“The Cross with the Corpse – An Utterly Un-Christian Symbol!”

Free Christians for the Christ of the Sermon on the Mount in All Cultures Worldwide
Max-Braun-Straße 2, 97828 Marktheidenfeld

Press Release
November 9, 2009

“The Cross with the Corpse – An Utterly Un-Christian Symbol!”

“A groundbreaking verdict for all countries in Europe!” With these words, Alfred Schulte, spokesman for “The Free Christians for the Christ of the Sermon on the Mount in All Cultures Worldwide” greeted the verdict of the European Court of Justice for Human Rights on the crucifix dispute in Italy. The Court of Justice upheld the right of an Italian mother who wanted to keep her children from being confronted with a crucifix in their classrooms. According to Schulte, a strict separation of church and state is in the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth who said: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s!”
“Particularly as Christians who take the spiritual heritage of the Nazarene seriously, we have a lot of understanding for the citizens in many countries of Europe who take offence at the depiction of a tortured and cruelly killed human being that glamorizes violence – especially when children are confronted with this,” according to Schulte. “The first Christians knew absolutely nothing of such depictions. And still during the third century, an Early Christian named Minucius Felix wrote the following: ‘We do not worship crosses and do not want to worship them.’ If the Early Christian symbol of a simple wood cross were used, a conflict would most likely not have risen at all.”
The visual depiction of the crucified body doesn’t exactly symbolize the victory of Jesus, the Christ, over suffering and death, but immortalizes, in a macabre way, His alleged defeat against the forces of darkness. “The dead man on the cross can’t say anything anymore – and this is opportune for the men in robes, who not only had Him nailed to the cross, but until today, have turned His teaching into its opposite in His name. This is why we have filed lawsuits against the Vatican Church and the Lutheran Church, enjoining them: They should no longer call themselves ‘Christian!’”
In the 36-page statement of claim of the Free Christians against the German Vatican Church (you can read it under www.Christ-or-Church.de), the following words, among others, are directed to the German bishops: “Daily, you nail Jesus, the Christ, to the cross again, because you do the opposite of what He wanted. And then you drag Him, who has resurrected, through the streets as a dead man on the cross in triumphal processions, like a trophy that you have run down.”
Will the legal system in Germany, a bastion of the Roman Catholic Church, allow such a lawsuit to take its normal course? Is it at all possible?! After all, most judges are stalwart members of either the Roman Catholic or the Protestant Lutheran Churches in Germany.
More Information: www.Christ-or-Church.de, Telephone: +49.9391-504-213