Wearing the cross should symbolize faith, not just fashion

Sitting at home recently watching the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, something struck me. It seems that every year at least a few musicians wear crosses around their necks. This year I noticed that old rocker Axl Rose from Guns N' Roses wore one; so did rapper 50 Cent.

What a curious fashion statement! The cross is the most famous symbol in all of human history and represents the death of Jesus. Christians adopted the cross in the days of the early church father Tertullian.

The ancient Jewish historian Josephus called crucifixion "the most wretched of deaths." The ancient Greek philosopher Cicero, who died before Jesus was born, asked that decent Roman citizens not even speak of the cross because it was too disgraceful a subject for decent people.

Crucifixion was likely invented by the Persians around 500 B.C. and practiced until it was outlawed by the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine, around A.D. 300. Throughout history, crucifixion has remained perhaps the most horrid mode of execution. Under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, Jews were crucified at Dachau, and Nazi soldiers crucified Allied soldiers with bayonets and knives. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge performed crucifixions in Cambodia. Today, crucifixion continues in Sudan — and online with the multiplayer video game called "Roma Victor."

The pain of crucifixion is so horrendous that a word was invented to explain it: "excruciating" literally means "from the cross." A crucified person could hang on the cross for days, passing in and out of consciousness as he struggled to breathe. To prolong the suffering, the executioner would attach a block of wood under the victim's buttocks to ensure that he did not slump and die quickly.

As one would expect, the victims would commonly scoot themselves off this seat in an effort to die quickly. When they did, the executioner would respond by nailing their genitals to the cross to ensure they remained on the seat and suffered as long as possible.

All of this was not done in dignified privacy, but rather in open, public places. Crowds would gather around the victims to mock them as they sweated in the sun, bleeding. Once dead, the victim was not usually given a decent burial. The remains were left for vultures and other scavengers and eventually thrown in a dump.

Though crucifixion is excruciatingly painful and publicly shameful, it was quite common. Tens of thousands of people were crucified in the ancient world. For example, when Spartacus died in battle, 6,000 of his followers were crucified in one day.

As a general rule, it was men who were crucified. On the rare occasion a woman was crucified, she would face the cross, because even such a barbarous culture was unwilling to watch the face of a woman in such agony.

Watching MTV, it seemed to me incredibly disrespectful and offensive for the cross to be worn as a mere fashion accessory. Would it spark protest if the most sacred images of other religions were worn as fashion accessories by half-naked women and rock stars? I wonder.

Yet, as Christians we learn from Jesus' death on the cross to love those who disagree with us and extend kindness to them as Jesus has extended kindness to us. So, rather than praying that people no longer wear the cross, I pray that those who do come to understand what Jesus did for them, so they can wear the cross for worship and not just fashion.

Pastor Mark Driscoll is founder of the nondenominational Mars Hill Church in Ballard. He and four other columnists — the Rev. Patrick J. Howell, Rabbi Mark S. Glickman, the Rev. Patricia L. Hunter and Aziz Junejo — take turns writing for the Faith & Values page. Readers may send feedback to faithpage@seattletimes.com