Religion, SF, and Other Speculative Fictions.


Mind on Fire random header image
← →

Public Displays

Posted by xJane on January 21st, 2008 at 1:03 pm · 5 Comments

I have a new co-worker, who’s a very large blonde man. He has a surprisingly high-pitched voice for his size, and he wears a giant cross. All the time. He has quite a number of them, too, so just when it’s faded into the background of how-he-looks, a new one appears, this one made of steel, with giant screws holding it together, that one made of cut crystal (glass?), and all of them shiny. Each one is at least three inches by four.

He’s very nice, and I cannot stress that enough, because I expect him to be more…Christian?…when I talk to him, but instead he’s very…christian! He’s charitable, conscientious, and kind. But every time I see him from the front, I start. The cross really freaks me out. It’s so…big. It makes me want to wear a giant pentagram or Darwin-fish. Or my Old Time Religion T-shirt.

A few years ago, France was in the media because they started banning public displays (like cross necklaces and hijab) from schools. I was on the fence about it, since I know how fast it can go from wearing a cross to beating someone (metaphorically) with it; and I would guess it’s similar with head coverings of various flavors.

But now that I have to confront what, to me, is a very oppressive symbol on a daily basis by virtue of working with this man, I’m kinda getting it. Certainly not to the point where I would ask that my employer ban them, but to the point where I get to meditate on oppressive symbols. Giant swastika tattoos on customers weird me out but don’t really bother me (my last name notwithstanding), but there was a time, after watching Fahrenheit 9/11 that seeing an American flag made me start crying. And certainly my reaction of wanting to wear something just as big and potentially annoying is not the correct one. I just wish he was slightly less…ostentatious.

Tags: Atheism · Belief · Christianity · Church and State · Getting over Religion

5 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Rich // Jan 21, 2008 at 2:21 pm

    Every time I see a US flag pinned to some guy’s lapel, I find myself cringing inside. And lately there’s a fad (here in Utah) of putting up big, ostentatious US flags; the taller the flagpole and bigger the flag the better, as if to say, “see, I’m a TRUE patriot, dammit, more true than you, and my business is truer than yours!”. Worst part is, they’ve also taken to putting bright spotlights on them, going all night long. Really pisses off the astronomer in me (that laments the loss of dark sky)…

    Your post also reminds me of the guy I met on the street years ago in Germany who furtively pulled a (small) star of David out of his shirt to show me his true colors, and how he feared for his life and/or well-being even in our current, “more enlightened” age. And the ruins of a burned-out synagogue in Hanau — decades after WW2 — were another reminder that some symbols are still very much loathed in some parts of the world.

    Perhaps over time you can become friends enough with this guy to share you feelings, and even make a present to him of a small crucifix? I don’t know, sometimes a friendly chat is all it takes for some people.

  • 2 Elaine // Jan 21, 2008 at 3:37 pm

    Crosses don’t bother me that much, to be honest, although it seems to me like it would be kind of bothersome to have that thing hanging around my neck like an albatross all the time. It just makes me think that the person wearing it takes their religion way too seriously in many of the wrong ways. What would Jesus do? He wouldn’t be so freaking ostentatious.

    But, to be perfectly honest, I’d probably be tempted to wear something like a shirt with a Darwin fish on it or something in response. Just a little passive-aggressiveness left over from my time as a Mormon, I suppose.

    Swastikas bother me much more, and in fact I just sort of shut down toward anyone who has one of those where I can see it. Confederate flags do that, as well.

    Speaking of flags…the US flag thing really bothers me, too.

    There are still a few people around my area who think that you measure one’s patriotism by the number and size of the flags flying from one’s car…or truck. I’ve seen one or two around recently who are still flying full-sized flags from a pole in the bed of their pick-ups.

    You know, with the pole right in the middle flush up against the back of the cab. I always wonder how much all that wind resistance is cutting down further on the probably already horrible gas mileage they get.

  • 3 cbiden // Jan 22, 2008 at 11:40 am

    But your flag decal won’t get you
    Into Heaven any more.
    They’re already overcrowded
    From your dirty little war.
    Now Jesus don’t like killin’
    No matter what the reason’s for,
    And your flag decal won’t get you
    Into Heaven any more.

    –John Prine

  • 4 Brian // Jan 22, 2008 at 10:51 pm

    I’m generally supportive of most such displays of dedication, even if they’re gaudy, but I don’t like ones that get confrontational. I frankly don’t care what side of an issue your shirt/bumpersticker/whatever comes down on…if it’s meanspirited, rude, pushy, or disrespectful, I’m…not going to say anything. :D Because I try not to be those things myself, even if I disagree with them. I guess it’s mainly because for me, religious expression is primarily a private thing. “Go into your inner room” and that kind of stuff.

  • 5 Uncomfortable | Mind on Fire // Apr 10, 2008 at 7:11 am

    [...] that an invitation to a church would be rebuffed by such a response. Just as my other co-worker, he of the giant crosses (which he has stopped wearing, thankfully) wears his beliefs on his…well, technically on his [...]

Leave a Comment