Cardinal Keith O’Brien of Scotland has called on his flock to challenge rising secularism by wearing crosses and other religious symbols over their clothing. My first reaction to this news was a pleasant surprise. As someone who paid little attention to the British scene, I knew very little about the previous efforts of the Scottish church to assert itself, not least in its effort to uphold the a traditional and humane view of marriage.
This new effort seems to be motivate by the same impulse that led to the return of the Friday abstinence from meat: a desire for public Christian distinctives, for practices and signs that set Christians apart from an increasingly post-Christian culture. Thus it’s particularly appropriate that he make his proposal during the season when Christians have engaged in public processions (like the ones across the Brooklyn Bridge and through SoHo that I joined in on Friday).
While the cardinal says this is a response to secularism, it’s surely just as much a response to the public challenge of Islam. Whatever other problems Islam poses to the Western settlement (and there indeed are significant ones) we can be thankful for the spur it is providing for a more public Christian faith.
Francesca Aran Murphy argued on these lines in our October issue:
Christian practices are less tangible than Islamic ones. And so the recent decision of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales to bring back the traditional Friday fast presents an evangelistic opportunity. For the Friday fast, like Ramadan and similar disciplines, carries its own visible apologetic.
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While I welcome the return to the traditional practice of Friday abstinence, I’m less sure about the public wearing of crosses. Maybe it’s because, as a friend of mine observed, it could make one look like a nun who gave up the habit or a plainclothes priest of the worst variety. Readers, would you wear a cross over your clothing?
