VITTORIA!! VITTORIA!!

[fpb]

One day after the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the free and united nation of Italy, the European Court of Human Rights voted by fifteen against two that the display of the Crucifix in school rooms does not violate any human right.

I was wrong in fearing that the Court might judge wrong, and equally wrong in doubting the Government's will to go on with this. IN spite of all his other enormous faults and flaws, Berlusconi has, at least once, acted honourably. Let us record this wonder (we are not apt to witness it again soon) and give thanks to God.

Comments

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The emphasis on the crucifix is Catholic, and most Protestants avoid it as a "graven image". But Christianity does not stop at Catholic and Protestant. The Orthodox and Eastern churches also use it. And in Italian culture especially, it has very little to do - unlike especially the Virgin and the saints - with specific church identity: it is perceived as simply a statement of the Gospel story in three dimensions.

[fellmama.livejournal.com]

In the case of Episcopalianism, it's not actually a graven image concern. (Many Episcopal churches actually have small crucifixes scattered here and there about the church and altar; it's just never the preeminent altar cross.) Since our Eucharist is not performed in propitiation, but as a memorial, it's considered more appropriate to focus on the promise of the empty cross rather than the suffering that preceded it. YMMV as to your Protestant denomination, of course.

I didn't know that about Italian culture--thanks for enlightening me!

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I don't really count the Anglican confession as Protestant... but then, these days, TEC is barely Anglican either. And I have a suspicion the Lutherans, or at least some of them, may use crucifixes, although I don't know much about their practices. But it definitely would be an issue in the post-Calvinist and Evangelical/Baptist areas.

[fellmama.livejournal.com]

I've never seen a Lutheran church with an altar crucifix, but I think I've only ever been to ELCA churches--I'll have to ask my Missouri synod friends what they do. As for the Baptists, they seldom even have crosses anymore. My grandmother's church had a stained glass faux-window with some innocuous flowers on it, back lit with a fluorescent bulb.