I wrote a short piece yesterday about the devil-worshipping statue unveiled in Detroit. I got some blowback from readers about how I was “downplaying” the significance of the statue, which led me to suggest there are far worse statues that people who say they’re believers not only tolerate but actually bow down to.

The crucifix, for instance.

Demon statues are made for unbelievers – that is, pagans or heathens – who don’t know any better and likely wouldn’t care even if they did.

The crucifix, on the other hand, is supposedly made for believers, even though believers, by definition, are supposed to adhere to the Ten Commandments, which explicitly forbids the making of and bowing down to graven images.

The crucifix is one honkin’ big graven image, especially the larger-than-life ones hanging over the altars in Catholic buildings.

GOD HATES CRUCIFIXES (he told me to capitalize and bold that, so no-one would miss it). Crucifixes are far more of an abomination to God than statues of demons because people who say they follow Jesus (Catholics) should know better than to make graven images. If Catholics knew their Ten Commandments as well as they knew their vain repetitions (like the “Hail Mary” and the “Our Father”), there would be no crucifixes, but they don’t, and so there are – billions of the horrid things.

Crosses are just as bad.

These things are idols, people – idols, plain and simple.

I’m not defending demon statues any more than I’m defending the worship of demons. I’m just contending that crucifixes and crosses are far worse, on a spiritual level, than statues of demons. This is a spiritual fact which you’re free to accept or not. My advice is that you accept it and adjust your living environment accordingly.

God doesn’t want us attributing power to inanimate objects or thinking that we need them to designate or demarcate. He wants us to need him and him only, by faith, and through our heart of hearts. Idols and graven images take on a life of their own (even though they’re inanimate) and people can easily start to depend on them and defer to them as “safe zones” or “holy ground”, or use them as lucky charms that have power in and of themselves.  The truth is that crucifixes and crosses are demon symbols, not symbols of Jesus or God. Jesus doesn’t have or need a symbol, and certainly neither does God. God is the living God – we communicate with him spiritually, not through objects.

I could go on, but hopefully you get my drift. If people who don’t believe in God want to erect a gauche and gaudy statue to poke fun at believers and make some kind of argument about freedom of religion, it’s no big deal. We’re already surrounded by millions of signs and symbols of satanic religions (obelisks, anyone?), so adding one more to the pile is not worth worrying about. If, on the other hand, people who say they do believe in God erect a dead-Jesus-on-a-stick abomination and bow down to it, that IS a big deal. Trust me.

Jesus didn’t waste his time railing at the heathens because he knew it would be just that – a waste of time. He did, however, spend a good deal of his time railing at people who said they believed, but by their actions proved otherwise. These people, in Jesus’ eyes, were the real enemies of God, not the heathens.  Jesus considered hypocrisy to be the worst possible offense. He still does.

The moral of the story is, as John once wrote: “Little children, keep yourself from idols.” True believers don’t need crucifixes or crosses, any more than heathens need statues of demons. And don’t get me started on the bumper sticker fish as a “Christian symbol”….

Little children – keep yourself from idols.