Monday, April 20, 2009

Candy (and gay marriage, later?)

I was given an interesting piece of candy today by a woman at work. I, unfortunately, have very little self restraint when it comes to sweets if they are offered to me, are laying around my immediate area, or I am bored. Two of those three collided today.

Regardless, back to the point of this post: this piece of candy.

It was a chocolate cross.

Now, not being a Christian (or anything, really), I was a little taken aback for a few reasons:

1) I was surprised that she brought this fairly blatant religious "object" to work
(though I've now learned that the "rules" about bringing religion to the work place are routinely broken if said religion is crucifixion-based)

2) I wondered why she gave this piece of candy to me. As far as I know, I haven't led anyone to believe that I'm a Jesus follower.

3) I am stunned that they make chocolate crosses

4) I am really stunned that they make chocolate crosses!

5) I'm flabbergasted... oh, you get the point

Points 3 and 4 I would like to discuss, however briefly. Why in the world do candy crosses exist?!?! Is the cross not supposed to be a poignant symbol of suffering? Isn't that the reason why it's the symbol of Christianity, to remind the flock of their Saviors hardships?

How could it be turned into a sweet confection? I would not put it past the "creative" dunces (the ones that weren't smart enough to think blue-turning-mountains when a beer can gets cold) to come up with the idea, but I would have thought that maybe, just maybe, there would have been an intelligent marketer that would have spoken up at a meeting: "Uh, maybe this isn't such a good product design. Wouldn't half-intelligent people be offended by this?"

Well, obviously there wasn't such a person. And it's probably better for whoever that might have been, because the market has spoken and that person would have been wrong: people bought the candy!!??

So, the better question is why, oh why, oh why? Why don't the right-eous (get it?) Christians go after these companies, that are, to me at least, making a mockery of the most important Christian symbol? Or if they are going after them, why not spend a little more energy on that quest and a little less trying to convince the world that gay people are just "confused," that they chose to be that way, and that the don't deserve the same rights (yes marriage) as straight people.

Yes, chocolate candy has nothing to do with that last subject, but once I got going, I couldn't stop.

I ate a bit of the chocolate (the top and left arms) but then threw the rest away. Not for Him, but for My Waistline. I have commericials to thank for that last worry.

1 comment:

  1. lol! As a Christian, I hate (I mean, really hate) the commercialization of our holidays (I'm also biased because I hate the commercialization of ALL holidays, Christian or not). A lot of Christians don't mind it (anyone that does Santa Clause at Christmas, etc) or have just given in to it because that's the way it's always been. A lot of people shake their heads and make fun of it and wish that all those other Christians - and "Christians" - would realize how silly they look and how they're trivializing the very things they believe.

    Also, it's partially a practicality thing. It's a fight you're not going to win. Just like when a bunch of churches tried boycotting Disney back when we were in middle or high school. It didn't work then and it won't work now, so we put our sights on other things. I'm not saying that's necessarily right or wrong, it's just how a lot of people look at it.

    American culture gets a lot - I might even say most - of Christianity wrong. It's regularly mocked and companies long ago realized that many Christians would buy things with any sort of Christianity stamp on it just cuz it was on there (walk into any Christian bookstore. Some of the stuff is like, really? People buy this?).

    Now, you know I'm all about my faith, and I'm all about my faith permeating every aspect of my life, but (or maybe thus?) I'm with you on this one. Chocolate crosses? Really?

    I personally love the Reese's Eggs. SO GOOD.

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