like, setting aside the whole No Idols thing that has me, being Jewish, bewildered at a lot of Christian religious artifacts, this is a whole other world
like, I'd think collecting that many holy symbols, presented as a personal collection, especially with so much kitsch and clashing styles, would be disrespectful
And tbh, Christianity doesn't really put much weight in the whole "no idols" thing, unless it's something that's not Christian. If it's Christian, you can have as many idols as you want. The more the better. The non-obnoxious people are just more reasonable about it and will have like. A couple little angel statues, or a precious moments figurine, or a
I get the (nutso) logic of "whoever has the most and biggest crosses must love Jesus the most and therefore is the best Christian and person in general" but this seems almost like American flag underwear
Hell, even when it comes to non-Christian things, as long as it's not a religious item from something non-Christian, you can have as many things as you want.
In some cases, it's almost more disrespectful to them to not have crosses everywhere. Or to have something non-Christian. These are the types of people who will scream about this being a Christian Nation when they see an Asian restaurant with a Buddha outside of it, or deface a "windy man" sculpture put on an overpass by the
...I suspect it's less "disrespectful" and more that people who refuse to acknowledge that the religiosity contest means anything threaten the self-image based on their Performative Faith
Ugh, oh God, the bible quotes on everything, that's another one. Just. Everywhere. Some quippy little lyrical quote that has huge "Live, Laugh, Love" vibes, and you take a closer look like "wtf is this?" and underneath it, you'll see in smaller but-still-conspicuous print something like "John 35:928"
Oh yeah, it's all extremely performative. If you're not proving how much holier than thou you are to everyone around you, you're not doing it right with these people.
Like. Just to give you an idea of the kind of bullshit these people pull, where I grew up, just before we moved to Austin in 2009, there was a span of time where it was getting bonkers. They shut down a fine arts gallery showing because some of the paintings had women's breasts exposed, like every other painting in classical art, they defaced the
previously-mentioned overpass decor, they became the literal only place where Chippendales dancers were arrested before they'd gotten any farther into their routine than unbuttoning their shirts, and they had an undercover sex-toy sting at a lingerie shop that sold vibrators that were kept in a locked, opaque case where you couldn't just see them out in
They were also dry counties, and you couldn't have strip clubs, oh no! Bu you go 5 minutes outside the city limits, and there were blocks of liquor stores for Grandma to get her hooch, and there were women strip clubs along the same geographical setup. Everyone still wanted these things, they just didn't want to be seen having these things, so they
Literally, the chippendales dancing one was just mind-blowing. They actually had the cops come to the show to make sure they didn't do anything illegal, they got the proper permits and made sure they were doing things right, but the second things got even the tiniest bit non-clothed, WHOOP WHOOP, ARRESTS HAPPENING! Probably cause Officer Jim Bob didn't
like how them pretty, muscled men were makin' him feel, dancin' up there with his shirt open, or because they didn't like that the lady-folk and the gays were gettin' to see them menfolk dancin' for them to oggle. They need to know their place.
Well you see crosses are like security cameras for God, so as long as you do all your sinning someplace other than where you keep the highest concentration of crosses, God can't get you.
I mean, it's degrees of devotion. Some Evangelicals do it because they just like collecting interesting crosses and/or Mary Lou in their study group has a tasteful wall and they like the aesthetic & conversation piece aspect of it- like if it weren't crosses, it would be pineapples or dachshunds etc
ɴᴇᴡ ᴘᴏʟʟᴜᴛɪᴏɴ
: Oh yeah, to be fair, there are plenty of them who like collecting these things just because it makes them happy, so it's not all a bunch of whacko hypocrites. lol You'll just see more people who are into these kinds of collections in locations where that hyper-conspicuous religiousness is the norm.
Exacerangutan
: Well, it's also a lot of "See, I'm not being a sinning alcoholic. I can quit anytime I want. I just like a drink from time to time. It's all those other people in the liquor store who are alcoholics who need to put down the bottles!"
Yeah, you tend to have people on a gradient; the people who just have the pretty cross wall, the people who go to Church on Sunday and tell their coworker-best-friend's daughter about how great the Left Behind series is and she should totally read it, and the ones who are like the Karens of the PTO, only with Church.
Yeah, my mom is the same way. I've learned as I get older and she gets more evangelical that if I'm having trouble figuring out what to get her, an interesting bible or cross will do wonders.
Right??? I was totally drinking the kool-aid as a kid, so I just sat and listened to her recommendations like "Ooooh, yes, that sounds lovely! :U" and then I got to be older and I was like
I knew they got to be pretty awful by the end of it, but I don't know that any of the reviews I watched went that far into the series. They just got a few books in and talked about how really judgy it was, when you really looked at what was happening.
Also been out to the Cross Garden in Prattville, where a retired gentleman put up almost 100 crosses on his property, complete with a chapel he would minister in while he made crosses. see here
which I know also gets used that way even though every sane person and the Flag Code knows it's disrespectful as hell