Can someone please tell me why Mormons hate crosses so much? They would never be caught dead wearing one. They refuse to have them on their churches. If you tried to hand them a Cross they would probably back away from it like Dracula. They say they are Christians, but are offended by the main symbol of Christianity. I've never understood it.

Because according to them it's a celebration of Christ's death & the way he died. They don't even consider the crucifixion to be where Jesus was atoned. They believe it was in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he was pleaing to God. Even as a child, I didn't get it.

I'm not a Christian, but I love talking about how Mormons love to misinterpret, reinterpret, & reframe everything about Christianity in their own terms.

I have a question.

What is the atonement?

I was a bad little mormon boy so I missed out on some of the subtle nuances of the cult.

Is this something to do with oils to simulate the fertilization of the egg?

Traditional belief in the Atonement - http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atonement_in_Christianity

Mormon belief in the Atonement -

Mormon source -
http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Atonement_of_Jesus_Christ

Outside source commenting on Mormon misinterpretation -
http://carm.org/mormonism-and-atonement-of-jesus

So, if the atonement was in the Garden of Gethsemane his death on the cross was for nothing? Wow.If you believe in Jesus that's a total slap in his face. mormons don't even realize that what they've been taught goes against the bible. they just don't understand why real Christian religions don't consider them Christian. It's sad that they are so deceived.

Mormons say that blood was shed in the Garden of Gethsemane? The bible doesn't say that at all. The Mormons can't even get the main principle of Christianity right!

Yes. They believe that Jesus sweat blood from every pore of his body for hours in Gethsemane while pleading with God. Where this crazy belief comes from, IDK, because you are very correct when you say it isn't in the Bible. IDK how Mormons get around that piece of cog dis.

It comes from the typical Mormon love for misquoting the Bible...Luke 22:44, "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground"...what King James era English speakers would have understood as "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." (English Standard Version) That's why TSCC sticks to King James...much easier to twist because modern people don't understand what it's saying.

Mormons "don't like to remember Jesus' death"? Wow. Seems like non-Mormon Christianity says you'd damned well better remember it.

The real reason they hate crosses is they don't want to be identified with "apostate Christendom." They're the "real" Christians. I always wore one at DW's ward...just to piss 'em off.

Editd for spelling mistake.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2013 09:37AM by stillburned.

"Because according to them it's a celebration of Christ's death & the way he died."

That's the official PR version. The real reason is that at one time, the prophet hated Catholics and the cross is a catholic symbol..

There's no more reason for LDS doctrine to follow Christian
than there is for Hinduism to follow Islam.

I was BIC and grew up in a TBM family. The story I heard when I asked about it was that the cross (or crucifix) so a Catholic symbol. That made it worse than coffee!

I love wearing my cross when I'm around my TBM family and old Mormon friends. They can't stop staring at it. I get a lot of dirty looks, like their so offended by it. My cross tells them I'm another religion now and I'm never coming back to your ridiculous cult. My TBM step sister told me that I should take off my cross before I go to family parties because it offends some people. I told her that her garments offend me so maybe she should take them off! She didn't take that well!!!

Well, we are in the Bible Belt, so they are probably used to seeing them. At least the mishies are few and far between out in the country. :=D



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2013 07:06AM by FreeRose.

Because Evil Spirits run from the sign of the Cross. Not wearing a Cross in Mormonism is the "Popular Norm" so in the process of fitting in, they allow evil in their midst all the time without a fight.

Because they don't like to remember Jesus's death... A missonary asked me once if some one I loved got shot, would I wear a gun around my neck to remember him?

That's how mormons look at it.

ness Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Because they don't like to remember Jesus's
> death... A missonary asked me once if some one I
> loved got shot, would I wear a gun around my neck
> to remember him?
>
> That's how mormons look at it.
******************************************
I was Catholic and wore a cross for many years... it was like 30-some years ago when a Mormon co-worker asked me if someone I loved died in a car wreck, would I wear a little gold crashed-up car around my neck?

My response: "Why, yes. I would, if they died for ME."

:::::::::crickets:::::::::::::

Doxi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> ******************************************
> I was Catholic and wore a cross for many years...
> it was like 30-some years ago when a Mormon
> co-worker asked me if someone I loved died in a
> car wreck, would I wear a little gold crashed-up
> car around my neck?
>
> My response: "Why, yes. I would, if they died for
> ME."
>
> :::::::::crickets:::::::::::::

Awesome response. :)

And yet, in the D&C (I forget the exact place...possibly 30:10?) Jesus is quoted as saying,
"I am Jesus Christ who was crucified for your sins."
So, apparently, He didn't think the garden had anything to do with forgiveness of sins...

