By the same token, your post has no intrinsic property that demands respect, but you as a person do. I believe that Adam’s respect is for the people who value the religious symbol. If more people were like him, the world would be a better place.
Thank you all for the nice comments you gave about me. You all know how to make a guy feel good. 
In particular…
I think this is quite possibly the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. Thank you, Liberal.
As for the crucifix, it is being mailed to the SDMB’s resident iconophile, The Asbestos Mango. Thanks again for your responses.
Adam
Can’t you ‘decommission’ an icon, so that it simply becomes a profane object, the same way that you can decommission a church? When I was a kid, the Anglican Church decommissioned and sold a church in the middle of Whitby. The buyers remodeled it into an extremely cool if somewhat disconcerting house.
Fuji made a very valid point. He specifically said he wouldn’t do it in the presence of those who worship the symbol. It’s merely an object to those of us who don’t believe in christianity.
His post, on the other hand, is a direct extension of his human self. You cannot deny the fact that he’s a human, whereas most people can (and do) deny the worthiness of worshipping a christian symbol.
lAgent Foxtrot, I admire the respect you show for others, however I personally think that you may misunderstand how Christians generally feel about icons. I could be wrong but I would ask of the 29% of the SDMB who are Christians if they’d really be upset if you just threw it in the garbage.
Not in the Orthodox church, and, I’d suspect, not in the Catholic church either. Once an object has been consecrated, there’s no good way to unconsecrate it. Even if it’s defiled (like someone broke an icon or turned a church into a latrine (like is happening right now in Kosovo)) it doesn’t revert to being a profane object, but remains a holy object that is now in need of restoration. Us Orthodox are still waiting for the day we can resume services in Hagia Sophia.
I’d be upset, but that’s simply because I believe crucifixes and icons are intrinsically holy objects, by virtue of the fact that they represent God. It would be like throwing away a mezuzah that was left behind.
The answer to the question “How do you get rid of a holy symbol?” is clearly that you should post a thread about it on a culturally diverse internet message board.
Personally, I wouldn’t find anything wrong with throwing it away, except that it seems a shame to destroy an ornamental item that someone else might make use of.
Haven’t you ever seen The Exorcist?
I, for one, vote for a crucifix bong. It would just fit on so many levels. 
You never know, even Flanders ate Kosher just to be safe. ;j
I have, but it was some years ago. Is there a part in there where a sacred object is unconsecrated?
Cool! I thought mine was unique. Years ago I was at a flea market and found a box filled with “religious stuff”. Crosses, crucifixes(sp?), pictures, fishies, even a little gold horseshoe filled the box. I created a space on the wall where they are displayed. And I am an agnostic with atheistic leanings. But you can’t be too careful nowadays. 
Speaking of that scene in The Exorcist, the above question would be a bit of an understatement. However, just to give your memory a nudge, think hormones, applicable entrances and exits and about the most profane thing a female could use a cross for.
Hope that explains it delicately enough.
Whoa, never heard of this. What religion? I was always taught that if the eucharist is blessed, it MUST be consumed. I remember one service in particular (a youth service), Sister Pat went around giving out extra bits of eucharist, as the priest had blessed too many. (Catholic)
Oh yeah. Ugh.
It would still be a holy object, though, just a very icky one.
Setting aside the fact that, for all I know, he could be a web bot, and setting aside the fact that I know of no one who worships any symbols, Christian or otherwise, a faded and scratched photograph is merely an object to those of us who don’t know the photo’s subject. But if we were to know, as Agent Foxtrot did, that there were people to whom the photo was dear and meaningful, then finding one of them to give it to is a superior moral decision to tossing it in the trash. Whom would you prefer as a neighbor, Agent Foxtrot or his antithesis?