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Report: Only One Downtown Building Has A Gigantic Cross This Year

10:08 AM EST on December 13, 2019

On Tuesday night, I was driving to Bricktown for our podcast interview with Juice when I noticed something that I've literally never seen before during the holiday season – BancFirst Tower, now the second-largest building in downtown OKC, didn't have that huge, signature multi-story cross glowing from its windows.

For example, this is what Downtown OKC normally looks like during the holiday season:

This is what it looks like now:

That sucks! Reminding people which religion reigns supreme has been an Oklahoma City tradition since before I was born! Did BancFirst Tower have an awakening, and finally realize that all religions and gods were created out of thin air by primitive, superstitious humans that were high on mushrooms and looking for an explanation to their existence, or is it simply dealing with some seasonal depression and not putting up lights this year?

Fortunately, downtown OKC gumshoe Steve Lackmeyer is on the case. He provided this report to The Oklahoman:

The downtown skyline is missing the nine-story cross that has glowed every Christmas holiday for the past 40 years as a makeover continues at the future home of BancFirst...

The display of the cross by downtown towers during Christmas season dates back to the 1930s when one was created using lights on the 18th to 27th floors of First National Tower. The tradition was later picked up by Liberty Bank and Kerr McGee as both opened new towers in the early 1970s.

The lit cross still can be seen at the former Kerr McGee tower, now home to SandRidge Energy.

BancFirst CEO David Harlow promises the disappearance of the cross at BancFirst Tower is temporary, though its return could involve using other technology or projected images.

“We’ve got a bunch of demolition going on in those floors where the cross lights were,” Harlow said. “It was very rudimentary — it was lights hanging from a chain. We will do something again. Will it be the same? We don’t know.”

Will it be the same? I'm not a professional decorator like that woman in Christmas Made To Order, but there are only so many ways to display a 9 story glowing cross on a skyscraper. Does that mean they're going to make it flash, change colors, or turn it into a full-blown crucifix? Who knows. The only certainty is it won't promote or honor any symbols for any other religion. Once again, we have to be reminded which one reigns supreme.

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