Crucifix Scares Children

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A Church of England Vicar has had a Crucifix removed from outside his Church because it gives the wrong impression of Christianity.
guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/06/crucifixion-church-vicar-sculpture-copnall
"The crucifix expressed suffering, torment, pain and anguish. It was a scary image, particularly for children. Parents didn’t want to walk past it with their kids, because they found it so horrifying…
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“… We want to communicate good news, not bad news, so we need a more uplifting and inspiring symbol than execution on a cross.”
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Dearie me, however did all those billions of Catholic (and non-Catholic Christian) children for two thousand years manage to see all those horrible scary crucifixion scenes - and somehow turn out normal - as the vast majority of them did! :rolleyes:
 
At the risk of getting banned, I will present to you the horrifying sculpture which was taken down.
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
Jesus on the Cross by Edward Bainbridge Copnall
 
well that would scare me but my fear would be for the future of art in worship, and the future of the art of sculpture in general if someone got paid to make this work.
 
puzzleannie said:
well that would scare me but my fear would be for the future of art in worship, and the future of the art of sculpture in general if someone got paid to make this work.
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LOL

Well, it was made 46 years ago (!!), so the art of sculpture has progressed past (or survived) it by now.

But perhaps we should still worry, since the sculpture will still terrorize thousands of people:
The sculpture will be mounted on a large outside wall within the Museum grounds in the near future, where it can be seen by the thousands of visitors. At Broadbridge Heath the Church of St John’s is actively fundraising for a replacement to adorn their modern church building, a building designed to look like a Bedouin tent.
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horsham.gov.uk/your_area/News/news_9652.asp
 
Ah sure when we were on our way to Knock Shrine we were told by our Priest not to include the “Oh My Jesus Forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell…” prayer at the end of a decade as he said it scared the children. The woman giving out the Rosary over the PA agreed and omitted it.

Now then. There was 5 kids on a bus of 52 two were mine who have recited the prayer over and over again at home and are normal perfectly normal.

Where does the silliness end???
 
I worry that a minister of a Christian ecclesial community is teaching people that Christ is somehow not associated with suffering. It is precisely in the depths of suffering, abandonment, death and dying that we are nearest to our Lord and Saviour who took on board all these things voluntarily and willingly for our sake. We suffer whether we will it or not but in Christ our suffering is now transformed and in Christ our death is now become life. What kind of Christian message doesn’t involve those truths?
 
Hello all,
Well, what do you expect?, it is the Church of England after all. What next, women bishops?!!.
God Bless.
Mick.
 
1 Corinthinas 1:23

But we proclaim Christ crucified: unto the Jews indeed a stumblingblock, and unto the Gentiles foolishness:
 
Well, the vicar could have had the cast-iron monstrosity removed and replaced with something a little more traditional, like this:



But, of course, the Church of England being one of the former Christian denominations, I would expect nothing less than the complete removal of any sign of Christianity form the exterior of the building. Probably within a year or so, they’ll be taking the cross down the from the steeple and replacing it with a crescent moon and putting minarets up on all four corners.

He’s right about one thing, though----that crucifix does give the wrong impression about Christianity. Looking at that thing, one might get the impression that there are no decent artists and sculptors in the Christian Faith, which is simply not true.
 
Damian Thompson is religion blogger for the Telegraph, here’s his take:
Far be it from me to lecture an ordained minister of the established Church, but I wonder if Mr Souter has got to grips with this “crucifixion” business. I’m sorry to have to raise such an unpleasant subject on this blog, but it involved nailing a man to a piece of wood.
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Those nails were driven in mercilessly by Roman soldiers, and it is probable - though we do not know for sure - that the man subjected to the torture screamed and writhed in agony. Moreover, his mother had to watch this disgusting execution, which was drawn out for hours. This website gives the details of what probably happened:
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I remember once at church a young couple with kids arrived late and tried to take their seats at the end of the pew w/o making a stir.
Instead their youngest, 2 or 3, pointed at the station of Jesus being crucified and yells, “They’re hurting Jesus!”
 
Wolseley said:
Well, the vicar could have had the cast-iron monstrosity removed and replaced with something a little more traditional, like this:

s-george.org.uk

But, of course, the Church of England being one of the former Christian denominations, I would expect nothing less than the complete removal of any sign of Christianity form the exterior of the building. Probably within a year or so, they’ll be taking the cross down the from the steeple and replacing it with a crescent moon and putting minarets up on all four corners.

He’s right about one thing, though----that crucifix does give the wrong impression about Christianity. Looking at that thing, one might get the impression that there are no decent artists and sculptors in the Christian Faith, which is simply not true.
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WOW !!! What a beautiful crucifix! I love the chalice catching the corpus’ blood.Do you have any idea where one can be purchased? I have a crucifix or two in every room in my home and one each outside by the back and front doors but not one is as striking as this one.
Everything else in that eclasial body has been watered down or mutated why not the crucifix.
 
They will have to explain to my son that he is supposed to be scared of a crucifix. 😃

When he was about 2/3 yrs old my dh took him around the house one night because he wanted to see all the Jesus’. This included the 4 crucifixes that we have in our house. Funny, our son was smiling the whole time and didn’t act the least bit scared. 🤷 Maybe he’s just weird? :confused:
 
Soutane said:
WOW !!! What a beautiful crucifix! I love the chalice catching the corpus’ blood.Do you have any idea where one can be purchased? I have a crucifix or two in every room in my home and one each outside by the back and front doors but not one is as striking as this one.
Everything else in that eclasial body has been watered down or mutated why not the crucifix.
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About all I can tell you is that it was carved in 1870 in Bavaria: s-george.org.uk/section/67

It is a beautiful crucifix, though, no doubt. 🙂 I have a holy card somewhere with a similar theme; it looks very much like this one, so one like it might be easier to find:

 
There are some creepy crucifixion paintings, Matthias Grunewald’s as a very good for-instance: he even painted the wounds inflicted by the scourging, it’s very graphic, so I could understand some very sensitive kids being creeped out by it. However, if you use the milder versions (Velasquez’s, for instance), it’s less likely to cause trouble.

That said, I think I can see why kids would be creeped out by that ugly monstrosity that can only marginally be called a crucifixion image. I’m a Goth-type who likes H.R. Giger’s paintings, and I think it looks hideous.
 
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