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News & ArtsMonday, December 21, 2009
Religion Shouldn't That Crucifix Be Baby-Sized?
Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 4:30 PM
Christian retailer Boss Creations is going to put the Christ back in Christmas by shoving a giant fucking crucifix into your Christmas tree.
Now, I'm of course not a religious man, but isn't there something really gross about that? Like bringing a tiny coffin to a baby's birth?
(Via Disinformation.)
3
That's a cross, Paul, not a crucifix.
That is the stupidist thing I've seen since I frst encountered a ceramic figurine of Santa Claus kneeling in front of a manger.
Why are religionists so superstitious?
That is the stupidist thing I've seen since I frst encountered a ceramic figurine of Santa Claus kneeling in front of a manger.
Why are religionists so superstitious?
4
@1 - He's not in his grave, he flew up to heaven and left his shroud. Hence naked Jesus was flying around the sky on easter.
@2 - Jesus only likes it when trees and crosses side hug.
@2 - Jesus only likes it when trees and crosses side hug.
6
@2: That's what it looked like to me, too. The tree is either hugging or engulfing that cross - I'd go for the latter - let wood reclaim wood and all of that.
7
Don't be too horrified by it. Anyone who would even consider having anything like this in his or her home over the holidays could not be accused of having any taste at all.
Which leads me to ask the question: What's worse - bad taste or no taste?
Which leads me to ask the question: What's worse - bad taste or no taste?
9
@7,
No taste is worse. Bad taste can sometimes become so absurd, you kind of have to admire it. No taste just sucks.
No taste is worse. Bad taste can sometimes become so absurd, you kind of have to admire it. No taste just sucks.
10
At least this is more obviously Christian than than the intact virgin Mary tree skirt from a few years back.
11
Although religious "scholars" think the "cross" used to execute criminals during Roman times was actually a stake (the death being uglier, the convict basically suffocating because the rib cage was constricted from the legs being broken and unable to hold the convict upright) I always have and always will find it the height of disgust and perversion that so called Christians use a device of torture as their talisman of faith. It would be like having a hypodermic needle full of narcotics used to kill a convict as a religious symbol. Sick really and truly sick.
12
It does seem like crosses should be relegated to Easter, er, CHRIST-er, and CHRIST-ians should stick to nativity sets with newborn baby Jesuses for CHRIST-mas...
15
having a tree in your house at christmas is as christian as celebrating the fertility goddess Eostre in the springtime.
16
It symbolized the pagan reclaiming the "not pagan," which Christianity supposedly is...not.
But it is. Pagan.
But it is. Pagan.
18
What I don't get is that practically the entire country is christian, yet they STILL feel persecuted.
Seriously... isn't it enough that christian's religious ritual is recognized by the federal fucking government and is basically the largest holiday in the country, celebrated even by people who aren't christian? That's not good enough? They have to insist that everyone recognize that their god is supposedly the reason for it all too? Sheesh.
"Christmas is a time when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ." -Bart Simpson
Seriously... isn't it enough that christian's religious ritual is recognized by the federal fucking government and is basically the largest holiday in the country, celebrated even by people who aren't christian? That's not good enough? They have to insist that everyone recognize that their god is supposedly the reason for it all too? Sheesh.
"Christmas is a time when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ." -Bart Simpson
19
@11 --- Such imagery was/is easily translated to Christ being an everyday man --- just like you and me (OK -- not really you and me, but you know what I mean). This is a major consideration for people who believe. Not so strange in that way.
The juxtaposition of a cross and a Christmas tree is just bizarre. Fundamentalists who are literalist by definition have almost no subtlety or nuance in their thinking.
Ugh -- Christmas -- Christ -- cross -- ugh.
Very caveman-esque.
The juxtaposition of a cross and a Christmas tree is just bizarre. Fundamentalists who are literalist by definition have almost no subtlety or nuance in their thinking.
Ugh -- Christmas -- Christ -- cross -- ugh.
Very caveman-esque.
21
The thing that ticks me off about this whole "keeping Christ in Christmas" thing is that the people who started it don't know what they are talking about.
