The bible belt is leaking
Much of the bible belt is located in the Southern United States but for me, what appeared as the real bible belt was Missouri and Kansas where I saw crosses upon crosses almost everywhere I looked while driving through these states over the years.
There is something about a wooden cross that evokes creepiness in me and it could be that it is an overt symbol and I was raised in a more esoteric religion. It could be that it suggests the KKK and lynchings. It could be that the cross itself represents suffering. But whatever the reason it sort of creeps me out when I see a bunch of wooden crosses across a landscape. In modern times crosses have also come to be a symbol of the religious right and pro life nutballs.
Here in New Orleans religious icons are more of the Catholic persuasion and something about them seems to invoke a more personal religion than the blanket of crosses I have seen in other states. But today, when I was walking by Cabrini High School and saw all the wooden crosses that have recently been erected in front of the school it made me stop in my tracks. One cross even had a banner that said Pro Life across it.
Again that old creeped out feeling washed over me.