Cross. According to 15th President Gordon B. Hinckley, “the cross is the symbol of the dying Christ, while our message is a declaration of a Living Christ” (“The Symbol of Our Faith,” Ensign, April 2005, p. 3). Tenth President Joseph Fielding Smith explained the reason why Latter-day Saints don’t wear jewelry depicting the cross: To many, like the writer, such a custom is repugnant and contrary to the true worship of our Redeemer. Why should we bow down before a cross or use it as a symbol? Because our Savior died on the cross, the wearing of crosses is to most Latter-day Saints in very poor taste and inconsistent to our worship. Of all the ways ever invented for taking life and the execution of individuals, among the most cruel is likely the cross. This was a favorite method among the Romans who excelled in torture. We may be definitely sure that if our Lord had been killed with a dagger or with a sword, it would have been very strange indeed if religious people of this day would have graced such a weapon by wearing it and adoring it because it was by such a means that our Lord was put to death” (“The Wearing of the Cross,” Answers to Gospel Questions 4:17). Rather tham emphasizing the cross, Mormon leaders have emphasized the Garden as Gethsemane, as explained by BYU professor Robert Millet: “It was in Gethsemane, on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, that Jesus made his perfect atonement by the shedding of his blood-more so than on the cross” (A Bible! A Bible! p. 282). To the Christian, the cross is a very important symbol as it points toward Jesus’ death and resurrection. As 1 Corinthians 1:18 says, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”

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