The Cross; A source of peace?
Offline A friend of mine send me a photo of himself taken at the Blad Knob Cross of Peace , here's it's site: http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Paradise/6726/
I've had many conversations with catholics about their symbols and one argument that always pops up is the feeling of "peace" they get when they watch the cross. Now I'm not going to dwell into the matter of self suggetion or any other totally rational explanation for this phenomena, but rater I would like to point out the thing that was so obvious, I never realized it until I saw the photo of my friend, and read the words "cross" and "peace" in such proximity: The cross, that which gives you a sence of peace by looking at, depicts a man BEING TORTURED TO DEATH!!! What the hell is wrong with you, you sadists? The nails in his hands/feet, the hole on his side, his head pierced by dozens of spines, blood oozing out of everywhere, his expresion of agony, and that gives you peace?
Right then I had a flashback of me waiting in line at the movie theater when I saw an audience exiting one of the screening rooms crying, literally there was not a dry eye among them. I then remembered the passion of christ was still being shown in there. But the thing that struck me the most was that some of this people, in the midst of their "sympathy" for jesus, were smiling. That's right, some of them looked at their dates/spouces/family and they mutually smiled at each other, like you would smile and cry at the weeding of a loved one. They just went to the biggest bloodbath in cinematic history, and THEY WERE SMILING!
Now I know it's not so much about the killing and the torture, it's about the message behind it, but I still cannot fathom the kind of compartmentalization needed to dissociate the blood and the gore from the "message" behind it. A mexican story comes to mind: when the first conquistadores tried to convert the aztecs to catholicism by pointing out just how gory and inhumane their pagan sacrificial rituals were, the aztecs quickly pointed to the cross of one of the spanish priests and said that their god also "lusted for blood". The cross gives you peace by looking at it? To me, it gives me the creeps.
Lenore, The Cute Little Dead Girl. Twice as good as Jesus.
- Login to post comments
I guess if you're a christian it might bring you a sense of peace. When I see a cross, however, I think about the origins of the cross outside of christianity.
The sign of the cross dates back well before christianity in the form of the ancient Egyptian ankh. The ancient zodiac was originally in a circle divides by a cross with 3 symbols in each quadrant.
I watched an interesting movie on google video recently called Zeitgeist. It talks about the origins of christianity in part one and gives a really good revisionist history of the origins of xtianity.
"Always seek out the truth, but avoid at all costs those that claim to have found it" ANONYMOUS
I have to say, the cross as a sign of peace... it doesn't make me feel peaceful.
Now a DOVE... a dove makes me smile and feel all warm inside.
Did you know the dove is a symbol of peace that is said to originate in the story of Noahs Ark? I should see how far back the dove as a symbol of peace actually goes because as we have seen, pieces of older beliefs have made their way into the bible. And why the heck DO I feel so peaceful when I see a dove? Damn brainwashing, I really don't even like birds that much.
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
It may give them peace, but what about Jesus? I heard a comedian a long time ago doing a bit about how when Jesus comes back, you really think he wants to see millions of people wearing a symbol of his brutal death? He might just turn around and go back up to heaven. We know his weakness, we might just do it again.
They should really consider adopting the Buddy Christ figure from Kevin Smith's movie "Dogma". Hell, even I think Buddy Christ looks like a pretty fun guy.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/1/9455_86356d8201.jpg
http://www.myspace.com/creucent
I actually grew up around Bald Knob Cross and never once have seen it (luckily enough). Spent 22 years in southern Illinois before I left to join the navy been back a lot and never had a want or desire to go.
"Always seek out the truth, but avoid at all costs those that claim to have found it" ANONYMOUS
Due to my indoctrination I still see it as a sign of peace, but as Renee said a white dove is a much better symbol. I've always been confused by the white dove above a crown of thorns image which was also thrown around a few times in my childhood.
To the OP, could you just include the image in the post next time rather than sending us off to a site with embedded music?
Finally, off topic (I don't want to create a new thread just for this, some see it as peaceful too so it's kinda related) but it would appear that even in heaven the father-son relationship isn't always perfect.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
Censored and blacked out for internet access in ANZ!
AU: http://nocleanfeed.com/ | NZ: http://nzblackout.org/
The cross a sign of peace ? I suppose subjectively it can be anything you want it to be. A headman's axe could be a symbol of peace if you wanted it to.
In Jesus's day the cross was mechanism for inflicting death , nothing more. Why would anyone sentimentalize it ?
Theoretically speaking, If Jesus had been executed in an electric chair would Christians be wearing little replicas of electric chairs around their necks ?