www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Airbrushing out crosses on Santorini churches/Nestle/Carrafour

If this move by these mega corporations of Europe upsets you, you can sign a petition to let them know. This is how the petition is worded:

Stop removing Christian images from your packaging
Dear Mr. Bompard and Mr. Schneider,

I am writing to tell you that I will be boycotting your companies' goods after seeing that you have altered reality to remove the image of the cross from your packaging. Your Greek yogurt packaging depicts the dome of the most famous church on the island of Santorini, but the cross on top of the church has been edited out.

I do not understand why you have disrespected a symbol that represents billions of Christians all over the world. The cross is a symbol of peace and positive values. It is not something to be ashamed of.

By deliberately removing the cross and erasing this Christian symbol from your packaging, you have insulted millions of Christians worldwide.

I ask you to rectify this situation. Put the cross back on the packaging and apologize to the Christian community. If you do not do this, my family will not continue to purchase your products.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]

Here is the link:
http://citizengo.org/en/sc/113480-nestle-and-carrefour-airbrush-the-cross?m=5&tcid=42782461

If you ask me, crosses should not be on disposable packaging.

I had a pious Subdeacon text me with the exact same sentiments. I don't think it's quite like the Icons on wall calendars , but I do see his point.

I'll never forget how excited I was to attend Vespers on the eve of Pentecost at a church in Perissa, a sizable town on the south shore of Santorini, only to find two other people plus the priest and cantor in attendance. Next morning six more showed up for Divine Liturgy. That was eight years ago. Looks like the faithful have done a little airbrushing there, too.

A Ukrainian former parishioner of mine opined that the church shouldn't be on the container at all. I'm sure in both Ukraine and Russia churches appear on greeting cards and gift wrap paper. I have a bigger problem with Icons on wall calendars.

I think that some of you may be missing the point? The image is on their Greek yogurts whether we think it appropriate or not.
That is how these two mega corporations have chosen to market their product.
The problem is that the images of the churches do not have the crosses on them.
They have been removed so as not to 'offend' and to appease the phobia of Christianity which is spreading like wild fire throughout the EU (not even mentioning their Christian heritage in their constitution despite pleas from the then Pope and Archbishop of Greece).
This is what makes the deliberate omission of the crosses on the Church offensive.
The petition is not mine. It is not even that of an Orthodox Christian. It is a petition of a concerned Christian to show these companies that Christians will no longer stand idly by while Christianity is persecuted and hated.

I find the idea that it isn't appropriate from a Christian perspective to display a cross on marketing materials to be a bit of a stretch. And from a completely non-religious perspective, it's upsetting enough that these companies are misrepresenting Greece and Greek culture, taking well-known Greek identity markers (nice white churches) and turning them into something they're not. Removal of the cross changes the church into just another building, and creates a false landscape that doesn't exist in Greece anywhere, anyway. They are simply using a falsified pseudo-Greek culture to sell their products, at the expense of the cross and for absolutely non-sensical reasons such as "We're religiously inclusive and don't want to offend our customers with overtly religious depictions" (I see - so the mere existence of Orthodox churches in Greece is offensive to group of non-Christians somewhere??) That is one seriously frightening thought, if indeed it is true, and outrageous that companies would attempt to appease this intolerant bigotry in the name of religious diversity. Who are these monstrous people who would demand to see Greece as it is not, simply because of the presence of a mere church, or do they perhaps only exist in the figment of the companies' imaginations?

I see your point and Alice's. I merely was transmitting feedback from two people. I've heard nothing from the others to whom I sent the link . I apologize if anything I posted caused offence.

Thank you..very well stated! :-)

Putting crosses on disposable packaging is iconoclasm. It's that simple. The Cross is the weapon of our salvation, not a kitschy cultural identity marker or a marketing device. Of course churches should not be on yogurt packaging at all. But then protesting the removal of the crosses on such packaging is to plant one's feet in one corner of trash culture to fight with another corner of trash culture. What should really outrage us is the airbrushing of the Gospel to the point that we protest Nestle for the packaging of their products and ignore their use of slave labor.

I'm always conscious that I may be missing the point. In any case, my point is that despite the abundance of Christian symbols on Santorini, Greece and Europe, for that matter, a large number of people have airbrushed the Church from their lives, and their governments and commercial interest have only followed suit. Is it any worse that the cross has been airbrushed from a yogurt container, or that people have airbrushed it from their lives? How important are these symbols, quaint as they may be, if citizens are out hawking their wares for tourists while the priest and his cantor are alone inside.?

Welcome to the ideology of the globalist new world order movement.

Well, one of the reasons I've always enjoyed the Byzantine Forum is because its posters make you think, and offer real insight into issues. So, in that vein, I see Utroque and Swan's points. I do not agree that depictions of churches on marketing materials is iconoclastic, or turns them into "kitschy cultural identity markers" - I think the kitschy cultural identity marker is meant to be the entire scene - the church, the crater rim, the blue Aegean, the buildings spilling down...and taking the cross off the church simply makes it into a scene that doesn't exist. To me, they're saying they can't get across their intended cultural identity marker with the cross atop the church - so instead of choosing a different vantage point, they'll simply digitally deface the church. I don't think anyone here is saying it's the end of the world, but it isn't just Nestle, it's Lidl, and a few others besides, and it isn't just Greek churches in Santorini, its Catholic churches in Italy, too (Google and you'll see....). I don't see how or why Christians would want to accept the further ghettoization of Christian imagery in the secular culture - especially under false pretenses of religious inclusion.

In September of 2016 Cardinal Schonborn said this: “Europe’s Christian legacy is in danger, because we Europeans have squandered it. That has absolutely nothing to do with Islam nor with the refugees. It is clear that many Islamists would like to take advantage of our weakness, but they are not responsible for it. We are.” I would add that it has nothing to do with the deliberate or in-deliberate globalism that some so fear, either. We have squandered it. Those are strong words. One has to think of the line in Yeats' great poem: "The Second Coming". "The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity". I fear the rise of Nationalism and Sectarianism most.