Christianity has been a part of the fabric of American life from our nation’s founding, yet somehow the mainstream media always finds ways to portray faithful believers like weird freaks. This time, the New York Times is treating one of the most common and cherished symbols of Christianity like some inexplicable new fashion trend.
The Old Gray Lady dispatched Misty White Sidell, a “Times reporter covering shopping and fashion trends,” to write a 1,400-word explainer on why people are wearing those crazy t-shaped necklaces. That’s right: cross necklaces are a “hot accessory.”
“As a millenniums-old symbol of Christian faith, the cross would seem somewhat immune to trendiness,” Sidell writes. “But cross necklaces and pendants have been in vogue before and may be again as some feel more comfortable embracing their faith and seek community with others.”
Side note: Millenniums-old? C’mon, Misty, you write for the freaking New York Times. You ought to know that the word is “millennia.” By the way, the quotes from this article lit my grammar-checker up like a four-car pile-up on the interstate. The writing is horrendous.
Sidell quotes Mormons throughout the article, either ignorant or uncaring of the fact that LDS theology is incompatible with Christianity. She also points out how some people who are less than friendly to Christianity are sporting cross necklaces:
On red carpets, on social media, at protests by high-ranking Democrats and in the White House, necklaces with cross pendants are appearing with renewed prevalence. Chappell Roan wore an oversize one to the MTV Video Music Awards in September, and one dangled from Sabrina Carpenter’s neck in the music video for her single “Please Please Please.”
Chappell Roan? She bases her entire annoying persona on drag queens and thumbs her nose at traditional American life as often as she can.
Sabrina Carpenter? She once filmed a dirty music video in a Catholic church, and when she approached Dolly Parton about a collaboration, the country music legend specifically told Carpenter that she draws the line at profanity and making fun of Jesus in her music.
And don’t get me started on the policies Democrats advocate for as they invoke Jesus.
Sidell expends four long paragraphs on an explanation of what the cross is and why it’s significant. At first glance, it comes across as condescending, but I think it’s expressly indicative of how little the reporter and her audience understand Christianity.
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But Sidell gets to the real issue with those strange Christians and their bizarre necklaces: people in the Trump administration wear them! GASP!
“Lately, the cross necklaces flash across cable news screens several times a week, suspended between the collarbones of Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, and Attorney General Pam Bondi,” she writes.
To be fair, Sidell does mention that Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) sported a cross necklace during his performative sit-in on the Capitol steps. However, just like clockwork, it’s conservative Christians who are problematic.
“The Trump administration has welcomed religion into the West Wing with the establishment of a new White House Faith Office,” Sidell writes. “In recent months, pastors with Christian nationalist beliefs have been invited to the White House numerous times” (emphasis added).
Of course, we all know that “Christian nationalist beliefs” is left-wing dog-whistle-speak for Christians who don’t believe in baby-killing, unchecked illegal immigration, and letting kids forever damage their bodies on a whim. It’s never “Christian nationalism” when Jeffries and friends invoke Jesus for bigger government and dangerous leftist policies.
Sidell ends this bizarre article by quoting a fashion professor, which is exactly where I go to have my theological questions answered:
Lucy Collins, an assistant professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York who teaches courses in philosophy, fashion theory and ethics, said that while cross necklaces are often worn apolitically, their appearance in the political sphere in the United States has introduced implications of partisan politics.
“The cross itself is not a complicated symbol, it clearly represents Christianity,” said Ms. Collins. But in contrast to the simplicity of the cross, she added, “at this moment Christianity is much more complicated.”
The gospel isn’t complicated, but people make Christianity complicated when they try to overlay politics onto it. I hate to break it to Sidell and her editors, but Trump administration officials sporting cross necklaces isn’t a sign of “Christian nationalism”; instead, it’s a sign of sincere people expressing their faith. That’s the case for most people who wear crosses around their necks, opportunistic celebrities like Roan and Carpenter notwithstanding.
I’m not the only one who recognized this ridiculousness:
I love it when they report on normal Americans like an alien tribe
— Kyle Smith (@rkylesmith) April 30, 2025
I don’t think journos have any idea that Americans see them as a kind of weird group of slow emo kids. We just kind of roll our eyes at their juvenile self-righteousness and obliviousness. It’s not their fault. They just don’t know anything about life outside their friend group.
— RobberBeren (@RobberBeren) April 30, 2025
There is a zoological tone to their coverage – kinda like those BBC docs of animals in the wild.
— Tennessean Puerto Rican (@NashvilleLuis) April 30, 2025
“The fact that this piece got through the Times’s editorial process without anyone saying, ‘um … guys?’ shows exactly why the press always seems so clueless about the country it is supposed to cover,” wrote National Review’s Charles C. W. Cooke.
When I wrote for the school newspaper my senior year of high school, our teacher told a couple of my fellow students in her inimitable way that “there’s a whole [expletive deleted] world out there, and I want you to find out about it.” Bless Sidell and the New York Times’ hearts. They just don’t get that there’s a whole world outside their sybaritic urban bubble.
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