All in all, if you wear the cross, people will make assumptions. However, it should not be offensive because its not like the cross symbol is trademark to "all christians everywhere! TM!"

When I was a small child...the first necklace/pendant I was ever given was an Ankh. It's stuck with me through the years...eternal life...who wouldn't want to celebrate that?

When a person wears a cross, it doesn't mean they are pure Christian. It can represent the death of a family member OR be a symbol of Faith (In Anything). It's very unfair to say it only represents one thing: Christianity.

A friend of mine and I discussed this earlier today, she wears a crystal and silver cross. She wears hers as a reminder that while she is here on earth she is to strive, struggle, work hard and succeed. The cross, to her, represents her death/rebirth (to learn more lessons; reincarnation).

I have never heard of these interpretations of the cross. It kind of seems like you could wear one and just make up whatever it means to you, but the thing is nobody else will know that and will just think you're a christian.

Funny you should say that. I attended a function a few weeks back and was in the middle of some nastiness between two people I know.

My friend Julie is Jewish. My friend Carol is Scottish. Carol was wearing a Star of David necklace. I even asked her about it and she just said she liked it. Then it started.

Julie to Carol, " I didn't know you were Jewish?"

Carol replies, " I'm not."

"So why are you wearing the Star of David?"

" I like it."

Julie then rips into Carol about how disrespectful that is to the Jewish culture etc,..and then Carol fires one back.

"If it's so disrespectful for me to wear a Jewish symbol because I like it, why are you wearing a crucifix?"

I almost fell over. Sure enough Julie was wearing, not a cross, but a freakin' crucifix.

Her reply. " I like wearing it. It's not like it means anything. It's an accessory. Everybody wears one."

Well that was the beginning of the end. I exited to the bar.

Yeah, if you can get close enough to start a conversation with cloves of smelly ass garlic hanging round your neck. :p

I sometimes wear a Star of David pendant - my close family friend (so close we call him Uncle) and former pastor gave it to me. It means more to me now that his mind has gone to Alzheimers. He valued his family heritage and spoke of it often. For me to wear it is more in honor of a loved one and with thoughts of those who have lost lives because of it. If I wear jewelry for fashion I don't wear a symbol other than a heart or something more benign. Some symbols carry too much meaning to be simplified into a fashion accessory.

seIt all comes down to semantics, symbols are an aspect of the communication of values, we attribute different values and meanings to different kinds of symbols - the problem is that not everybody attributes the same values to the same symbols. If you are wearing a cross it does not mean that you are a christian but if you are aware of the symbolic significance that wearing it has to other people then I think you should be repectful about it. I'm not a nazi but if I chose to wear a swastika for it's aesthetic qualities I'd upset a lot of people, but because I understand the values that are attributed to it I wouldn't dream of doing that. If you are aware of what you are wearing signifies with respect to it's context then be mindful of that.

No way would I have left that situation. I would have ordered a couple more drinks and dug in for the duration.

The cross represents christian faith, not faith in general. And the association of crosses and death are entirely within a christian context. If you want to show that you have lost someone close, why not wear a black ribbon? It's a classic. Death and the transitory nature of life in general, why not a skull? It works in most cultures.
To use a very christian symbol as a representation of reincarnation is just weird. Use a wheel or something instead!

If it is a personal memento I can understand if you wear a symbol of a faith that isn't your own, but as a fashion statement or a symbol of something else entirely? Prepare to be mocked.

I'm a Catholic, and although I don't really inquire when I see yet another person wearing a religious symbol while going about my daily routines, it wouldn't offend me if a non-Christian wore a cross. The cross that I wear is, to me, more sentimentally tied to a specific event in my spiritual development than to the principles of Christianity as a whole.

One thing that -will- irk us Catholics, though, is when people wear rosaries as jewelry. They're shaped so that it's possible to wear them as a necklace or bangle (and I can even imagine that someone with absolutely no familiarity with them might think they actually were necklaces), but that isn't what they're intended for. They're devotionals meant to be used for a very specific purpose. So if you've seen Christians get irrationaly angry at people wearing what looks like a crucifix, it might have actually been a rosary.

Isn't there a thing in Christianity that is against being obsessed with worldly things such as wearing crosses etc..?

You quoted my post - which was mainly about how a friend of mine displayed the cross she wears and what it means to her. I was merely stating that not everyone considers it a symbol of a religion, namely Christianity.

Pip, you seem aggressive in your post. I suggest you take a deep breath and re-read my post. If people feel that they are above others enough to mock them, then they need a serious reality check and take some serious time to GROW UP.

I wear a pentacle. Funny thing is, maybe I'm alone in this, but I don't view my pentacle as a statement of my religion, I see it as my symbol of protection. I don't feel complete without it around my neck.

I was raised Christian, but I was blessed at birth as Wiccan. I once wore a cross. At that time, it didn't represent what religion I followed but my relationship with Jesus.

Seems to me it would be like wearing a Bush for President button because you liked the colors. Even thought you may not be a Bush supporter that is what people will think about you. It wouldn't make me mad, but could certainly cause confusion.

