Shunning the Cross?

This is one of two new statues that find a home at Temple Square in Salt Lake.

What's startling to me about this one is the clear display of the cross -- something that's typically been anathema in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Some in the church get sniffy and say they worship the living Christ, not the Christ on the cross. But I kinda feel like we've got to take the full package and ought to acknowledge more in the church that we do outwardly recognize the sacrifice the cross represents.

I'm not going to get tangled in culture -- because culture is about all it is, frankly. When I see someone wearing a cross, or see cross-centric statuary, I'm not bothered by it. The cross is an important, powerful symbol to most Christians.

The lack of crosses -- whether by culture or doctrine, and I'm not sure which holds more sway -- is part of the package of anti- or skeptical-Mormon thought out there. Our outward symbols are odd: the angel Moroni atop the temple, statues of Joseph Smith all over the place. Not that they're wrong; they're doctrinally and culturally significant to us. But I don't think it will hurt our chances if we allow a cross or two to slip into the culture.

I served a mission for the church in France. I loved visiting the churches, from the little parish churches to the grand cathedrals. The history, the architecture, and the deep symbolic meaning in the many depictions of Jesus Christ with and on and without the cross brought significant meaning as I strove to understand the culture and beliefs of the people I served. I won't say I understood everything, and might at times have mocked things. But I was a callow youth who should have been a better ambassador of Christ than I was.

On the Subject of . . . Wossname.

What we ought to do is this:

Remain horrified that it was done by an "other" that we knew already was *bad* and remain smug that it was not one of *us* and point fingers of blame everywhere but the root causes we *could* be doing something about.

That attitude has served us well since the last time something like this happened.

And the time before.

And the time before that.

And the time before that . . .

Pew Pew Pew

It’s interesting to see how the results of a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey on general knowledge of world religions is being spun in the media and by those now swamping the Pew Foundation’s websites trying to take the poll.

I’m one of them. I tried several times today to take the poll, only to encounter multiple “Server is Busy” errors. I’ve seen some of the questions – what figure is most connected with the exodus of Hebrews from Egypt, what religion was Mother Teresa, what is Ramadan, when does the Jewish holy day begin – and they seem pretty basic. I got a 15 out of 15 on the quiz, though I admit I guessed on a few.

But I’m a Mormon – a member of one of the groups (including Jews, atheists and agnostics) who performed the best on the poll, per Pew.

More importantly, I also have a lot of education – and the level of education, Pew says, is the best indicator of success in answering their questions right. This should even be less surprising than the basic nature of the poll’s questions. (They do say, however, that even adjusting for levels of education, Jews and Mormons still performed better on the poll than did members of other faiths.)

Other interesting findings:

• Mormons performed the best out of any group in answering questions about Christianity. Interesting considering many mainline Christians don’t consider Mormons to be Christian at all.
• Jews, agnostics and atheists performed the best in answering questions about other religions.

The spin is interesting. Most new outlets are crowing that agnostics and atheists performed the best on the test, getting 20.9 of 32 answers correct. That’s statistically insignificant when you consider that Jews got 20.5 answers right and Mormons 20.3 answers right, but it’s more fun to say, hey, those guys who don’t believe anything at all ore aren’t sure what they believe know more about this stuff than anyone else.

Only the Huffington Post is reporting precise numbers, of the sites I’ve read. CNN performs the most poorly, burying Mormon and Jewish performance in their story while highlighting the stellar performance of agnostics and atheists and the poor performance of mainstream US religions. The favored headlines go along the lines of “US Flunks Religious Test.” That may be true for some, but not for all. Of course, given tight space for headlines, it’s a given that something basic like this is going to be written. Oddly, though, all of this I’ve seen is on the web, where space isn’t as constrained. Still, journalism goes for the short ‘n’ snappy, if not completely accurate, headline.

Religion in the Public Sphere

Heard part of this talk again on the way home from work tonight. This really struck me:

In choosing my subject I have relied on an old military maxim that when there is a battle underway, persons who desire to join the fray should “march to the sound of the guns.”[i] So it is that I invite you to march with me as I speak about religious freedom under the United States Constitution. There is a battle over the meaning of that freedom. The contest is of eternal importance, and it is your generation that must understand the issues and make the efforts to prevail.

The full text of his speech is here.

We can read about atheism and the pressure it puts on believers in the Book of Mormon. We can read about societies that valued so little the presence of religion that they caused those who believed, even women and children, to be burned merely because of their belief.

We can also counter the arguments of those who say that religion is evil. For every person killed in the name of religion -- by men whose lips are close to God but whose hearts are far from him -- a thousand have been killed by non-believers. Hitler, Stalin, Pot Pot, and others -- the gratest mass murderers of the 20th century -- all wished to supplant religious belief with secularism and, in the case of Nazi Germany, paganism.

We can also cringe at those who kill abortion doctors in the name of religion or God today. Once again, they have abandoned the faith they claim to cling to. There is no room for the Orwellian "Thou Shalt Not Kill Without Cause" in religion; the commandment is "Thou Shalt Not Kill."

I'm also reminded of a few quotations from Mohandas Gandhi:

A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.

All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take.