respectful thing, making it a beacon in the dark, and stuff like that. Utter malarkey, of course. It's meant to scare people.

Answer 6

I've never really understood this either. It's to scare people whom they are ignorant of. Or, if you've ever seen that one episode of South Park, the cross is actually a lower-case letter 'T', which stands for "T, Time to Leave".

Answer 7

I actually looked into this. They don't "burn" the cross, they "light" it. I think its an old pagan deal. You light an effigy to signify its power and beauty, show its radiance. Sadly, the Klan uses this beautiful (?) idea to spread terror and ignorance.

Answer 8

i was watching a documentary on them the other day....they burn them because the cross is supposed to symbolize God shining down on them (the light from the cross on fire)

Answer 9

Has to do with Scottish History.
I Corinthians 13;8a, Love never fails!!!!!

Answer 10

Your first 4 descriptive adjectives answered your question!