Should crucifixes be allowed to be worn ?

Question

Am alarmed that in a multifaith society christians are struggling to display their faith ie, schoolgirl excluded for displaying crucifix on chain, B.A worker suspended for wearing crucifix...Should we behaving like this or is a total ban on religious icons necessary ? I hope not !

Answer 1

Religion is something personal and should not be expressed outwardly in our society. I have no problem with someone wearing a crucifix on a chain, but I have a problem with someone wearing it on the outside of their clothing - I should not be forced to look at what is an offensive icon to me. The same applies to every relgious symbol - we should have the right to go about our buisness without having religion forced upon us. I think a total ban would be the fairest way to deal with it, but I would hope that people would have enough sense and decency to not offend people.

~ this is the opinion of someone who is religious by the way.

Answer 2

Those who choose to permit Christians to wear religious symbols in multi-faith societies must also permit other people to do the same. Banning the cross (which is not a requirement in fundamentalist Christianity) is a good way of banning the Islamic coverings (there are many styles that women wear with many names), which are part of fundamentalist Islam (culturally-created) and are not necessarily part of Islam as defined through its own texts (the Qur'an and Hadith/Sunna). Unfortunately it may be necessary to ban religious icons to fight the scourge of fundamentalism that is sweeping society (both Western and non-Western alike), of course people will protest, but when you look at the big picture you can understand the justification for this.

Answer 3

You are alarmed, but this all needs to be taken in context.

The school quite explicitly stated that she was welcome to pin her crucifix on her lapel, but not wear it as a necklace.

BA's policy states that all jewellry and religious symbols on chains must be worn under the uniform. So, the BA worker could quite happily have gotten round their policy by wearing a crucifix pinned to her lapel. There's no policy forbidding that, is there?

Now, if you look at these two cases, what do you see? The BA policy strictly forbids all necklaces to be worn over the uniform. The school is also objecting to the girl's necklace form of the crucifix.

The issue here isn't about religious symbols at all. It's about necklaces. Objects that dangle like necklaces can be a health and safety issue. They can get caught in machinery. They can dangle and get into people's tea or cups of coffee. That's why air stewards who wear ties, have them tucked into a waist coat. That's why you have to wear a lab coat or apron over your school uniform, so you don't get your school tie sucked into machinery or dumped accidentally into chemicals or Bunsen burner flames.

You could enforce a rule, stating how long the chain should be, but neck sizes vary making it difficult to judge what length a suitable chain should be. You could, instead enforce a rule, stating how the necklace should be worn, but instead the school and BA decided to just ban necklaces altogether instead of thinking the issue through.

This isn't a case of malevolence against Christianity. It's merely a sign of laziness in thinking up Health and Safety regulations.

Answer 4

Yes they should be allowed except for reasons like PE or Science the schoolgirl should be able to wear her crucifix. This just appeases Secular Liberals who want to oppress our Christian Heritage under the guise of PC and its good to see young people making a stand against this. This country has a Christian foundation and our head of state is a Christian so we should be able to display that fact and we should respect other faiths as long as its not at the expense of our Christian heritage. Militant Atheists should get the message if you don't like it then maybe you should move to a Communist country or learn to respect our countries traditions.

Answer 5

Yes, of course, we all have a right to wear our crucifix - I wear mine all the time not only because it is a symbol of my faith - spiritualism, but because it was the last present my dear late mum bought me so it is very precious. If it became disallowed then all the other symbols of religion should be such as the head and face veil, turban etc. It is getting totally ridiculous that just because people of other faiths come to live in Britain we have to lose our freedom of speech etc. just so we don't upset them. I am not racist but shouldn't they be adhering to our customs? Britain doesn't seem like Britain any more.

Answer 6

You will find if you check the article that the ban was on a necklace, not the crucifix itself. The school said she could wear it as a lapel badge instead if she wished.

This just seems to me to be another case of a ban on jewellery being misinterpreted as religious discrimination.

I think that people should be able to express their faith is they wish but that a degree of common sense needs to be applied.

And if there is a ban on jewellery wouldn't it be unfair to single out and exempt one particular group just because their jewellery has more 'significance' than someone elses?


Peace, love and tolerance to all.
.

Answer 7

What happened to learning from past mistakes, yet here we are repeating a horrifying chapter of history again; where only god (or the gods, depending on your religion) knows how many will die for their beliefs. Religious persecution has always been one of the major downfalls of civilizations.

And lets not forget the main idea of the American Constitution. People came here to escape religious persecution, the main idea behind our government is the freedom to worship whichever god you want however you want or none it all. This doesn't however mean that people have the right to harass those who believe in a different god. It means they can worship Allah, they're neighbor can pray to Buddha, and the Jewish family across the street can celebrate Hanukkah and we can all be happy to be so lucky.

People should be teaching their children tolerance instead of convincing them that another religion is the ultimate evil. As long as that kind of thinking continues we are doomed to murder one another for ultimately flawed ideals.

Answer 8

This really annoys me. People are allowed to wear their head scarves (I'm not meaning to call it the wrong thing, i really don't know the correct name for this item of clothing), if it is required by their religion. Or saris' or the like. But if a white Christian wants to wear and be proud of a symbol of their faith they are suspended from work or from school. I think its absolutely disgusting. I have no problem with people of any faith wearing religious symbols as long as EVERYONE can. If a crucifix offends someone its is banned, however, a murderer can run off back to Somalia covered from head to toe in veils and sari and not even be questioned, as was the case of the man who murdered that WPC. Whats good ebeough for one community should be good enough for them all.

Answer 9

We seem to be more interested in adapting things for particular faiths than we do at looking after every faith. The world has gone mad if you ask me, when someone can't even where a small cross to work. Hardly offensive saying you have faith in God is it. (I am an athiest by the way so I say every one to their own, I just think the balance seems to have swayed too far to 1 particular faith). I don't get offended by someone wearing a turban or the caps jewish men wear (sorry don't know what it's called), so why should someone get offended by a simple symbol of christianity? More tolerance please for all faiths not just the ones we seem to have to tip toe around.

Answer 10

it could simply b the Establishment stretching their muscles b4 we follow Frances lead & ban all religious icons/dress etc.
unable 2 control these growing religious groups with their sometimes very anti-social beliefs & banning their emblems would seem a tad over-board unless we out-law the Cross 2.
how can they hope 2 ban the burkas 4 example, without banning all religious doctrine or display?

well it's what i suspect is going on.
i think it's very sad & i'm not sure when the madness will end!

Answer 11

Absolutely yes. Anything else is an infringement on religious freedom and is a serious step in the wrong direction. If Catholics are banned from openly displaying our religious symbols then how long would anyone else have religious freedom?