It all came about because of the abbreviation Xmas. In the early Christian church, which was facing persecution, they various communities communicated largely by means of symbols. One symbol for Christ was a combination of the Greek letters chi and rho, which looked like a capital R with a slash through the right leg. Over the years, the rho disappeared, and the symbol for Christ became chi, which looks like an X.
Xmas, in fact, has Christ in it.
I wish people would just read a damn book on occassion.
It all came about because of the abbreviation Xmas. In the early Christian church, which was facing persecution, they various communities communicated largely by means of symbols. One symbol for Christ was a combination of the Greek letters chi and rho, which looked like a capital R with a slash through the right leg. Over the years, the rho disappeared, and the symbol for Christ became chi, which looks like an X.
Xmas, in fact, has Christ in it.
I wish people would just read a damn book on occassion.
23
Similarly, I went to a Christmas show at a Christian theater (loooong story, and we wound up sitting behind a Red Hat Society group wearing like 2-ft-tall Santa hats, all true) and they made a big deal out of how the nice gentle nativity scene with the happy parents and the newborn baby and the shepherds and the animals, awwwww...
wind up casting the shadow of A HUGE CROSS over the back of the stage area. Just so we can't forget about his gruesome death for one second.
Of course, all I could think of was the promo posters for Star Wars Episode I where you have little Anakin Skywalker casting the Darth Vader shadow, but if the Red Hats had their hearing aids in, they hadn't heard me snickering into my hand at any other point, so they didn't bother to turn around then, either.
wind up casting the shadow of A HUGE CROSS over the back of the stage area. Just so we can't forget about his gruesome death for one second.
Of course, all I could think of was the promo posters for Star Wars Episode I where you have little Anakin Skywalker casting the Darth Vader shadow, but if the Red Hats had their hearing aids in, they hadn't heard me snickering into my hand at any other point, so they didn't bother to turn around then, either.
24
Colbert did a wonderful bit on Treesus, offering this line to parents on Christmas morning, "Wake up kids, God is dead!"
25
@21" I wish people would just read a damn book on occassion."
Well, if they did, they'd understand Jesus was a good Jewish boy who likely practiced all the Jewish conventions and held the beliefs of a large number of the Jewish communities of his time. This included eating the foods deemed suitable for the table of a Jewish household and the males of Jewish of those households being circumcised. There is no historical evidence suggesting Jesus desired to be anything but Jewish. Almost every Christian alive has never understood
the foundation of their faith is, and always will be, rooted in Judiism. Within their soul, if not their heart, they will always be Jew first and Christian second.
Well, if they did, they'd understand Jesus was a good Jewish boy who likely practiced all the Jewish conventions and held the beliefs of a large number of the Jewish communities of his time. This included eating the foods deemed suitable for the table of a Jewish household and the males of Jewish of those households being circumcised. There is no historical evidence suggesting Jesus desired to be anything but Jewish. Almost every Christian alive has never understood
the foundation of their faith is, and always will be, rooted in Judiism. Within their soul, if not their heart, they will always be Jew first and Christian second.
26
This is part of a Bill Hicks routine- "...that's like pinning a little rifle lapel on your jacket at JFK's memorial..."
27
And you Assholes have the nerve to whine about Hate coming from the Right.
Don't like Christmas? Don't celebrate it. Don't want a cross inside your tree? Don't buy one. (It is a pretty dumb and tacky idea...)
Christians complain about persecution because it has become accepted to openly mock them. I dare you to insert Jew or Muslim into Cato's sentiment. You wouldn't have the balls!
Btw Cato, I've done extensive market reasearch. It turns out that your face is the target demographic for my boot.
If you are wondering, I AM NOT a Christian. I gave that up years ago after discovering booze, weed, and pussy...
I just like calling out fellow, ahem, "tolerant" Liberals on their blind Hatred, Ignorance, and Hypocrisy.
That is all.
Don't like Christmas? Don't celebrate it. Don't want a cross inside your tree? Don't buy one. (It is a pretty dumb and tacky idea...)
Christians complain about persecution because it has become accepted to openly mock them. I dare you to insert Jew or Muslim into Cato's sentiment. You wouldn't have the balls!
Btw Cato, I've done extensive market reasearch. It turns out that your face is the target demographic for my boot.
