Bernard Coffindaffer
While driving on our nation's highways, have you ever noticed clusters of three crosses dotting the landscape? If you have ever driven through West Virgina, then you certainly have. I've been seeing them up on vistas above the road for years. Christian imagery is so pervasive in this society that I never really wondered about the origination of the clusters. I probably would have simply assumed that a large Christian denomination was erecting them. Until I saw a Jacob Young documentary (Point Man for God) about the phenomenon, I never would have imagined that all those crosses were the the result of a single man's inspiration.
Bernard Coffindaffer was born to German immigrants in Craigsville, WV in 1925*. He served a stint in the Marines in WWII, and saw action at Iwo Jima and the Okinawan Islands. He went to work in coal-washing and eventually built his own mill. He also profited greatly through the recycling of used motor oil. Coffindaffer worked hard, and he eventually became very wealthy. He also became sick from toiling too hard. He had heart surgery, and while he was in the hospital he had his sacred vision. God had given him a ministry to announce the Second Coming of Christ. This wasn't a "talking" ministry, but rather one of a wholly different sort. Coffindaffer saw three crosses- the center one was painted royal gold, and the flanking ones were powder blue. He founded "Cast Thy Bread, Inc." and began (in September of 1984) placing his clusters all over his home state. Somewhere along the line he also became a Methodist minister, and he consecrated every cluster with a ceremony. He was eventually responsible for the erection of over 1800 of these groupings over 29 states and the Phillippines. There were about 350 sets put up in West Virginia alone.
Each cluster of crosses cost Coffindaffer about $850. He spent between $2-3 million dollars on his ministry. At one point, he had seven two-man crews putting up crosses full-time. He was continually talking with owners of prospective sites, trying to persuade them to let him put his crosses up. Coffindaffer attained a sort of significant status among holly rollers in Appalachia. He hobnobbed with influential church leaders from a variety of Christian sects. But his activities did indeed meet with some resistance. One assistant city editor of the Charleston Gazette was particularly annoyed by the ubiquitous presence of the crosses. She claimed that they marred the pristine beauty of the landscape, and wondered if maybe there weren't a few others who were offended by the clusters. Apparently they were, as Coffindaffer was made irate by the destruction (by chainsaw) on some of his sacred sites. In Young's documentary, Coffindaffer can be seen blatantly threatening the lives of the perpetrators of these misdeeds. I could find no record of whether or not he ever followed through on those promises.
Bernard Coffindaffer died flat-broke in October of 1993. But evidence of his life exists all along our nation's highways. And successors have popped up to carry on Coffindaffer's mission. Sara Abraham of Vicksburg, TN, Sheldon Turrill of Mariettta, OH, and Robert Clark of Faith, NC have banded together to maintain existing clusters and to construct new ones under the name of Christian Crosses, Inc. All three partners claim to have received their marching orders directly from God. They have actually drafted letters to the owners of the properties upon which the crosses stand, asking them to maintain the clusters. The plan is eventually to place crosses every fifty miles along the nation's system of interstates. Although Coffindaffer's crosses were manufactured with wooden logs (of Douglas Fir trees) , new ones will be constructed of plastic for greater durability. God's word may be eternal, but evidently Coffindaffer's crosses were not.
EDIT 6/21/10: I ORIGINALLY FOLLOWED OTHER INTERNET SOURCES IN QUOTING HIS BIRTHDATE AS 1935, BUT AS THE COMMENTER BELOW POINTED OUT- THIS WOULD SEEM LIKE AN INCONSISTENCY GIVEN THE REPORTS THAT COFFINDAFFER SERVED IN IWO JIMA. EITHER THE MAN RECEIVED MORE VISIONS THAN WE KNEW ABOUT, OR SOMEONE DID THEIR MATH WRONG. I'M GOING TO SIDE WITH THE NY TIMES, WHO POSTED AN OBIT REPORTING MR. COFFINDAFFER DEAD AT 68 IN 1993.
THE LIBERAL PRESS STRIKES AGAIN!!
