[bit.listserv.christia] Christianizing the Swastika - KEG

GATLING@SUVM (Keith E Gatling) (01/14/90)

Well actually, the Nazis did not invent the swastika.  It had a very long
hisotry going back quite some time before one A. Hitler was even born.  I've
seen pictures of them in encyclopedias showing the many varieties of crosses
(yes...*crosses*).
    Did you know that there are two types of swastika?  One left handed and
one right handed?  One of them, I can't recall which, traditionally is sup-
posed to represent good luck and the other bad.  Guess which one Hitler chose
(and I don't know whether or not he realized this at the time).
    If one thinks of swastikas as only being connected with Nazi Germany then
you will be shocked to find cartoons of Teddy Roosevelt on one of his many
hunting trips sitting on a chair with (among other symbols) a set of swastikas
on it.  However, if you understand that the symbol was around long before the
Nazis were, you will take it in stride.
    Rather than worrying about Christianizing the swastika, perhaps we should
stop to consider how easily someone can take a previously good (or at least
benign) symbol or name, and cause it to be forever (or at least for a good long
time) linked with evil.  After all, how many children have been given the name
Adolf (or Adolph) after 1939?  Just imagine what the consequences would have
been if his parents had named him Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, or Paul.

keg