If you are wondering, I AM NOT a Christian. I gave that up years ago after discovering booze, weed, and pussy...
I just like calling out fellow, ahem, "tolerant" Liberals on their blind Hatred, Ignorance, and Hypocrisy.
That is all.
28
@27 -- First you need to do some research, and find a group of people who call themselves ""tolerant" Liberals".
Swing and a miss, CryBaby.
Swing and a miss, CryBaby.
29
@ 27
that's chill brah... I like calling out people on their blinding douchebaggery.
toward the the end of what you were saying I was totally convinced you were joking, but then I reread the first half.
yes, it appears you are serious.
that's chill brah... I like calling out people on their blinding douchebaggery.
toward the the end of what you were saying I was totally convinced you were joking, but then I reread the first half.
yes, it appears you are serious.
30
27/BtC: "Christians complain about persecution because it has become accepted to openly mock them. I dare you to insert Jew or Muslim into Cato's sentiment. You wouldn't have the balls!"
Christians are hardly suffering from persecution. Criticism, yes, but ANY religion should be fair game for criticism. I need to respect the rights of Christians (and Muslims, Jews, etc.) to have and express their beliefs but I do not have to respect the beliefs themselves.
Throughout U.S. history, it's Christians who have been doing the persecuting. Christians in the South cited scripture to justify slavery (although, to be fair, many fervent abolitionists were also Christian); many Christians cited scripture to oppose interracial marriage (although, again, to be fair, there were Catholic priests in the forefront of the Civil Rights movement) and many (likely most) Christians cite scripture today to oppose same-sex marriage. Mormons didn't force Christians to become polygamous. Christians forced Mormons to become monagamous.
Now, that being said, you have a point in your above comments. Christians don't like having their religion and holy book and holy dude criticized but they don't go bat-shit crazy like Muslims do. Walk into a church in the Bible Belt and yell "Jesus sucks donkey dicks" and you'll be thrown out. Perhaps even beaten up. But walk into a mosque in Egypt or Saudi Arabia and yell that about Muhammed and you'd be lucky to leave alive. Numerous papers in the U.S. and elsewhere refused to publish any of the Danish Muhammed cartoons (the Stranger, to its credit, was an exception) because, they claimed, out of "respect for Islam." That was a crock. They were afraid of violence from Muslims.
Christians are hardly suffering from persecution. Criticism, yes, but ANY religion should be fair game for criticism. I need to respect the rights of Christians (and Muslims, Jews, etc.) to have and express their beliefs but I do not have to respect the beliefs themselves.
Throughout U.S. history, it's Christians who have been doing the persecuting. Christians in the South cited scripture to justify slavery (although, to be fair, many fervent abolitionists were also Christian); many Christians cited scripture to oppose interracial marriage (although, again, to be fair, there were Catholic priests in the forefront of the Civil Rights movement) and many (likely most) Christians cite scripture today to oppose same-sex marriage. Mormons didn't force Christians to become polygamous. Christians forced Mormons to become monagamous.
Now, that being said, you have a point in your above comments. Christians don't like having their religion and holy book and holy dude criticized but they don't go bat-shit crazy like Muslims do. Walk into a church in the Bible Belt and yell "Jesus sucks donkey dicks" and you'll be thrown out. Perhaps even beaten up. But walk into a mosque in Egypt or Saudi Arabia and yell that about Muhammed and you'd be lucky to leave alive. Numerous papers in the U.S. and elsewhere refused to publish any of the Danish Muhammed cartoons (the Stranger, to its credit, was an exception) because, they claimed, out of "respect for Islam." That was a crock. They were afraid of violence from Muslims.
32
@27,
Hell with that... Jews are the whiniest bunch of "we are so victimized" people ever in existence. Even though in reality they're the richest and most privileged religion on the planet, they'll NEVER give up the cross of victimhood (pun intended). They're also phobic of any non-jews to the point of insanity.
Muslims are fucking terrorists. Their whole religion is devoted to destroying everyone who doesn't agree with them.
Stereotypes don't come out of nowhere.
That said, there are good and bad people present in every religion and non-religion/non-theist. There are normal christians, jews, muslims, and atheists, and there are batshit crazy fucked up christians, jews, muslims, and atheists. However, this country is almost totally christian, so they're gonna get the full firing squad more often than the others will because they're the majority.