Yes, I would. Or a Katana, does that mean I'm disrespectful to someone who follows bushido?

Jewelry in it's most basic form is nothing more than adornment worn because you either like how it looks, or like how it makes you look. For some people certain symbols have special meaning, ok, good for them. Just because this symbols means X to you dosen't mean that it will mean the same thing for another person, to someone else it may mean Y. Example: go out and find 20 Christians, same or different denomination, and ask them "What does the cross mean to you?", I can garantee that you're going to get at least 10 different answers. Heck, you may get 20 different answers. To another person it may mean nothing and only be an expression of what they find attractive.

For a person to assume that any personal adornment, jewelry or otherwise, 'means' anything more than the fact that the person who is wearing it liked the look of it is their own mistake, especially if they are wrong. Another example, or a few; If you saw a person who was wearing all black would that mean that they're a 'goth'? Or same situation, a person wearing all black, would that mean that someone they loved has died and they're in mouring? Opposite situation, a person wearing all white, does that mean that they practice Kabbalah? The answers to all of those questions are obviously no, and though the color of ones clothing could be argued as being a completely different situation it is still the same principle.

I have/had worn Crosses, Pentacles, Ahnks, a Rath Gras Cross, Zodiac figures (chinese and other), Celtic knots, and the Greek symbol for long life (just to name a few). Just because I have worn these things does not mean that they have any special meaning to me other than that of their attractiveness. Sure, some have more meaning than that, and I've been asked questions about many of them. Sometimes my answer is "I just liked how it looks." and sometimes it's a small speech about my belief/meaning of it or what the common believe/meaning of it is. Other times it was a gift and the meaning of it for me is purly sentimental. Often if there was no meaning in it for me the person asking would have a fragment of symbology that I gladly listen to as I'm always curious.

Really though the way I see things is this: Don't assume anything about a person or their beliefs because of their attire (clothes, jewelry, tattoos, whatever). If you've got a question, ask it. If you have a particular meaning or belief associated with a symbol thats great, I have them too, but don't be angry if someone doesn't share your belief. On the other side of things if you don't share the beliefs of a person about a certain symbol you wear and they ask you a question about it, don't get angry at them! They can't read your mind and had no way of knowing.

So boiling my opinion down: don't assume anything; it just makes an ass out of you and me (ass-u-me), and live and let live.

I think you overestimate my reaction. I respectually requested that Livia, and others reading the thread, to not wear the cross if it wasn't personally significant. I don't think that make me assume anything. I'm perfectly willing to leave it to people's consciences whether or not it's significant to them.

But as i pointed out...it's a symbol of death. If you don't believe in the ressurection, that's all it is. And i don't know about you, but that's a little creepy in my book.

First of all I think you mean 'respectfully'? Last I checked 'respectually' wasen't in the dictionary.

Secondly, a large part of my entire point was the fact that any symbol, be it a cross or otherwise, inherently means nothing. Any meaning attributed to a symbol is the result of a personal, religious, or cultural choice that only applies to someone who buys into it.

So a cross isn't a "symbol of death". It's a symbol, and if you think that it, without belief in the resurrection, is a symbol of death that's /your/ belief. That meaning dosen't apply to anyone else unless they too have that same belief.

I agree with Cylvre. I would wear the symbol of an electric chair if I thought it was attractive. I would wear a death's head ring if I liked the design. My question was to see if people thought it was offensive for people not of their religion to wear the symbols of that religion. You seem to be saying that the symbol does not mean the same to me because I am not a memeber of the religion and that the meaning of the symbol in those circumstances is offensive to you.

I wouldn't find stuff like that offensive... i'd just think the wearer was a knob.

I count the masses of people having tattoos with Oriental words on them in that category too. Especially the ones that don't know what it says. :rolleyes:

The world is full of assholes. Don't be one. And yes, i made a spelling error. :rolleyes:

Yes. And. Yes, symbol means something becuase of what people do with it. And. This symbol has had a lot done with it. So it means things. Becuase of my belief in the ressurection, what was a symbol of death becomes a symbol of God's confrontation with human violence, and God's merciful victory over that violence.

The Romans would very much disagree. They used it as the symbol of the power of the state to kill, and to kill painfully.

Wikipedia

The cross is a way of killing someone. Very slowly. If you think electric chairs and deathsheads are cool...i guess i can't stop you. But this ranks as one of the most cruel ways to kill someone ever invented. If you think that's beautiful...i think that's kind of sick. These aren't fake people that were killed.

But, as i've said before. If you don't find it personally meaningful, I'd kindly ask you not to wear the cross.

i know what you mean. the whole religion thing seems really neat and cryptic and mysterious, but people assume things about you when you try to use thier symbols. i really like the whole holy vs. unholy game, like in movies like constantine and vampire stories and stuff, and people just get really mad and say i'm gothic. makes me mad. it's stupid.

I dont think there is anything wrong with you wearing the cross, the only thing wrong (like someone above said) would be if you got upset when people start asking you if your christian or assuming you are.

This thread really made realize that occasionally, I will wear my kairos cross, for the main purpose of wearing it as an accessory, though it's actually a very good conversation starter.....

something to ponder.