What does the cross mean to you? For the Christian, it symbolizes the difference between life and death, not only in relation to Jesus but everyone! It is a symbol of everything that Jesus Christ did for us: His life, death and resurrection are the foundations of the Christian faith. To non-Christians though, it seems to mean a variety of things from a simple fashion accessory to something that causes personal offence. The cross clearly means so little to some organisations as they have put extra effort into removing them from some of their packaging.
The German supermarket Lidl saw something wrong with having a cross on top of a building covering their packaging so they had it airbrushed out. A Lidl spokesman told Belgian TV: “We are avoiding the use of religious symbols because we do not wish to exclude any religious beliefs.” In other words, they didn’t want to offend anyone! This caused many to complain on social media with some even boycotting Lidl until the packaging is corrected. Lidl did then admit their error but a second row with Lidl starter over another removed cross on their packaging.
Now Nestle has airbrushed crosses from buildings on some of its packaging. They are also sorry for any offence caused and will be revising the packaging design soon.
This is all is a bit weird, if you’re that concerned about offending people why not choose a landscape on your packaging that doesn’t include a building with a cross on it to save the trouble of airbrushing it out. The logic behind some of these decisions does border on the ridiculous!
For people to be offended by seeing a cross on some packaging shows that the cross has power, this is because there is power in the truth! We are living in the age of political correctness where we are afraid of hurting people’s feelings as we aim to cater for everyone. As you can see, this doesn’t work and in most cases, it’s the Christian faith that is the easy target. Our prayer is that the people who make these decisions will realise that God’s feelings are above all others.
We can only see this continuing as organisations buckle under the pressure to conform and please. Some Christians choose to boycott these organisations, others simply don’t buy those products. Whatever your action is, do it with prayer, God can use any situation to bring people to the foot of the cross to seek eternal salvation through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)
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