Or think of it this way: All fast food places are shit holes, but McDonalds is the king, so it's gonna absorb the brunt of the insults against them all.
Hell with that... Jews are the whiniest bunch of "we are so victimized" people ever in existence. Even though in reality they're the richest and most privileged religion on the planet, they'll NEVER give up the cross of victimhood (pun intended). They're also phobic of any non-jews to the point of insanity.
Muslims are fucking terrorists. Their whole religion is devoted to destroying everyone who doesn't agree with them.
Stereotypes don't come out of nowhere.
That said, there are good and bad people present in every religion and non-religion/non-theist. There are normal christians, jews, muslims, and atheists, and there are batshit crazy fucked up christians, jews, muslims, and atheists. However, this country is almost totally christian, so they're gonna get the full firing squad more often than the others will because they're the majority.
Or think of it this way: All fast food places are shit holes, but McDonalds is the king, so it's gonna absorb the brunt of the insults against them all.
34
Like if it were a cyber christmas tree and a cyber cross you would like praise it for being a 'mashup' or one of your super cool terms that only cool people can use...yeah...
Like if it were a cyber christmas tree and a cyber cross you would like praise it for being a 'mashup' or one of your super cool terms that only cool people can use...yeah...
36
@ 27: that ridiculous fucking cross-in-a-tree was designed by and for american protestant evangelical types. these are people who, as a group, doggedly lobby our government to forbid my gay friends from ever marrying, outlaw my access to abortion, hinder medical science from doing promising research, and force me to teach their ideology in my biology classes. just a couple of things off the top of my head that affect my life in a meaningful way.
i would have been happy to tolerate them if they hadn't used the legislature to try to worm their way into my personal and professional life. as it stands, however, fuck them. i hope the religious movement that that stupid tree symbolizes is mocked and belittled out of any position of political power
/insomnia rant
i would have been happy to tolerate them if they hadn't used the legislature to try to worm their way into my personal and professional life. as it stands, however, fuck them. i hope the religious movement that that stupid tree symbolizes is mocked and belittled out of any position of political power
/insomnia rant
38
We did the ultimate xmas tree one year and hung crosses, cat o nine tails, tiny shrouds, rolls with a bite taken out of them, and small thorn crowns on it. and the biggest, cheapest tackiest crucifix ever as a topper. Funny peeps, my family of friends.
39
Jeremiah 10
God and Idols
1 Hear what the LORD says to you, O house of Israel. 2 This is what the LORD says:
"Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the sky,
though the nations are terrified by them.
3 For the customs of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
4 They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so it will not totter.
God and Idols
1 Hear what the LORD says to you, O house of Israel. 2 This is what the LORD says:
"Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the sky,
though the nations are terrified by them.
3 For the customs of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
4 They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so it will not totter.
41
If they want to go that route, they should ditch the tree and stockings, those are pagan accretions to Christianity. Just put up the cross and hang little Jesus lights all over it.
42
Does anyone know what that British dark comedy show was called. It featured a 'baby coffin' joke, sending a mentally handicapped woman to the DMV (or GB's equivalent) to pick up a towed car and so on and so forth.
C'mon Seattle.
C'mon Seattle.
44
@40 that reminds me; I think the Ku Klux Klan should use these to protest malls that hire black Santas.
46
43, It's hilarious that Loveschild doesn't recognize (again showing her lack of education) that a Christmas tree is an idol from pagan traditions. Putting Christ in the name is just a way of trying to disguise what it really is, and by having a decorated tree in her house, she is doing exactly what that verse warns against.
It's okay when she doesn't follow the Bible. Only the gays have to adhere to it.
It's okay when she doesn't follow the Bible. Only the gays have to adhere to it.
47
Dear Allah,
Would it be okay if I built a restaurant shaped like the Kaaba and served pork kababs and bear? I'm thinking about giving out wind up Mohammed dolls that do rap songs. Wouldn't that be so totally cool?
Would it be okay if I built a restaurant shaped like the Kaaba and served pork kababs and bear? I'm thinking about giving out wind up Mohammed dolls that do rap songs. Wouldn't that be so totally cool?
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