LewRockwell Joseph Stromberg rightly points out that the media prefers to refer to the St. Andrew’s Cross on the Confederate battle flag as a letter X.
Of course, it is not a letter X. It is a cross — in particular, the St. Andrew’s Cross. In vexillology (the study of flags), the technical term for such a cross is a saltire.
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (I don’t have the OED on hand; sorry) defines a saltire as: noun, singular:
- heraldry: an ordinary consisting of a cross formed by a bend dexter and a bend sinister crossing in the center of the field.
- an X-shaped cross: esp. Saint Andrew’s Cross.
The term derives from the Middle English and Middle French words for an X-shaped animal barricade that people could jump over. Presumably, the animals could jump over the middle of the X as well, but it never occurred to them to do so.
Webster’s, by the way, provides an additional definition of a saltire: adj.: shaped like an X.
So perhaps there is nothing sinister going on in the mantra that the Confederate flag is an “X,” but given that the mere reference to “an X” is an incomplete history of flags featuring the St. Andrew’s Cross, and given the larger cultural climate of hatred of all things Christian, I smell a rat.
This is of particular concern to me, as I am a Roman Catholic and a parishioner at, well, wouldn’t you know it — St. Andrew’s.
In the church, there is a statue of St. Andrew himself, holding a big X in his hands. Why? He lived far too long ago to have been a Spike Lee fan or a follower of Malcolm X.
The reason he is holding the X is that it is not an X — it is a cross. Saint Andrew, you see, was crucified on an X-shaped cross.
The St. Andrew’s Cross is not unique to the Confederate battle flag. The reason that the CSA put the St. Andrew’s Cross on its flag is the Scottish heritage of the South.
The Scottish national flag (left), you see, is the St. Andrew’s Cross in white on a field of blue.
(This is to be distinguished from the Scottish government flag (right), the flag of the Scottish monarchy, which features a red lion on a field of yellow.)
A similar situation to the Scottish situation is found in many nations, such as Germany, whose government flag has an eagle in the center of the red, black and gold banner, as does Austria (similar eagle issues)…
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE…- LewRockwell
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