“Take up your cross, and follow me.” – Matthew 16:24

Over the years, I have photographed the faithful carrying a cross randomly on the Bypass or up College Street, especially on Good Friday in observance of Easter. I have always been drawn to that visual due to my Catholic faith, as well as my passion for documenting some of the many, many other religions and their faithful.

Everyone has a cross to bear in life. The origins of this powerful phrase can be traced back to the Bible when Jesus was forced to carry and drag his own cross to the site of his crucifixion on Calvary. This act has since been changed to a metaphor to describe the trials and tribulations we must endure in life.

I have photographed Christians, Evangelicals, Jews, Muslims, Taoists, Buddhists, Catholics and even snake-handling, rural charismatic Protestants. I have trained my cameras on others who are escaping me right now, but all the images are tucked safely away in my archive for when I finally publish one of many photo books.

Just like my dad, who was always religious and converted to Catholicism in 1978, I find myself being drawn closer to my faith the older I get. I am not sure if is the old adage, the “older you get, the wiser you are” or if I am able to cut through the clutter of this very partisan, angry, social media driven period we live in right now.

America encompasses a rich diversity of faith traditions, and “religious churning” is very common. A little internet research revealed about one-quarter of Americans (26%) identified as religiously unaffiliated in 2023, a 5 percentage point increase from 21% in 2013. Nearly one in five Americans (18%) left a religious tradition to become religiously unaffiliated, over one-third of whom were previously Catholic (35%) and mainline/non-evangelical Protestant (35%).

While the percentage of Americans who describe themselves as “nothing in particular” is similar to a decade ago (16% in 2013 to 17% in 2023), the numbers of both atheists and agnostics have doubled since 2013 (from 2% to 4% and from 2% to 5%, respectively). The reason given by the highest percentage of religiously unaffiliated Americans for leaving their faith tradition is that they simply stopped believing in their religion’s teachings (67%).

These numbers are scary, especially for someone who knows and has experienced what faith can do for you on a daily basis. We’ve all heard the phrase “a cross to bear” at some point in our lives. But have we ever stopped for a moment to think about what it actually means? When you say you have “a cross to bear,” you’re referring to some sort of burden or something difficult you have to deal with. We use the phrase to describe a personal struggle or challenges that we have to face daily but can’t easily overcome.

This could range anywhere from a chronic illness, to a troubled relationship, to financial difficulties or any other type of obstacle like addiction, homelessness or mental illness. Documenting the symbolic cross bearing has made me think about the less fortunate I have photographed over the years and makes my daily struggles pale in comparison.

This Easter season is so important to me because all of Christianity revolves around the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When Jesus told his disciples to take up their crosses and follow him, he left it up to them how to do that, what to do and who to help. Plain and simple, we are charged to help others in this life.

Thursday night the Kentucky General Assembly passed House Bill 1 which provides $20 million in the biennial budget to fund the Anchor Project, a proposed replicable mental health and substance abuse disorder regional facility in Bowling Green where a person in crisis can receive immediate treatment.

I hope funding this facility will actually help alleviate many crosses that those in need in our community bear each and every day.

– Daily News General Manager Joe Imel can be reached at (270) 783-3273 or via email at joe.imel@bgdailynews.com.