Before I was bothered with religion at all, I liked the cross just for its shape. Then when I got cornered by Mormonism and chained to it for near five or so years, I obviously learned it had more meaning. But I still liked it. But one of my Mormon buds said to never ever wear crosses.

I asked...why? She answered, because it focused on His death, not His life. I said....Christians can and do wear them, right? She said, exactly. They focus on His death and not His life.

That is all I ever got about the wearing of crosses. What's the deal? I am no longer a Mormon and will end up getting a cross necklace again, but it has always made me wonder.

And to many, many Christians The Atonement is THE central aspect of Christianity. So focusing on the cross is focusing on the death, the critical part of the crux of the religion.

At least that is my understanding. This is also why many thing Christianity is a death cult.

The Christian beleif and focus is on the death and resurrection as the basis of their core beleif system. His life was important, but his death is what "saves" them by grace.

So yes, the crux of their beleifs...

Latin cruc-, crux cross, torture

This is at the heart of one of the major differences between mormonism and christianity.

Christianity believes that the atonement was accomplished on the cross whereas mormons believe it happened in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The cross is an important symbol for christians who live their lives in a state of gratitude for the sinful debt being paid by the atonement which could not have happened any other way but that was prophesied, on the cross.

To mormons it is a symbol of death. Mormons tend to live their lives in a state of guilt because they do not understand the gift of the atonement, but rather strive and struggle their whole lifetime in service to their church, hoping that it will get them some kind of reward.

I'm not advocating that either is right or wrong, its just the difference in their perceptions about who Jesus is and what he did that was important. Mormons tend to want to do what Jesus did in his life, whereas Christians are able to see that they will never be able to do that and are happy to be themselves and happy to be forgiven for it.

So do you want to live your life in gratitude or servitude?

Put on a cross and be grateful, or take it of and serve the church, your choice.

I always wondered about that too. Even though the cross was the method of execution, it took on a whole new meaning in different Christian sects, who saw it as encompassing both his sacrifice and resurrection.

To me, symbols seem to represent what your own personal meaning is related to it. TSCC, in my opinion, used the "lack of cross" as another mean to separate itself from mainstream Christianity.

Ask any other Christian about it's meaning. I doubt they focus all on the death, but mention salvation and resurrection.

TSCC likes to claim that the symbol means something else for those sects to make themselves different.

Lost Mystic Wrote:
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> Ask any other Christian about it's meaning. I doubt they focus all on the death, but mention salvation and resurrection.

Having been raised Catholic (and the Catholics dearly love their crosses,) I would agree with that. I feel that the symbol of the cross encompasses both aspects.

I've sometimes wondered about alternate symbols for Jesus/Christ/Christianity. You have the fish, of course. Anything else?

BlueskyUtah's post was very good. I am more in agreement with Lost Mystic's take on how Christians view the cross.

740/800 Verbal on the GRE. You? I can read.

>
> I've sometimes wondered about alternate symbols
> for Jesus/Christ/Christianity. You have the fish,
> of course. Anything else?

There is the chi-ro. which is a letter P with an X overlayed on it. It is Greek. The X is often used in shorthand for Christ as in Merry Xmas. Can't remember what the letter P stands for in Greek. And someone else on this board uses the X always in writing the word, 'X-ianity' or 'X-ians'. He uses it in a dismissive kind of way. Don't think he realizes the symbolism. Ironic.

P is the Greek symbol for rho which is R in the Latin alphabet.Pi is the symbol for P. Confused now?

Wiki has an intersting discussion of the meaning of this symbol:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Rho

First two letters of Christ's name in Greek.

I like how the Roman pagans used to use it as a symbol meaning, "Good."

It is ironic that TSCC claims itself to be the "restored" Early Christian Church that Jesus set up. If my understanding is correct, I believe that the cross was being used as a symbol as early as 100 AD. The New Testament makes frequent references to the cross as an important symbol.

TSCC wanted to separate themselves from the rest of Christianity... now.. they are trying to say they are part of it.

This is all too true. Christianity without a cross would be the same as a piss-up without any alcohol: nonsensical.

Thank you so much for your input, everyone! I understand a lot better now. =D

So funny to me:

Crosses: Bad.

Jupiter Talisman, Suns, Moons, Stars, Pentagrams, Heiroglyphics, Compasses, Squares, All seeing eyes, Sunstones, Cloudstones, Moonstones, Seerstones, Peepstones, Urimm & Thummims, and all other sorts of 'symbols' for magic / masons ad infinitum: GOOD!!!

*Facepalm*

Such a mess.

we are mormon, we are christian, we are mormon, we are christian, we are mormon, we are christian... what the hell?

