Christians and the peace sign???

[gardenvarietycitizen]

One delightful child disobeyed on the playground by raising his middle three fingers (W?) so he was giving everyone the peace sign and the middle finger. Brilliant!!

Heh. Remember putting up three fingers like that but together (no space between) and yelling "Read between the lines!!!"? OH so witty...

[Miggy]

UGH. You all brought up a childhood memory I'd nearly forgotten! I was at VBS in my church one summer, and the church lady teaching us let us all know that peace signs, smiley faces, and any of the popular 70s symbols of the time were all part of the "drug movement." We were even told not to do the two-fingered peace sign, because that was anti-Christian, too. One delightful child disobeyed on the playground by raising his middle three fingers (W?) so he was giving everyone the peace sign and the middle finger. Brilliant!!

This brought back a great memory. In Australia the two finger peace sign is given with the palm facing out. Two fingers raised with the back of the hand facing out is offensive - same as a raised middle finger. Nobody told George Bush this before he visited Australia and as he was being driven through the streets he gave all the spectators the offensive version. The media went to town laughing at the mistake and I think every comedian in the country added it to their routine. Comments like "Ah, American politicians are finally being honest about what they think of us" were common. (Very lucky for Mr Bush that he made this mistake here, where Australians turn mistakes into jokes, rather than in a country where people would take it seriously.)

[SquirrelySquirrel]

I remember doing an extra credit assignment on the origins of the peace sign in a history class, back when the internet was a new fangled thang and not many people had it. I still managed to find the semaphore roots, so really, there's no excuse for people today.

I know one very religious family who doesn't allow their children to have anything with peace signs. But this is a family who bans Harry Potter for the magic and sorcery, yet finds nothing wrong with all of the Disney Princess movies, and in fact, has so much princess crap for their daughter it makes me ill. :angry-banghead:

[Talitha Cumi]

UGH. You all brought up a childhood memory I'd nearly forgotten! I was at VBS in my church one summer, and the church lady teaching us let us all know that peace signs, smiley faces, and any of the popular 70s symbols of the time were all part of the "drug movement." We were even told not to do the two-fingered peace sign, because that was anti-Christian, too. One delightful child disobeyed on the playground by raising his middle three fingers (W?) so he was giving everyone the peace sign and the middle finger. Brilliant!!

Holy shit, you reminded me of a sermon I heard as a kid. The pastor told us the two-finger peace sign was bad, because the first finger stood for "Truth," and the second for "Love." I can't remember why this was supposed to be bad. Maybe because Truth came first? And Love should always come first? IDEK.

[Savoring Samsara]

Count me as another one who often heard "peace sign = bad because broken cross."

I also remember a fundamentalist childhood friend of mine not being allowed to have anything with a yin-yang symbol on it because it was "a Chinese devil symbol," which is just a hilariously inaccurate belief in so many ways.

[julie paradox]

Am I the only one who grew up surrounded by the anti-CND message? (I attended church throughout childhood, though I don't remember such things being mentioned there.)

This is actually the first time I've heard the symbol described as "the peace sign" and not "the CND symbol".

I'd heard the smiley=acid thing too - most of us as teenagers (I was born 1969) were aware of it but it wasn't a big thing.

Yin-yang was a bit of a no-no too - not because it was demonic as such, but because it was simply wrong...

When I was a student in York there was a New Age type shop which several of my friends wouldn't enter. It had joss sticks!

[moodygirl86]

I remember the local vicar giving me some shit about my Nirvana hoodie when I was 13, because of the yellow smilies. I was at school with his daughter and he didn't like her hanging around with me. We eventually drifted apart socially anyway, so he got his wish.

As for CND, I don't really understand what's Satanic about peace?

[Talitha Cumi]

Count me as another one who often heard "peace sign = bad because broken cross."

I also remember a fundamentalist childhood friend of mine not being allowed to have anything with a yin-yang symbol on it because it was "a Chinese devil symbol," which is just a hilariously inaccurate belief in so many ways.

When I was in college, my boyfriend gave me a beautiful silver ankh. My mother saw it and went ballistic.

Mom: IT'S A SATANIC SYMBOL!

Me: No, it's the Egyption hieroglyph for life.

Mom: The Egyptians, who WORSHIPED SATAN!

Me: *facepalm* Worshiped the sun, mom...

That ankh mysteriously disappeared while I was home on vacation. :roll:

[jenny_islander]

I remember the local vicar giving me some shit about my Nirvana hoodie when I was 13, because of the yellow smilies. I was at school with his daughter and he didn't like her hanging around with me. We eventually drifted apart socially anyway, so he got his wish.

As for CND, I don't really understand what's Satanic about peace?

Typical End Times hopscotch thinking:

1. Assume that "antichrist" is a proper noun referring to one person, not a description of the behavior and beliefs of any number of leaders who might stand in opposition to Christ;

2. Assume that the prophecies in Daniel 11 are about Antichrist, not about the empires of Mesopotamia (even Scofield admits that the initial prophecies are about a future that is in our past);

3. Fixate on a snippet of text indicated by a versification system that was applied to the Bible centuries after it was written, completely ignoring the rest of the passage (Daniel 11:21 (RSV): "In his place shall arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been given; he shall come in without warning and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.");

4. Fixate on a translation of that snippet that sounds impressive but is not accurate (KJV: "And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peacably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.");

5. Obsess so heavily about the advent of Antichrist that Antichrist-spotting occupies several monthly publications;

6. Declare that anybody who preaches peace must therefore be Antichrist or a servant of Antichrist, because of a mistranslated and out-of-context snippet of text that even Scofield interprets as a historical reference!

Therefore it's totally obvious that anybody who expressed concerns that Cold War nuclear posturing could ignite the end of the world as we knew it was really campaigning for the end of the world as we knew it.

And these people want to elect the leader of the most heavily armed nation on Earth.

[julie paradox]

Actually, though jenny_islander's explanation covers most of what I see on the interclackers, Daniel's End Times had nothing to do with Little England's stance.

We have atomic bombs, and so do the Soviets, who are wrong (and godless, but more to the point force other people to be godless), which is a Bad Thing. However, we have Mutually Assured Destruction, which is therefore a Good Thing (bear with us on this one). Now along come the CND people who want us to get rid of the delicate balance of Mutually Assured Destruction. No doubt those naive green-and-common women think that fluffy old USSR will immediately follow suit; but AHA! That's exactly what those oppressive communists want you to think! Really they're behind the disarmament movement in the West, even though they crush it mercilessly in their own sphere of influence (I think I read an expose of this in Reader's Digest when I was about twelve).

So obviously, CND are a Very Bad Thing and possibly even Evil and should be shunned by all right-thinking Britons, and no-one could possibly want that symbol on any of their stuff.

(Then I encountered Christian CND, and that was the beginning of the end...)