Bernard Coffindaffer was born to German immigrants in Craigsville, WV in 1925*. He served a stint in the Marines in WWII, and saw action at Iwo Jima and the Okinawan Islands. He went to work in coal-washing and eventually built his own mill. He also profited greatly through the recycling of used motor oil. Coffindaffer worked hard, and he eventually became very wealthy. He also became sick from toiling too hard. He had heart surgery, and while he was in the hospital he had his sacred vision. God had given him a ministry to announce the Second Coming of Christ. This wasn't a "talking" ministry, but rather one of a wholly different sort. Coffindaffer saw three crosses- the center one was painted royal gold, and the flanking ones were powder blue. He founded "Cast Thy Bread, Inc." and began (in September of 1984) placing his clusters all over his home state. Somewhere along the line he also became a Methodist minister, and he consecrated every cluster with a ceremony. He was eventually responsible for the erection of over 1800 of these groupings over 29 states and the Phillippines. There were about 350 sets put up in West Virginia alone.
Each cluster of crosses cost Coffindaffer about $850. He spent between $2-3 million dollars on his ministry. At one point, he had seven two-man crews putting up crosses full-time. He was continually talking with owners of prospective sites, trying to persuade them to let him put his crosses up. Coffindaffer attained a sort of significant status among holly rollers in Appalachia. He hobnobbed with influential church leaders from a variety of Christian sects. But his activities did indeed meet with some resistance. One assistant city editor of the Charleston Gazette was particularly annoyed by the ubiquitous presence of the crosses. She claimed that they marred the pristine beauty of the landscape, and wondered if maybe there weren't a few others who were offended by the clusters. Apparently they were, as Coffindaffer was made irate by the destruction (by chainsaw) on some of his sacred sites. In Young's documentary, Coffindaffer can be seen blatantly threatening the lives of the perpetrators of these misdeeds. I could find no record of whether or not he ever followed through on those promises.
Bernard Coffindaffer died flat-broke in October of 1993. But evidence of his life exists all along our nation's highways. And successors have popped up to carry on Coffindaffer's mission. Sara Abraham of Vicksburg, TN, Sheldon Turrill of Mariettta, OH, and Robert Clark of Faith, NC have banded together to maintain existing clusters and to construct new ones under the name of Christian Crosses, Inc. All three partners claim to have received their marching orders directly from God. They have actually drafted letters to the owners of the properties upon which the crosses stand, asking them to maintain the clusters. The plan is eventually to place crosses every fifty miles along the nation's system of interstates. Although Coffindaffer's crosses were manufactured with wooden logs (of Douglas Fir trees) , new ones will be constructed of plastic for greater durability. God's word may be eternal, but evidently Coffindaffer's crosses were not.
EDIT 6/21/10: I ORIGINALLY FOLLOWED OTHER INTERNET SOURCES IN QUOTING HIS BIRTHDATE AS 1935, BUT AS THE COMMENTER BELOW POINTED OUT- THIS WOULD SEEM LIKE AN INCONSISTENCY GIVEN THE REPORTS THAT COFFINDAFFER SERVED IN IWO JIMA. EITHER THE MAN RECEIVED MORE VISIONS THAN WE KNEW ABOUT, OR SOMEONE DID THEIR MATH WRONG. I'M GOING TO SIDE WITH THE NY TIMES, WHO POSTED AN OBIT REPORTING MR. COFFINDAFFER DEAD AT 68 IN 1993.
THE LIBERAL PRESS STRIKES AGAIN!!
Labels: Bernard Coffindaffer, Christian Right, Jacob Young, Religion, West Virginia
posted by Merge Divide at 7:03 PM
2 Comments:
I am curious about the date listed for Mr Coffindaffer; if he were borm in 1935 than he would have been 10 years old and with the marines on Iwo Jima. Are we certain of his date of birth?
That's a great point that never occurred to me. It's funny too, because if you do a google search for his born-on date, you get multiple sources saying 1935- no doubt someone made that error once, and people continued to quote it, including me. His obituary came out in the NY Times on )October 12, 1993, and it has him being 68. Based on that my rudimentary math skills suggest that he was born in 1925. I'm going to make a note of it in my post. Thank you!
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