Looking for the cross in all the wrong places
One of my “pet peeves” as a Christian who tries hard to know his Bible and Theology is what I like to call “Magical Christianity”. What I mean by that term is an extension of what has been termed “magical thinking” into the areas of Theology and Christian worldview.
Magical thinking as defined by wikipedia isn’t 100% on target for what I’m referring to, but it’s decently close. One aspect of Magical Christianity is the tendency to see crosses in non-religious settings and somehow infer that God is at work in that symbolism. It’s kind of the protestant version of a Catholic who sees an image of Mary in a concrete water stain.
A good example is the World Trade Center Cross. A cross shaped section of beam wreckage was found among the World Trade Center wreckage. Some (apparently) see this as some kind of sign from God. Exactly what kind of sign? That is apparently very fungible. It seems that God’s sign can mean almost anything the viewer wants it to mean.
The problem with finding crosses in structures like this is that a cross is a very normal geometric shape when it comes to girders. In this case, a cross is just two pieces of girder at a 90 degree angle from one another. What are the odds of finding girder pieces at 90 degree angles in the wreckage of a fallen building? Actually, pretty good. And all you need after that to have the classic “cross shape” is to have the proportions of the four “arms” of the cross shape correct. With as much metal as came down between the two towers of the World Trade Center, I’d be amazed if someone didn’t find a cross somewhere. In fact, there are pictures that show lots of crosses in the wreckage if you’re the type to look for them.
There’s a real problem in cases like the World Trade Center. There’s a temptation to mix “God-stuff” in with “pro-America stuff” in Western Christianity. So people that already believe that God likes Americans more than other people on this planet will jump at any Christian symbology that they see.
A similar sentiment is sent around in a chain-email about the “cross in the flag”. Doesn’t that picture show that God does indeed love America more than other countries because He caused the cross to be seen through the flag?
Not really. Light behind a fabric will of necessity tend to follow seams as it leaks through. You can see that the horizontal “cross bar” of the image is right in line with one of the stripes on the flag. Also, had this shot been taken at a different time of day when the sun was lower in the sky the cross would have looked upside down in the blue star field. Oh no! God must hate America because He put an upside down cross on our flag! No, American evangelicals who see this kind of symbology would probably argue that the cross was upside down because of God’s outrage that we were attacked.
Another variety of this tendency is the laminin images all over Christian blogs and sent around in chain-emails. The argument goes that God created us in such a way that this binding protein molecule that is all throughout our bodies is actually a small cross. Louie Giglio has a video that many Christians pass around that is actually very good until it goes off the rails on this point.
Louie says that we can believe in and trust God to “hold us together” because He put His “signature” on us in our very makeup. See! God even MADE US OUT OF CROSSES! He treats this as the big finish of his talk on how great God is.
My immediate thought was “what if God had made things in such a way that laminin wasn’t cross shaped?” Could we still trust Him? How about inferring that Islam is the one, true religion because God put the sign of the crescent right in our fingernails? This argument about laminin really falls apart if you apply it to other things.
The point I’m trying to make is that NONE of this stuff actually has anything to do with what we as Christians should be getting excited about: the gospel. We shouldn’t need anything extravagant or “miraculous” to make our jaws drop and cause us to say “How great is our God!” And when we run to this not-so-amazing stuff as “proof” that Christianity is valid, it really only ends up making us look foolish.
No, we need to stop running to cross imagery (hey, I think I see a cross in the burn marks on my toast!) and start understanding what the cross of the Bible is actually about. God reached down into history to save a rebellious, sinful people. We can have peace with God because of what Christ achieved on the actual cross in Jerusalem!
That’s worth getting excited about!
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Good point(s). Thanks!
I had a similar conversation with a man that I respect a lot. He said that it is amazing enough that God chose us when he laid this earth’s foundations.
My $.02 is that the cross is not a symbol chosen by the Christ any more than men with long hair and beards are more Christ-like than men without.
Humans paint the picture of Christ like that, just as we choose to remember the cross. It is the fact that his grave was empty due to his being risen again on the 3rd day.
Reading this article I can understand what you mean by your point of view. We are human and capable of becoming upset and frustrated with sensitive material like this. However I do believe in the fact the their are ‘no coincidences’. Reading this a verse I came across today came to mind when Jesus said “And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of having Me (matt.10:38), after reading your article. The things you were pointing out- the cross seen in the american flag, the laminin images, the cross made metal from the rubble of 9/11- These are of NO COINCIDENCE. Salvation is for EVERYONE, however God’s people (believer’s) ARE “choosen” by God. (Eph. 1:3-4) And are favored by Him. (the old testament illustrates God’s favor upon Isreal) -And not that ‘God likes America’ He knows that after the reformation of the Church the new world (the America’s) were heavily influenced by biblical scripture. Unfortunately people dilute the fact that this country became what it is because God’s hand had blessed our country. I see the ‘signs’ and respect them. Its comforting and a reminder of His omnipresence. How come we never hear of things shape-shifting into the star of David, the a half moon of Islam, etc? Our own physical bodies are in the shape of a cross. Just reach out to hug someone.
~We are all just a cross. An ‘intelligently designed’ cross. Imagine stick figures arms and legs stretched out looks like an X shape, arms stretched out towards the sky could be in the shape of a Y, however the cross shape is the only human stick figure shape that actually includes our heads: t.
Notice the parallels of the way human beings are shaped and the cross: Our bodies from our head to our feet are vertical. Our minds and soul being the highest point of our bodies is the highest point to the sky. When we stretch out our arms, side by side it is horizontal symbolizing the relationship between human beings. Again NO COINCIDENCES on these phenomenons.
You call yourself a Christian in your article but you are disrespecting the cross. I think you should reevaluate your mindset. It just so happens that during all the heart ache during 911 god provided some light and inspiration on the situation. I imagine if you saw the cross that my Jesus died on you would discredit it as well because it would be stained and dirty from mine and your sins laying on it. Before you ever publicly profess to a Christian do not doubt my God.
Wow, a couple of comments on my blog… Unusual.
Nat: Of course, God is sovereign and there aren’t really coincidences in the sense that God allows everything that comes to pass. However, there are things that God intends to be meaningful spiritually and things that really aren’t. I see right angles in the window panes on my house, all of which could be considered crosses. That doesn’t mean that they are sacred.
And about the cross being shaped like us… of course it is. The Romans put wood together to make a cross to crucify human forms, not dogs or cats. The cross shape is due to the shape of the human body.
Jesus: Wow. Obviously you and I see the world and potentially the English language differently. How you can come to the conclusion that I am “disrespecting the cross” (I assume you mean the cross of Christ) by what I’ve written here is beyond me. (Also, I’m not sure what “disrespecting the cross” would mean).
I’ve not claimed that God didn’t work through the events of 9/11/2001 – of course He did. This article wasn’t primarily about 9/11 but about our predilection to see significance in cross shapes, then assume that those shapes are spiritually meaningful. That somehow God is communicating to us in every cross-shaped thing we come across. All this kind of stuff is NOT nearly as spiritually meaningful as the clear gospel of God given to us in the Bible. When we are finding more hope in God because we saw a cross shaped thingy beside the road than we are when reading the Bible or hearing the preached word, I worry that we are putting our hope in the wrong things.