Here’s what I have to say about so-called Christians who try to use deception and trickery.
James 1:26 “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.”
And for hypocrites that harshly judge others there is.
Luke 6:45 “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
I totally understand the point you are making. It’s possible I’m giving too much credit to the protest, but I wonder if the point of the protest was more subtle. The idea being that you can’t say “a crucifix is not a religious symbol” and then tell people to interpret your words with some kind of charity or sense.
This idea crystallized further in my head reading @anotherone’s post:
This is just what I was thinking of. I think hanging it upside down is an act of defiance in that it is intentionally acting in bad faith. A sort of “Oh, are we playing Paper Over Bad Faith With Bullshit Excuses? I can play that game…”
So, yeah, I think the idea that “if they aren’t religious there should be no problem hanging them upside down” is a bullshit point. But I wonder if it isn’t a bullshit point made for the purpose of pointing out that everyone talking bullshit all the time cuts both ways. The people advocating this would probably be thrilled to go back to a world where they felt like acting in good faith made sense.
Heck, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea that a Latin stylization, symbolic of a Roman execution and torture technique, having been popularized by the execution of a Semitic person 2000 years ago in the middle east is somehow part of Bavaria’s heritage.
I’ve seen full scale crosses with the Jesus figure wearing a loincloth that was actually made of cloth. Hang one of those babies upside down and one would “get” to see Jesus’ naughty bits. Ecce homo.Behold the man.
I once had a long discussion/argument with my German mom about whether a cross was a religious symbol or just jewelry. My point was if we were going to ban the Hijab for teachers we should also ban teachers from wearing a cross in the classroom. She just literally could not see that a cross is a specific religious symbol. I was flummoxed. I remain flummoxed actually.
Don’t forget Matthew 6:5 - I get a lot of use out of that one these days!
“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.”
The whole chapter’s actually pretty great, it says charity should be secretive, so that nobody knows you gave aid, because loud and open religiosity intended to impress others is an offense to God.
Seems wierd that this is a thing in 2018 Europe. They like to chuckle at the US for being founded partly by their Puritanical exiles. Yet somehow this is a thing.
It is also a bit odd Christ is on that cross. That is typically a Catholic thing. Germany, IIRC, is mostly Lutheran.
