You are a religious bigot and beyond this sort of public wringing of your hands I would urge you to real repentance and sacramental confession of this pharisaical spirit.
Now, I’m a Protestant, and I didn’t read her that way.
What I got was someone who loves her own faith expression greatly. They have been a great blessing and comfort for her in her life. She would wish the same for all others. Having her own experience and not theirs, she is unable to envision how any other experience of faithwalk could ever compare with her own experience. I don’t call that bigotry. Maybe naivette. Maybe egocentrism. Or she could be correct.
The thing is, try as we might to walk in other people’s shoes, we can never do it as well as they walk in their own. I don’t even know when I look at green grass if you and I see the same color of green, I just suppose we do. So, while it is beneficial to compare faith experiences, we can’t ever say that someone else’s is either superior or inferior to ours. (Now here I am talking about the subjective, not objective element of our faith.)
I didn’t look for anything, my heart hurt when I read the first post because the crucifix means something to me. And no, I simply can not respect what I’ve seen as protestant worship to actually be Worship. I know you and many others with take a great deal of offense to that, and I’m very sorry that you do. The crucifix means something to me though, so when people have the need to turn it around so as not to see the image of Christ suffering for our sins, then it does hurt my heart, and Yes I believe Christ does mourn such things. I’m a Catholic though, mea culpa. Kudos to those who seek Christ with sincere hearts. I know that His word is found in non-Catholic Christian traditions. Christ is really truly present in the Catholic tradition though, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, and the crucifix is how we came to be able to receive Him, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Without it, there is no resurrection. I know you’re Catholic, and I’m just preaching to the choir, but you as a Catholic should have respect for where I’m coming from here. I don’t mean any disrespect to anyone, but I feel the way I do, and see things as I do because I know and love the fullness of the Truth. I hope someday those who feel they need to avert their eyes from the image of the suffering Christ may come to the Truth themselves. Until then, I still love them, but I can not respect what they do sometimes.
Dear BeeSweet,
I rejoice in all the meaning that you find in your faith. It seems to me that you are right where God would want you to be. But that does not make it the right place for everyone. I have people in my congregation who have been blessed by particular experiences in their faithwalk, and they too love others so much that they want them all to have the same experience they had. The thing they don’t recognize is that no one else can have the same experience that they had. Not even the others who were present with them when they had their own experiences were able to have the same experience that they had. Each person has to find that which brings them closest to God. For you (and for many) the crucifix is a part of that. But others might find that with no crucifix, no cross at all, that they can still meditate on the sufferings of Christ. Perhaps that is why Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ was so well received by both Catholic and non-Catholic Christians two years ago. And yet there still other ways. I know that for me a butterscotch drop brought that home like nothing either before or since. (Long story, you probably don’t want to read it here.)
As for turning away the crucifix. Because of your sensitivity with regard to it and how it speaks to you, I suppose it is painful even to think about. But that does not make it wrong. And that does not mean that if they were left out that it would accomplish any of what you wish for. Nor do I suspect that many would even be concerned about it after an initial period of adjustment. So, it probably is both unnecessary and inconsequential.
There was a time when Protestants were anti-Catholic. That day is, thankfully, past. But just as we Protestants have inherited some things from our Catholic forefathers, things like worshipping on Sunday. So too, we non-Catholic Protestants have inherited something from our anti-Catholic Protestant forefathers. Among them are an empty cross. Now, just as one has no less experience of Christ by worshipping on Saturday (it is not a denial of the resurrection), so too one has no less experience of Christ by worshipping with an empty cross displayed (it is not a denial of the crucifixion).
May Christ, both crucified and risen, bless your life always.
Peace.
Protestants just don’t get it
