I guess still thinking thinks this is a hideous display (or maybe defiling):
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And the Native Americans are working on "defiling" this mountain in honor of Crazy Horse.
"My fellow chiefs and I would like to let the white man know the red man has great heroes too."
Oh well, everyone sees things differently I suppose. But it is considered a beautiful work of art, and the largest statue ever done in the Art Deco style. It is a globally recognized landmark, no matter what your personal religious beliefs are. This year UNESCO named it a world heritage site.
Here's a tribute to Jesus. A lovely monument on a mountain in Rio de Janeiro.
I do like these cloud shots.
This one at dusk is nice.
Dawn.
Green for this year's Earth Summit.
During the day.
It is Brazil's most visited place. I can see why. It "defiles" it.
Defiling a mountain?
LOL. Cute.
If that cross is on private property, I guess you have to live with it, like it or not. It means something else to a vast number of people. Freedom of speech and all that jazz.
But as I said, it's been a cult of suffering and torture for a long time.
Remember, the most important moment in Christian history was the execution of Jesus. For Christians, this moment of evil and suffering visited upon an innocent one led to the triumph of good over evil. For us, it is the transcendental event in all history. God became man and suffered, so that man could become god.
Christianity teaches us to find what is good in even the bad things we experience. Good can come even when evil is visited upon us.
Suffering is a constant aspect of the human condition, it touches us all, and Christianity helps us grant it a meaning where it otherwise might have none. When we suffer we remember Christ, and unite our suffering with his. We accept that suffering exists, even if we do not fully understand why, and we try to give it a higher meaning.
I have suffered, and my Christian faith gave me great peace and strength during difficult times.
Bread doesn't evoke the same kind of emotional response as death.
The most important ritual for a Christian is to receive God through the Eucharist. For Catholics/Orthodox, that is the primary purpose of going to Mass/Divine Liturgy.
For those that argue it simply helps a Christian focus, I guess that trashes the walk by faith not sight principal.
No it does not. These are two different things you are talking about. We have faith in the unseen God, not in a physical object. Yet we are still physical creatures, and what we do with our bodies affects our souls. We use these things to focus our mind and help us remember, and they have also been used as teaching tools.
Why are these not the things symbolized?
Of course they are. The Cross is not the only Christian symbol.
The cross is death, not resurrection. But bread? The body? The body that died and was resurrected? It seems to make more sense to focus on something like this---something that can be given---something that can sustain life, rather than focus on death.
Through death new life comes. We believe it is this way. There is an ending of a thing followed by a transformation. A woman suffers and a child is born. A seed has to cease being a seed for it to grow and produce fruit. You don't agree, we understand. But that is what we believe. It is a mystical thing.
It's sanctioned idolatry.
You are free to call it whatever you like, but when we worship we do not practice idolatry.
People cry at the site of some crosses.
You open a drawer and find the picture of a loved one passed away that you haven't seen in a long time. You are overcome with emotion. Are you crying over a picture? What is the object of your emotion?
As far as JW's and the 'stake' issue---they don't actually hold that stake up as anything. It's not like a cross. It has not become some wierd symbol or idol. ....
...There is significance behind the cross. Deep significance. And to reason that it is not an idol is simply cognitive dissonance.
This sounds very much like what a JW would say. But it is true there is deep significance behind the cross.
