This is outside the typical wheelhouse of this blog, but I can't resist writing about it. The other day while I was driving along the 405, I ended up behind a rather interesting vehicle. It was a ridiculously-lifted neon-colored pickup truck, something you don't see very often around these parts, plastered with faded bumper stickers and decals everywhere. But they were a local. CA plates and built for the climate since the rear windows were cut out exposing the interior.

This truck was must've been blessed by the Almighty Himself. Most of the bumper stickers were religious Jesus Loves and Jesus Fish-related plus some old dilapidated GOP brandings. And, I could have sworn that rhinestones were glued to the panels.

But this amazing spectacle was nothing. Something else clearly stood out over all of this trash and glitter: a massive gaudy wooden cross hanging off their rear-view mirror. It was huge, and must've weighed 10 lbs depending on the type of wood.


I thought to myself: what would possess a person to have something that's clearly impractical and probably dangerous? The wooden cross was swinging back-and-forth, nearly smacking the driver on turns.

Typically, crosses are used from completely impractical reasons. An actual practical reason, for example, would be placing a Holy Cross on a building to publicly identify it as a church and the religion.

However, based on research and surveys, the primary reasons why crosses are used are:

1. to put on display for others to see, like jewelry.
2. for divine protection, good luck, or warding off evil.

In monotheistic religions, the most important and critical rules is that there is only one God. To believe in, or put your faith in, some other type of supernatural power within the universe is idol worship. Idolatry is the biggest no-no and considered an abomination. It's one of the worst things you can do in monotheistic religions.

When you step back and look at how crosses are used within this context, the reasoning behind the activity is quite intriguing. So essentially, crosses are really used for the following reasons:

1. selfish vanity or showing off to others in pride. As in, one of the "seven deadly sins",
2. believing that a physical object contains a supernatural power (other than God) that protects them from harm,
3. or putting their faith in the supernatural power of a piece of wood rather than their God. It's textbook idolatry.

Whatever the case, it's done for completely selfish and sinful reasons. In fact, it's the worst sin possible. Worse than witchcraft and murder according to the bible.

Think about that for a moment. Even believing in luck, karma, fate, or various superstitions is idol worship. Having crosses, angels, figurines, saints, dream-catchers, lucky objects, or anything else within your household that you believe protects you or brings good luck, is textbook idolatry. It's all very clearly stated in the bible that these are abominations. Yet, it's still prevalent in all worldwide religions. The majority of these groups are doing the exact opposite of what they claim they are doing. There's a word for that.

But even beyond that, there's more to this. It doesn't matter what the belief system of the Glorious Holy Roller was because their skewed belief was not skewed or incorrect at all in their mind. Most groups (ie, people within these groups) know very little about their own belief structure. They may claim to be diligent members, but still act accordingly to how their group behaves. However, the group behaves based on how they are incorrectly depicted within the media. They've been bombarded with incorrect information their entire lives, and it was altered their perception of how they should act and what they believe. No original thought, no questions, just another foolish slave to entertainment.

In the end, that's truly the only group that all humans belong to. Everyone thinks they're in separate unique groups and tribes, with their own belief systems, but that's actually the belief system of the group that they're actually within.