Expressions of Christianity

[Machine_Washable]

I recently had to travel for some personal issues and was in a khaleeji country for a bit. There are a lot of workers from the Philippines there. I was shocked at the number of crucifixes around people’s necks that I saw while running errands. In Canada I never see evidence of religious faith from Christians. The Church’s always seem empty and announcement on their signs outside always seem to be about non-religious matters. I always think of Canada as a Christian country but this experience made me consider how much Christianity doesn’t actually seem to be a part of people’s identity here. 

[truthfinder]

I don't know where you are in Canada, but there definitely are people who will wear crucifixes/crosses. But usually not very large ones (with the exception of often-young men, who do wear rather large crucifixes.) I also don't know if you are referring to Catholic churches or Christian more broadly.  With covid restrictions easing, I would think that most Catholic churches are open through most of the day, but this has typically not been the case with other Christian denominations. Also, Catholics may have other non-Cross symbols (for example medals, scapulars - small pieces of cloth worn over the chest and in-between the shoulder blades and connected by strings -etc.)  I would say most Canadians do feel that religion should not be as in-your-face as in other places, and that would go for many of the most devout.

IF you happen to be in Quebec, it's a different story as they have a policy of secularism, and this means all public employees (teachers, nurses, police, bus drivers, etc) may not show any symbols of religion while working.

I am also in Canada, and very happy to discuss this more if you would like.

[Luigi]

On 10/13/2021 at 9:05 PM, JudyHough said:

I'm a newbie here. I would like to know more about Christianity. Thank you!

Welcome aboard! "I would like to know more about Christianity" is a pretty broad request! I do think you've come to the right place, but  perhaps this ought to be  its own topic because a lot of people will probably post responses. What do the Moderat-ors think?

(JudyHough, I intentionally spelled Moderat-ors strangely so that you know what I mean. This board has certain filt-ers (which are referred to as 'fiddlers'); one fiddler changes the standard spelling of Moderat-ors to 'Mediators of Meh.' I thought you might not understand my response if I just typed the words and they got fiddled to our in-house translations.)

[truthfinder]

2 hours ago, JudyHough said:

Thank you so much for your reply here. Yeah, I also think I have come to the right place. From this community I will be able to know more about Christianity. 

Hi Judy,

if you haven’t seen, Luigi started a new thread on your question here: 

I will try to post some suggestions there later today. 

[Machine_Washable]

On 10/12/2021 at 12:54 PM, truthfinder said:

I don't know where you are in Canada, but there definitely are people who will wear crucifixes/crosses. But usually not very large ones (with the exception of often-young men, who do wear rather large crucifixes.) I also don't know if you are referring to Catholic churches or Christian more broadly.  With covid restrictions easing, I would think that most Catholic churches are open through most of the day, but this has typically not been the case with other Christian denominations. Also, Catholics may have other non-Cross symbols (for example medals, scapulars - small pieces of cloth worn over the chest and in-between the shoulder blades and connected by strings -etc.)  I would say most Canadians do feel that religion should not be as in-your-face as in other places, and that would go for many of the most devout.

IF you happen to be in Quebec, it's a different story as they have a policy of secularism, and this means all public employees (teachers, nurses, police, bus drivers, etc) may not show any symbols of religion while working.

I am also in Canada, and very happy to discuss this more if you would like.

Thank you for your comments. I thought about what you wrote. You make good points. When I wrote my thoughts I was thinking of the big Anglican Churches downtown which always seem empty and their outside announcements seem to never have much to do with religion. But if I go to Greektown or Portuguese areas I see a lot of religious expression from Christians. So I retract what I said before.