I inadvertently offended a mobot coworker by giving her a lovely lead crystal angel that had wings. The angel had a horn so I thought it was moroni-like. I didn't realize wings were bad. Silly me. she was petty and backstabbing but both her sons went on a mission and immediately pooped out babies with their mo wives. I couldn't believe they were so stupid as to start a family before they had a profession, as they didn't go to college

When my older nephew was 6 1/2, he was helping my TBM mom with the Nativity scene for Christmas. Our Nativity scene included an angel with wings, & my mom went on to explain to my nephew about how angels really don't have wings, etc. After she was finished, I pulled him aside & told him that it was perfectly OK if he wanted to believe that angels have wings.

posted before, but a reminder of the mormon mindset:
http://www.dovesandserpents.org/wp/2012/05/on-immodest-angels/

I wore a cross to my FIL's funeral and the chain broke and I lost is somewhere in the Mormon chapel. I looked everywhere and finally asked the ladies in the kitchen if they'd seen a cross necklace. Half of them bent over backward to be nice, figuring I was a nevermo and this was their chance to make Mormons look good. The other have shot me dirty looks like I'd defiled their chapel by wearing a cross in it. I finally found it in the parking lot.

One of the reasons my tiny tattoo is a cross is because having grown up Episcopalian, I just love crosses and I could never wear one as a Mormon. It was about taking my life and my preferences back - permanently. A tattoo (like I'd always wanted) of a cross (like I'd always wanted) somehow just made the perfect statement. I still look at it and smile because I did something that was ME.

I understand that Mormons say they don't like to focus on Christ's death, but in Christianity, that's what the Atonement was, his cruel death by the Romans. I've also heard the gun analogy, and I got them to shut up by saying that if the person who got shot died for me, then I would wear a gun necklace.

One thing I do know is that I did manage to keep my TBM ex away from me at a mutual friend's memorial service by wearing a cross necklace. I also had the second set of piercings in my ears by that point, but it was the cross more than the piercings that got him to react like a vampire. I actually have a collection of cross necklaces, as I happen to like them, as I'm basically a Christmas and Easter Episcopalian.

It's because they can't make money on them.


No but seriously, the Bible does say the preaching of the Cross is Foolishness to those who are Perishing.

I apologize for appearing to one-up your excellent point, but allow me, please, to provide the precise verse:

"For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God."

I Corinthians 1.17-18 KJV

Atonement: An illogical myth that a god came to earth, had himself killed 2000 years ago and through magic this gives us a loophole to get our "sins" forgiven. It's a cult of human sacrifice, and was made up. If Jesus or Jeshua or whatever his name was existed at all, he was just a wandering hippie preacher that gained a following, was executed by the Romans for being a pest, then had a mythology built around him decades later. To cement this theory into people's minds. the church made up a scenario where we are born in sin because a snake told a rib-woman to eat a fruit. Also, the smallest sin unforgiven is said to be worthy of infinite punishment by burning in fire eternally. This is a lie. We are born innocent. Our finite sins cannot possibly be worthy of infinite torture. It's a horrible primitive religion.

Jesus didn't have "himself killed 2000 years ago and through magic this gives us a loophole to get our "sins" forgiven." Magic has nothing to do with it, and the Bible never claimed that it did.

He paid the penalty for all of your sins, all of my sins, out of love.

Tell me the mechanics of that... Exactly how does it work?? If you can't, it's magic, and it's BS.

rationalguy--just guessing (perhaps projecting) but are you atheist?

I have some problems with the atonement too too and am not a real believer, but I really see no need to mock it.

Remember that in the early years of what would later become the LDS church, it used crosses as much as anybody else. Somewhere along the way soembody go the bright idea that crosses were too Catholic or something like that. Several people have written about the change. See if you can find their reports somewhere. Thanks.

"If someone you loved died by having nails thrust through their palms and wrists, would you invent silly handshakes about it and would you wear nails embroidered on your underwear?"

When they didn't want to be Christian and wanted to distinguish themselves certain hymns and religious iconography was discarded or replaced with others.

Mormonism clearly had periods where it despised Catholicism and Protestantism. Things have softened towards these positions over time. Now Mormons want to be considered Christian again.

However, during those times when Mormonism wanted to distinguish itself - its doctrine evolved away from the "modern Christian" doctrine of the atonement.

For Mormonism, the atonement is about the suffering in the garden. That's when Jesus took on the sins and pain and suffering of the world.

The crucifixion was just the last step that Jesus needed to take in order to be resurrected. It didn't matter how he died, so long as he shed his mortal body. Then he could "overcome" death and be resurrected.

I hope that was a pretentious explanation enough for you from the Mormon perspective.

Hilariously, the debate about the crucifixion and "possible atonement" would have raged fiercely during the times of early Christianity.

Christian sects mocked each other publicly for "misunderstanding" Jesus' death. Even the writers of the four canonized gospels wouldn't have agreed with each other.

I remember being a BIC kid and seeing the church down the street have a cross and thinking "that's so bad!!!"

Even now, newly resigned and not attending years before that, I can't quite shake my prejudice against it....stupid, huh?

I was born in TSCC, but raised in an inactive family. On a trip to Knotts Berry Farm I bought a pretty little cross with a blue stone on it. Primary, back then, was held in the morning on a weekday during the summer. I couldn't wait to show my friends my cross. We were pretty young and none of my friends acted surprised that I had a cross necklace but, after primary, my teacher took me aside and explained that Mormons don't wear crosses. I was so ashamed for myself and my parents who had let me buy that little cross. I took if off, took it home and buried it in the bottom of my sock drawer. I never wore it again.

I live close to a Hobby Lobby store and I have always loved the ornate crosses they sell to hang on your wall. I'd buy one, but I don't know where I'd hang it and my atheist daughter would think it was weird.