AHC: The Burning Cross as a good thing

I'm involved in setting design for a crosstime RPG, and one thing an alternative line needs is a clear indication that things are different here. For a simple example, swastikas might be more common if the Nazis didn't happen. So, how might the burning of a cross come to be regarded as a good and holy thing? Perhaps the cross is lit near sunset, and when it's gone from burning to smouldering, it's hoisted upright (carefully) to give light in the darkness; the symbolism should be fairly obvious. Any other ideas?
 
Have a "good" group borrow it from its original setting--the whole Scottish clans setting where Birth of a Nation and the KKK got it from. Combine the symbolism--defend light (us, the good guys) against the darkness (them, the bad guys).
 
I'm involved in setting design for a crosstime RPG, and one thing an alternative line needs is a clear indication that things are different here. For a simple example, swastikas might be more common if the Nazis didn't happen. So, how might the burning of a cross come to be regarded as a good and holy thing? Perhaps the cross is lit near sunset, and when it's gone from burning to smouldering, it's hoisted upright (carefully) to give light in the darkness; the symbolism should be fairly obvious. Any other ideas?
Well... Not nessesarily a "good" thing. But this Mexi-wank had an uber US Civil War where the burning crosses represented a slave rebellion where the blacks grabbed the whites, and then crucified them before setting them on fire.

Not really "good" per see, but it's basically a way to show slaves "liberating themselves" or so.
 
Fire was an important symbol in the early church that often stood for cleansing or purity. Combining that with the symbol of the cross seems like it would be an easy leap. A burning cross then stands for the cleansing of mankind's sins by the crucifixion.
 
Cool ideas, particularly the last. I hadn't known the early churches used fire symbolism, but it makes sense given the references to "baptise (us) with fire and the holy spirit."
 
Bonfires were an important part in many of the old European Christian tradition. Most famously bonfires were lit at Eastern and at the feast of Saint John, which also happens to be June 21st, or the date of the summer solstice. Although traditionally, no Crosses are burnt, it is easy to imagine the church 'Christianizing' the fire by forming two beams into a cross and putting it on top of the pyre.

In the US, the practice could be picked up by the revivalist movement in the mid 1800's several years before the Civil War and the advent of the Clan and although both the KKK and the revivalist movement enjoyed a huge comeback during the Great Depression, burning crosses would still be associated with religious fanaticist instead of racial ones
 
During the Revolutionary War, a British/Loyalist force approaches a region with heavy Scottish settlement and pro-revolution sympathies, probably in the South. Borrowing from the Scottish tradition of passing the "fiery cross" from town to town to rally the people to war, as had been done in Scotland as recently as the Jacobite rising of '45, a Scottish-American patriot rides throughout the region with just such a cross to rally the Patriot militia in a Scottish/Southern version of Paul Revere's ride. The patriots are successful in their resistance, or at least aren't crushed (you don't necessarily need a victory to make an inspiring legend, but you need to at least avoid being humiliatingly defeated).

Like Revere's ride, the incident is mythologized and some inaccuracies are popularly accepted as canon - in particular, the "fiery cross" was probably just charred wood rather than actually being on fire as it was carried, but the image of the burning cross is what takes hold in the public mind and popular culture. Following American independence, the fiery cross is eventually recognized alongside the Liberty Tree, the Gadsden flag ("Don't Tread on Me"), and so on as a symbol of American patriotism.

(Okay, it's not "holy," but this keeps it in the American context at least.)
 
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Don Quijote

Banned
During the Revolutionary War, a British/Loyalist force approaches a region with heavy Scottish settlement and pro-revolution sympathies, probably in the South. Borrowing from the Scottish tradition of passing the "fiery cross" from town to town to rally the people to war, as had been done in Scotland as recently as the Jacobite rising of '45, a Scottish-American patriot rides throughout the region with just such a cross to rally the Patriot militia in a Scottish/Southern version of Paul Revere's ride. The patriots are successful in their resistance, or at least aren't crushed (you don't necessarily need a victory to make an inspiring legend, but you need to at least avoid being humiliatingly defeated).

Like Revere's ride, the incident is mythologized and some inaccuracies are popularly accepted as canon - in particular, the "fiery cross" was probably just charred wood rather than actually being on fire as it was carried, but the image of the burning cross is what takes hold in the public mind and popular culture. Following American independence, the fiery cross is eventually recognized alongside the Liberty Tree, the Gadsden flag ("Don't Tread on Me"), and so on as a symbol of American patriotism.

(Okay, it's not "holy," but this keeps it in the American context at least.)

Does this mean we get an even worse version of The Patriot from Mel Gibson? I've just realised, if these people are Scottish-American, it might even be a Braveheart-Patriot combination:eek:

More seriously, is it just a burning cross (I thought the purity idea was good as well) , or several unusual symbols to show a different world?
 
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