<p>LasMa, that’s interesting. All the Protestant churches I know (including the one I belong to), use a cross, not a crucifix.</p>
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I think this is the post that explains why we need to pay some attention to why certain speech is offensive. It has to do with having respect for the beliefs of others, even if you don’t share them.</p>
<p>By the way, I can assure you that the crucifix is not the symbol of any Baptists that I ever heard of–they also use an empty cross in their churches.</p>
<p>And finally, while Cardinal Fang may be right that this ship has sailed, I still think it’s rude and tacky. How about this for an analogy: what if the school were named after JFK. Would it be OK for a rival to make a poster that says, “We’re going to assassinate JFK?” I don’t think so. (Or MLK.)</p>
<p>It’s interesting, though, that the two examples Cardinal Fang had of similar uses of “crucify” – i.e., including an intentional reference to Christianity, something not present in his other two examples – are from the UK and Ireland. So maybe the ship hasn’t sailed quite yet on this, the touchier side of the Atlantic.</p>
<p>The Irish example pretty much puts to rest the notion that this is a clear attack on Catholics, though. It may be a naughty poke at church doctrine, it may be in bad taste, but it’s not driven by hostility towards Catholics.</p>
<p>I agree that’s it’s not hostility toward Catholics, but just insensitivity. To a devout Christian (and not just a Catholic), the word “crucify” has an unavoidable connotatoin to something that is held very sacred. That doesn’t mean that every use of it is highly offensive–but I can say that I always feel a twinge when it is used, just as I do when somebody says “Jesus Christ!” as an expletive.</p>
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I’m Protestant but live in a very Catholic neighborhood. Lots of those statues in the area. We usually refer to them as “Madonna on the Half Shell”</p>
<p>When my daughter was Confirmed (we don’t do First Holy Communion) my MIL (who was very Italian Catholic) bought her a crucifix as a gift. I can’t even begin to articulate the gasping shock caused by that gift. This daughter (whom we refer to as Satan for other reasons) now collects crosses and has some beautiful ones, but none “containing corpses” as she puts it. I find this thread running at the same time as the “Hating Jews” thread quite educational. My dad was an educated, tolerant, worldly man, but his historical make-up, coming down from Scotland in the 1600s translated into a truly virulent anti-Catholicism. His entire clan, out there in Ohio, Kentucky, Maryland, just couldn’t abide those Catholics and I don’t think that’s too uncommon. He married a Jewish woman and that was quite fine, but my sister and I both married Catholics – which was not fine. My boss is a Pakistani Muslim and he can’t comprehend the conflict between Protestants and Catholics. He thinks we’re all nuts. Which is probably true!</p>
<p>LOL @ Owlice… =)</p>
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<p>Exactly. I wonder if sensitivity to this issue is tied to the area one grew up in or the kind of high school one attended.</p>
<p>I went to a Catholic high school and lived in an area with a large Catholic population. We used to make signs and read headlines like these and no one, not one priest or sister, ever said anything to us about it except in humor. I vividly rememeber when one of our sisters had us in stiches when she told us, “Well, I do find it disturbing to cheer for St. Peter to be beat, so instead I just hope that we will win.”</p>
<p>Amongst religious people I have known, Catholics and Jews are most able to laugh at themselves and least likely to be offended by religious jokes. Catholic school kids positively make a vocation* out of Biblical jocularities.</p>
<p>*get it?</p>
<p>^
I agree. That’s why I think Catholics and Jews tend to be the best comedians…but that’s just my opinion.</p>
<p>Before moving to the south (I’m from Southern Cal), if I saw someone wearing a crucifix, I knew that they were Catholic or Orthodox. Prots tend to use a bare cross, because of the resurrection. Catholics tend to wear the crucifix because of what it signifies - Jesus died for our sins and for our salvation, and that this sacrifice is eternally happening - an ongoing sacrifice - hence the Mass.</p>
<p>However, once I moved to the south, I’ve come across many prots (many African Americans particularly) that choose to wear a crucifix, too. So, here, all stores that have jewelry sections often have an extensive display of chains with crucifixes.</p>