Evangelicals Support European Union’s Ban of Crucifixes in Public Schools

I don’t know of anything more indicative of Protestantism’s theology of “protest” than crosses without the Crucified, that and their rather ironic fear of the Sign of the Cross, which goes back to apostolic times. The statement below from the Italian Evangelical Alliance’s spokesman is fallacious. Christians for over fifteen hundred years reverenced images of the Crucified Christ in their churches both in the East and the West. After the Protestant revolt in the sixteenth century crucifixes gradually were discarded in heretical places of worship, as were altars and all statues. Even their stained glass windows could have no image except for an empty cross or, perhaps, a painting of the Good Shepherd. But, there are more Catholics in the world than all the Protestants sects put together. So, I don’t know what Mr. De Chirico is talking about, even historically speaking, where he says the empty cross is the more general Christian cross.  Here’s a clip from an Evangelical website article in Christianity Today:

The Italian Evangelical Alliance (IEA) supports the echr’s [European Court of Human Rights] religious symbol ban for several reasons, said vice chairman Leonardo De Chirico. The case deals specifically with a Roman Catholic symbol—the cross with a dying Christ on it—not the more general Christian cross. Its public display represents the imposition of Catholicism as the state religion, which ended in 1984. And the IEA is committed to the separation of church and state. Read more here.