Quote:
Originally Posted by Burninator
I agree a universal symbol would be a bad idea and I wouldn't advocate for that. But trying to shoe horn a cross into a mostly universal symbol doesn't work either. I am not Christian, but wouldn't this water down the symbolism of the cross if non-Christians are using it?
|
Except that I don't think that it has been shoe-horned into something it is not. For better or worse, it has become a widely recognized symbol used to commemorate the deceased.
As for how this has impacted the church's employment of the cross, this is where a symbol's context and environment is key to its interpretation: Crosses
on the side of the road are most commonly not interpreted as religious. Crosses
in churches will always be powerful religious symbols, regardless of how secularized the axis itself becomes. Besides, Christians have for centuries adopted and will continue to adopt new symbols. About 20 years ago, a Christian singer named Michael W. Smith wrote a song in protest of how trivialized the cross has become. The result was the introduction of much more explicit imagery and symbols to distinguish Christians (one of which was propagated by the WWJD movement).