Is it morbid that Christianity has a cross as symbol?

Answer 1

Yes indeed.

Jehovah's Witnesses for example view the cross as a disgusting symbol which originates from ancient pagandom.

The use of the cross can be traced back to Mesopotamia, approx 2,000 years before Christ.

Quotations:

1) Sven Tito Achen, Danish historian and expert on symbols, in the book SymbolsAround Us wrote that crosses decorated Scandinavian rock engravings during the Bronze Age, centuries before Jesus was born. Such non-Christians used the cross "as a magic sign . . . giving protection, bringing good luck."

2) The NewCatholic Encyclopedia admits: "The cross is found in both pre-Christian and non-Christian cultures, where it has largely a cosmic or natural signification."

Why have the churches chosen the cross as their most sacred symbol?

3) W. E. Vine, respected British scholar: "By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. . . . pagans were received into the churches . . . and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, . . . with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted."-Vine'sExpository Dictionary of Old andNew Testament Words.

4) Oxford University's Companion Bible says: "The evidence is . . . that the Lord was put to death upon an upright stake, and not on two pieces of timber placed at any angle." Clearly, the churches have adopted a tradition that is not Biblical.

5) Achen, quoted above, observes: "In the two centuries after the death of Jesus it is doubtful that the Christians ever used the device of the cross." To the early Christians, he adds, the cross "must have chiefly denoted death and evil, like the guillotine or the electric chair to later generations."

Perhaps a more modern example of how strange it is to revere a 'death implement'. Imagine you child was shot to death with a gun, or was killed with a knife. As gruesome as that is, -- could we now imagine wearing a replica of the gun or knife around our neck that had been used to kill our loved one? This is absurd. This is not normal. It is as your question suggests: 'morbid', to-say-the-least.