Today just seems to be day for weirdly confusing press releases, like this one from The Coming King Foundation that starts playing music as soon as you open the page. The release announces that TCKF will soon install a "massive, 70 ton, multimillion dollar, 77'7" steel cross" in its Sculpture Prayer Garden but that the actual date of the installation won't be revealed because of "vandalism threats by atheists." Well, that and the fact that there is also a lawsuit:
TCKF Trustees held a meeting with their attorneys, Barbara Cole, Rit Jons and Ken Zysko to discuss a lawsuit that was filed in December of 2008 to prevent the non-profit, Christian arts organization (TCKF) from raising the giant cross in a 300' long, cross-shaped garden, at the highest point of their 23 acre property.
Neighbors of the TCKF property, living along a "one road" rural, unincorporated development, outside the City Limits of Kerrville, filed a Temporary Restraining Order in the 216th District Court of Texas, on 12/8/08, to stop the erection of the unique seven story, cross sculpture, in The Coming King Sculpture Prayer Garden, now under construction.
The lawsuit was filed just weeks before "The Empty Cross"® sculpture was to be erected on its $100,000 concrete foundation. In January 2009, other neighbors, as Interveners, living along Mesa Vista Rd. joined the lawsuit to seek a Permanent Restraining Order to stop the cross from ever being erected on its foundation.
TCKF is apparently building a 23-acre "Sculpture Prayer Garden" that "by the providence of God, is located half way between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans on Interstate 10, at the same latitude as Israel. It also looks like the Holy Land, with its rolling hills, vegetation, vistas, and thousands of genuine, 2.25 ton limestone blocks."
TCKF reports that it has built the garden without borrowing any money or going into debt because "the Garden is being built entirely on faith in God" and the centerpiece will be the massive, $3 million cross in question:
"The Empty Cross"® design may be the most scripturally meaningful, monumental cross sculpture ever created because of its Biblical dimensions and symbolism.
The 140,000 pound (70 ton) Cor-tin steel cross measures 77'7" tall, with a 40' wide cross bar. It has a square footprint like the "Holy of Holies." The 7 foot wide space, in the center of the cross, will allow visitors look up seven stories and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, literally at the "foot of the cross", if they wish. The red/brown color of the Cor-tin steel represents the shed blood of Jesus. The open, hollow design symbolizes the "Resurrection", the "Light of the World", the "Iron Scepter" the "Door", and the "Narrow Gate" that all must enter to find God.
As for now, the installation of this sculpture is mired in litigation, but is seems that TKF has some pretty powerful and influential figures on its side:
Well-known Christians who have already prayed over the Kerrville Garden project include: Former Governor Mike Huckabee, US Senator, Dr. Bill Frist, Franklin Graham, Dr. James Dobson, Dr. Rick Warren, Dr. Pat Robertson, Dr. Charles Stanley, Dr. Paul Crouch, Josh McDowell, Ken Blanchard, Coach Bill McCartney, Tony Perkins, Bill Johnson, Rick Joyner, Dr. Mahesh & Bonnie Chavda, Joni & Marcus Lamb and Dr. Bill, Vonette and Brad Bright, to name just a few.