The church deliberately in the early days separated themselves from christians and now they want to blend in. They think if we blend in the opposition will go away.

We had a member in our spanish branch who wore a huge gold cross (he also dressed like a pimp), but he wore this huge beautiful gold cross and after a few weeks he stopped wearing it. I'm sure someone cornered him and gave him the riot act.

Of all the religious symbols, the cross is still my favorite and will always will be.

...perhaps it would be more appropriate for Mormons to wear a ReMax logo since, you know, they tend focus on his house. Besides, crosses are for defending oneself against vampires, and it totally doesn't work I still had to watch twilight.

Edited for autocorrect.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2011 07:10PM by The Man in Black.

I have a dog named Buffy. No vampires in this house!
She also peed on an unwelcome Mormons foot today. She is such a sweet little thing.

The missionaries who taught us said "if someone stabbed your brother and killed him, would you wear a knife on your neck to remember him?". I thought that was extreme and told them that was very different, but as many converts will know there is no arguing with missionaries they have many answers that make you doubt yourself and think "Am I really wrong? These young men and so confident, maybe it is me"

D

deconverted2010 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The missionaries who taught us said "if someone
> stabbed your brother and killed him, would you
> wear a knife on your neck to remember him?". I
> thought that was extreme and told them that was
> very different, but as many converts will know
> there is no arguing with missionaries they have
> many answers that make you doubt yourself and
> think "Am I really wrong? These young men and so
> confident, maybe it is me"
>
> D
I got the same comment from the missionaries only it was an electric chair. I said, "Yup, I'd wear the biggest one I could find!"

There are even crosses made of nails to symbolize the suffering of Jesus.

Protestants tent to prefer an "empty" cross to symbolize Christ's resurrection. Catholics, if I am not mistaken, use the symbol of the suffering Christ to remind us of the price He paid on our behalf.

Given all that, I think a cross is a pretty natural shape, and it has been used for thousands of years as a pretty shape.

The cross was an instrument of death just like the gallows. The early Christians used the sign of fish or the lamb. It was the Emperor Constantine who instituted the cross as the chief symbol of Christianity after his famous vision and conversion.

The cross, while not commonly used, was first seen as a symbol of the movement in the 2nd century CE.

According to my Roman history professor, the cross wasn't used for several hundred years. Early Christians were embarrassed by the crucifixion and were not eager to draw attention to the fact that their God had died a criminal's death. The chi rho was probably what Constantine saw in his vision before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

My sky fairy is better than your sky fairy so ner ner ner ner...

I thought that we were discussing why Mornmons don't use the cross and what it means to Christians. Many of us are not even believers.We e are simply interested in the subject. Maybe the people with the smarmy comments could either butt out or say something that constributes to the discussion. All this static is getting annoying.

My relative was a GA, and he, and the church leaders told us many years ago that Mormonism is NOT "Christianity," and we deliberately don't wear crosses, because we want to be set apart from "Christian" churches.

Joe Laban is exactly right!

It is a symbol of Christianity, and I doubt people think beyond that,

As a Christian, I don't like Mormons accusing us of focusing on Christ's death. We focus on the atonement. All are saved. The Mormons do not believe in this.

The cross is sacred to me, and I don't like Mormons giving it a different meaning--like they give almost everything a different meaning. It took me 6 years to figure out who God and Christ really are. Damn the brainwashing. All hail the mighty cross.

forestpal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My relative was a GA, and he, and the church leaders told us many years ago that Mormonism is NOT "Christianity," and we deliberately don't wear crosses, because we want to be set apart from "Christian" churches.

The interesting thing is (I realized this from the discussion above,) Mormons apparently don't use *any* traditional Christian symbols, including the fish, the lamb, or the Chi Rho. So their arguments for not using the cross are rather moot. Why not any of the other traditional symbols? I think that the answer goes back to when the church was in the practice of disassociating itself from mainstream Christianity.

I was quite invested in it, took it seriously, but not literally, at least not the Bible. Then I took the leap and started really looking at it and into it, and finally when push came to shove, I've come to accept that I don't believe in the existence of any god. That doesn't mean that I hate Christianity or Christians, or have forgotten my past involvement. It's still interesting, but I just don't ascribe to it anymore.

Of course certain neighbors think since I am no long a christian, I must, ergo, be a follower of Satan. Yeah ... No god, no devil. *sigh*

[edit: I don't claim to know what they think, it's that they've told me this.]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2011 08:08PM by serena.

'For the preaching of the Garden of Gethsemane is the power of God unto salvation..." Doesn't have quite the same ring. To Christians the cross is the symbol of the place where their salvation took place. It is usually an empty cross signifying the payment of the price of sin and the resurrection.