Paris will host the Summer Olympics this year. The organizing committee released the official promotion poster, drawn by Ugo Gattoni, using a surrealistic motif.1 The Eiffel Tower was colored pink and the Arc de Triomphe had a Metro train running through its arch. What caused more of a stir was the depiction of the Dome des Invalides, a royal chapel built by Louis XIV, where Napoleon’s tomb is located. The gilded cross on the roof was not in the poster, replaced instead by a spike.
Conservative politicians were angry about the absence of the cross and accused the organizing committee of distorting French history and national identity. The deliberate alteration of the cross that exists on the Dome des Invalides is an example of what the French call “laicite”, a government policy to limit religious expression strictly to private life. For instance, you are not allowed to wear a crucifix while attending class at a state school. But the government does permit a cross to be on a building, like the Dome, if it is in the interest of historical accuracy.
Mr. Gattoni said his drawing was not intended to be historically accurate, but to be a surrealistic scene. His philosophy, though, is the same as government and business policies, to erase any image related to Jesus Christ. European Union currency has stained-glass windows, but none show any images of Christ. A German supermarket has an image of the Church of Anastasis on its yogurt packages, but the multiple crosses on the church’s domes have been photoshopped out. Porsche took some heat in 2023 with its TV commercial of a 911 speeding across a bridge; a statue of Jesus in the field of view was edited out of the video. Crosses atop St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow are grossly blurred images on calendars and paper napkins.
The Second Commandment (Exodus 20:4-6) forbids making or worshipping any idol. The secular world did not initiate policies to remove Christian icons from public view. Christianity has many examples of iconoclasts (those who want to destroy all religious icons, images, or monuments). In the 4thcentury, a Synod met in Elvira, Spain and declared in Canon 36 that, “images should not be in churches so that what is venerated and worshiped not be painted on the walls.” Many extended this prohibition to mean all religious articles had to be removed from churches or homes.
Modern governments and businesses hardly qualify as iconoclasts in the basic purpose of the Second Commandment, preventing the worship of icons. Their motives seem more sinister, removing Christianity from everyday life.
The true essence of Christian faith is worship of the Lord Jesus Christ, not idols. Our faith cannot be shaken by removal of crosses from buildings. On the other hand, I believe the cross and other Christian symbols are visual reminders to non-believers of the moral standard set by our Lord. The unbeliever might see such a reminder on their way to an abortion clinic, a drug deal, or a mystic cult. The worldly philosophy, eventually doomed to failure, is: out of sight, out of mind.
A missing cross would never remove Jesus from the hearts and minds of believers. Moreover, we are obliged to tell others the good news: the cross of Jesus can be permanently installed in their hearts and minds.
Nomads2 