Oops

 

Byter Frederick, who describes himself as “a thoroughly orthodox Mormon”, has taken me to task for saying that Mormons do not display crosses and believe them to be anti-scripture, along with the Seventh Day Adventists.

I confess, I screwed up.

Firstly, my reference to Seventh Day Adventists should have been a reference to Jehova’s Witnesses.

The Seventh Day Adventists do actually use a cross in their logo:

Jehova’s Witnesses, however, condemn the use of crosses and crucifixes, seeing them as a pre-Christian, pagan symbol.  The official JW website states:

Why, then, was this pagan symbol promoted? Apparently, to make it easier for pagans to accept “Christianity.” Nevertheless, devotion to any pagan symbol is clearly condemned by the Bible. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18) The Scriptures also forbid all forms of idolatry. (Exodus 20:4, 5; 1 Corinthians 10:14) With very good reason, therefore, true Christians do not use the cross in worship.   

http://www.watchtower.org/e/bh/appendix_05.htm


See also:

http://4jehovah.org/wdgrs03q05.php

Secondly, Frederick points out that the Mormons do respect the cross as a symbol of Christianity.

He writes:

We Mormons respect as legitimate all symbols used by other Christian faiths. It is in our interest to support and promote belief in the divinity of Christ through all faiths. It is a matter of choice by leaders of the Church since the founding not to use the symbol of the cross. I find the "machine gun" argument to be insulting to other Christians. There have been some small minded and superior feeling members that denigrate the use of symbols forgetting we have some very meaningful symbols used inside temples (which non-Mormons cannot enter).