Crucifixes are Scaaaaaaary!

A church in England has removed it's crucifix after the Vicar decided that it 'was scaring young children' and it's depiction of pain and suffering was 'putting people off.' If you go check out the article, then you'll find that as crucifixes go, it's a pretty hardcore one- but still, theologically, I'm a little nauseous about this one.

OK, I get it: people want to think about the Redemption of our sins and the fact that not only did Christ die for us, but he rose for us as well- that's fine. It's shiny, happy and we can all feel good about it. But it's not the whole picture. Part of the reason- other than it's stone age Catholic theology- that I objected to 'The Passion of the Christ' was that the picture that was painted was incomplete: Christ died for us, it seemed to say- feel bad, feel very, very bad. There was little or no context provided for the why- why would someone go through all that? What would posses them? What would their motivations be?

It's the same thing with this- even as with just the suffering of Christ, the picture is incomplete, with just the risen Christ, we forget the sacrifice that was made (theologically speaking) on our behalf. And more important, we risk forgetting that the crucifix and the suffering it depicts is not just a portrayal of an off-putting amount of suffering, but rather of supreme act of love. And the fact that, in the eyes of Christians, a complete stranger whom none of us knew personally went through all that for us, is indeed something that would probably put a lot of people off. We're just not comfortable with the idea- but that's what makes it important.