| | | That WAYCIST Cross
January 26, 2022
Once upon a time Christians (or at least American Protestants) used to sing this hymn:
Stand up! Stand up for Jesus!
Ye soldiers of the cross;
Lift high His royal banner,
It must not suffer loss…
It’s still in the Episcopal hymnal, but you don’t hear it that much anymore. These days it seems that too many Christians are ready to relinquish the cross and other Christian symbols as soon as someone from a designated protected minority — which, in aggregate, means a majority of the population — is offended by it. For example, the College of William and Mary removed the cross from the Wren Chapel because one person complained about it.
Something similar is going on in a cemetery in the Swiss city of Basel. Interestingly enough, not all Christians in the city are ready to roll over and surrender to the culture-enrichers.
Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from the Swiss weekly Weltwoche:
In Basel they bicker over Christian symbols
Crosses should disappear from the largest Swiss cemetery
by René Hildbrand
It’s been a cross around the cross for years. Again and again the symbol causes controversy, although Christians see it as a sign of reconciliation, tolerance and charity. There is currently trouble in this regard in Riehen, the second-largest city in northern Switzerland with a proportion of foreigners of around 28 percent. The largest cemetery in Switzerland is on the Hörnli in Riehen. According to the management of the Central Cemetery, more and more non-believers feel disturbed by crosses, Christian murals and even the names of chapels during funeral services and ceremonies. The Catholic Church in Basel-Stadt is now yielding. The spokesman for the church council told the Basler Zeitung: “If there are people who find Christian symbols disturbing, it should be possible to cover them up or carry them out.”
The Evangelical Reformed people of Basel see things differently. Their church gets by without religious symbols. Nevertheless, the President finds: “Those for whom these symbols are important should also be able to experience and see them.”
There is strong resistance to the suppression of Christian symbols. The SVP Riehen fights for the preservation of the cemetery culture. In a petition, she calls on parliament and the government council to stop such projects.
The tolerant representatives of the Basel Catholics still add: “If the basic equipment of a funeral chapel should be without Christian symbols, this is a worrying trend.”
In 2018, the newly elected Minister-President of Bavaria, Markus Söder, had a cross hung up in his Munich State Chancellery in one of his first public acts. Ten years earlier, when he was CSU general secretary, Söder got himself into trouble with a single sentence: “Crucifixes and no headscarves belong in the classroom.”
Afterword from the translator:
I’m pretty sure that the “other believers” can only mean Muslims, the only believers who are known to get upset about the symbols of other religions. Correct me if I’m wrong. |
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