Branson Cross: World's Largest Cross Gets Go-Ahead From Missouri Officials

Dean Brown, the founder of Images at the Cross, in a video seeking support for his project, the Branson Cross.

The "God-given vision" started out simply enough: build a 7-foot-tall cross on a mountain and invite people to meditate there with the Creator. Now, 20 years later, the cross will cost $5 million and rise nearly 200 feet once complete, making it one of the largest crosses in the world.

Complete with two elevators, developers promise free admission and an encounter with Jesus at the mammoth, monumental "Branson Cross" in Branson, Missouri.

Kerry Brown, the executive director of Images at the Cross, the organization responsible for the project, explains to Fox News:

“I know St. Louis has the Gateway Arch and San Francisco has the Golden Gate Bridge, and those are all fantastic monuments, but they’re all secular monuments," he said. "This will be the first monument to the spirit of man and there’s a reason why it’s being built in the heartland of the nation. It’s absolutely in the right place at the right time and it’s going to have ten times the spirituality as any one of those monuments.”

Developers say they've raised more than $400,000, a fraction of the goal, and are committed to finishing the project through donations only according to Charisma News, a Christian news source.

Dean Brown, Kerry Brown's father and the project's founder, says the Branson Cross is a response to a "vocal minority" that is "in the process of taking over the family spiritual foundation" of the United States. In short, the Branson Cross is being promoted as an antidote to the War on Religion. See for yourself:

UPDATE: While Branson Cross Executive Director Kerry Brown says the cross will be the "World's Largest Walkthrough Cross and a Family Friendly Free Admission destination," there are several other crosses around the world that claim similar "World's Largest" titles. The cross at the Valley of the Fallen, a Catholic basilica in Span, at around 500 feet is certainly the tallest in the world. The Great Cross in Saint Augustine, Fla., is perhaps the world's tallest free-standing cross at 208 feet. And a cross in Effingham, Ill., at 198 feet tall and 113 fee wide, is notably massive.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this post referred to the monument as a crucifix. A crucifix is a cross with an image of the crucified Jesus.

Comments

[Luckymata6]

10:50 AM on 03/15/2013

Boy, there sure are some sick liberals posting here. How could any real Christian be insulted over the proposed cross. Obviously this mattert would anger only ignorant.liberals.

[CarmanK]

03:50 AM on 05/26/2012

and it is a testament to man's arrogance and ego which would be frowned upon by Jesus Christ. The Tower of Babel is just a form of bragging rather than spreading the word. It is a comedy show, but no one is laughing.

[loopsparky]

02:03 PM on 06/15/2012

I came to the comments to mention the Tower of Babel. You beat me to it!
So how about I mention that when Jesus taught his followers to pray, he told them to go into a room in your house by yourself, lock the door, and talk to God without anyone watching.

[ToniQ]

12:10 AM on 05/20/2012

Desiring the biggest largest †-ruck is a compensation for something else.

[TheAndyRat]

07:33 PM on 05/18/2012

Are you happy, Effingham? You gave my state "cross envy."

My initial reaction to this headline was, "Oh, come on! A 200-foot cross in my neck o' the woods? Say it ain't so! I'm all for freedom of religious expression, but does it have to be so--wait... Oh. It's in Branson... Carry on."

[Gregj]

08:42 AM on 05/18/2012

It looks way to phallic. And yet Jesus asks us to pray with no one looking ,to give with out acknowledgment. So do they worship Jesus or the symbol they erect?

[evita1123]

08:38 AM on 05/18/2012

Go figure -- the great state of 'Misery'.

[fsinsf]

06:30 PM on 05/17/2012

Tacky... laughed about the elevator! Kitchianity! Why not have a crucifix rather than just a cross, They could have a gi-normous Christ hanging from there with red fluid flowing from his wounds and recirculating back, like a fountain... the elevator can go up and people would be able to look through Christ's eyes. I wish I got to design the thing!

[Cris Bessette]

11:13 AM on 05/17/2012

Literally thousands of people were executed by Romans using Crucifixion. Even in the Bible version of the story, it says that there were common thieves on crosses to either side of Jesus.

In Jesus' time, the cross would not have been an object of devotion, but rather a common device of torture and death employed by their Roman overlords.

I find it so bizarre the Christian obsession with torture, death, blood (I've been washed in the blood of the lamb!, the sticky, hot, steaming blood of the lamb!)

Yep, I can clearly imagine Jesus doing a facepalm.

[EternalTormentisaLie]

05:24 PM on 06/02/2012

I never heard of the version that says, sticky, hot, and steamy.

[EternalTormentisaLie]

05:25 PM on 06/02/2012

In all seriousness, only Jesus' blood can wash away sins.

[loopsparky]

02:08 PM on 06/15/2012

And those pesky grease stains.

[ArchStanton400]

11:02 PM on 05/16/2012

I could not think of a more appropriate place to build the world's largest cross that in tasteless, tacky Branson MO. Ever been there? The place makes South of The Border look like Fallingwater. It's hillbilly redneck's answer to Las Vegas. Come to think of it they should build a tacky riverboat casino in Branson, just a 1/4 mile from GodzillaJesus's cross on the hill which will no doubt double as a cell phone tower. Just when you thought the Kitsch couldn't get any deeper.

[Cindbird]

06:35 AM on 05/16/2012

So this guy wants to build a cross and then turn it into a commercialized tourist attraction? I wonder what Jesus would have said about it. Christianity has become so commercialized that I think people have forgotten their own theology and doctrines. I don't remember Jesus saying "Go forth and built a cross that people can ride up in."

[ArchStanton400]

11:05 PM on 05/16/2012

Jesus is facepalming an shaking his head right about now over this utterly tasteless monstrosity. The again what else are we to expect from the Southeastern USA?

[Amanda HavensOlson]

12:22 AM on 05/16/2012

Why not take that $5 million and apply it toward feeding and helping the poor, as Jesus commanded, loving one another, as opposed to erecting shrines to his death? I honestly think if he did come back, he would tell these people "You have done nothing but failed at my commands, consistently, at each and EVERY turn!"

[DrJon]

11:17 PM on 05/15/2012

It's a big lower-case t. Will they build another letter soon?

[bi-poplar]

07:13 PM on 05/15/2012

"This will be the first monument to the spirit of man"

You might want to research St Peter's Basilica, the Cologne Cathedral, the Pyramids at Giza, the Leshan Buddha in China, Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, or Stonehenge before you go making pronouncements like that

[LoudGuitr]

05:15 PM on 05/15/2012

Branson, the intellectual center of the universe. Sheesh. How much ignorance can you have in one place? The antidote to the war on religion? That's like saying poison is the antidote to living.

[grailknight]

01:01 PM on 05/15/2012

So much for iconoclasism in xianity!