IMO, wearing a conspicuous cross is a lousy witness. Obviously the idea isn’t that the symbol itself can be a witness, as you can only know what it means if you’re already aware. So the idea is more that the way you act is the witness, and the symbol is there to explain why. People see your kindness and love and want that for themselves.
Problem is, people are much more likely to notice when you do things that are inconsistent with your values. People aren’t going to notice all the times you were kind and helpful as much as they’ll notice that one time you were having a bad day and were a jerk. And then that gets associated with the symbol.
The only reason it works at all is because we’re actually very used to people who wear the symbol just for show, and so we’re actually somewhat surprised when they turn out to be a nice person.
That’s not to say I think all crosses should be covered up or anything. It’s great when it’s this inconspicuous bit of jewelry. I have more respect for, say, Justin Stoney, a voice teacher in New York (who has a YouTube channel teaching singing) who wears a cross necklace but never at any point tries to push the idea that his stuff is for Christians only. He’ll help you sing whatever you want.
He’s not the only person selling pillows like that. My CPAP pillow works the same way, but it’s really comfy. Keeps whatever shape I shove it into, doesn’t make my head sweat, and adapts easily to my being a side sleeper. From your description, it sounds like his pillow is the same idea but with cutrate filling.
Speaking for myself whether I wear a cross on the inside or outside of my shirt depends on the shirt. If it’s a t-shirt it’s usually on the outside. If it’s a button-up or polo, anything with a collar or buttons, anything that the chain will snag on I wear it underneath. It’s just a matter of practicality.
I’m not an evangelical though, I only tell people my faith if they ask otherwise I don’t want to bother people. And my cross is just an inch tall or so, it’s enough to remind me but I’m not really trying to advertise anything.
What I do is personal, it’s not like I have a handbook (aside from the Bible and it is skimpy on fashion advice) and I rarely attend any organized church activities. I just do what I do for myself. Things might be different for people who are part of a religious organization and are more active about their faith. As far as I know there’s no real custom common to all Christians about how a cross is worn.
I also have a cross tattoo on my shoulder, again that’s probably not super common. However it does mean I’m technically always wearing a cross.
Lindell has a history of drug addiction. It’s not always the case, but it’s not unusual for recovering addicts to become obsessive about something. Lindell also credits prayer with his recovering so yeah, he might have a bit of the religious fanatic about him. All of that is rampant speculation on my part, largely based on my experience with people with addiction problems. I do not personally know Lindell, these are just possible reasons which may or may not actually apply.
As for “destroying his own company” - it’s not unknown for entrepreneurs to do that. They get some success, think it is entirely due to their own genius and not a dose of serendipity/luck, and think they known everything and can do no wrong. They’re the boss! They’re in charge! Makes sense if Lindell is that sort of CEO/owner that he’d idolize Trump, who is that sort of thing writ large.
The problem, of course, is that no one knows everything, and no one is always right.
Charisma actually has little to nothing to do with physical attractiveness or logic. It’s much more about body language, tone of voice, and over all presentation.
I find the “we’re a Christian business” line - outside of a religious supply store or a gift shop at a religious shrine or something of the sort - to be pretty damn offensive. There are few quicker ways to get me to avoid your business than to make that claim.
Mind you - I have zero problem working for Christians and patronizing their businesses. It’s the ones that start spouting off about how very Christian they are, and imply that being Christian somehow makes them inherently better, that I avoid patronizing.
They also seem to forget that not everyone is a Christian, and the flip side of the message is “If you aren’t Christian, stay away.”
I’m glad I never bought one of those pillows. About a year ago, I was buying every device and program that was supposed to help you sleep, and I thought about trying a MyPillow. Didn’t, though, because of all the lousy online reviews.
Based on my personal experience with such, many of them assume they represent a larger majority (in America) than they do and that driving away the scant few heathens is an added bonus because
That’s not a particularly kind assessment on my part but it sadly seems to be true of at least a significant percentage of this cohort. And if they do drive too many people away, they can always whine about how persecuted they are and start a GoFundMe.
It’s exactly like a cult. CNN ran an interview with a woman who had fallen down the Q-Anon rabbit hole and she sounds exactly like a person who had escaped from a cult.
The wearing of crosses as jewelry is pretty common among Italian-American men here in Brooklyn. They’re worn over t-shirts or sleeveless Ts or tanks in the summer, and under collared or buttoned shirts.
Although they’re usually crucifixes, not simple crosses.
Religious tattoos are also common with the same people. Although my own informal survey shows that crown-of-thorns tattoos are at least as popular as cross tattoos (which are, again, more likely to be crucifix tattoos, which can incorporate the crown of thorns). Sacred heart tattoos are also seen pretty often.
All this is specifically Catholic imagery, not much in favor with believers like Lindell.
Same here. I automatically assume that any money I spend there will be donated to causes that fight equal rights for gays, promote mandatory prayer in public schools and seek to criminalize abortion.
To be clear: he could have removed it destructively using tools, which he always had close to hand. But he didn’t want to. He did it that way so that if someone asked “hey, can you please take that off”, he could say “no, actually, I can’t”.
Hospitals usually have those little saws… You know if you smash a finger that has a wedding ring on it and the finger swells up so bad that you can’t remove the ring, they’ll cut it off. (The ring, not the finger, hopefully.) If it was urgent to do the MRI (perhaps as a result of head trauma) they’d probably do the same for him once they realized the chain can’t just be lifted up from around his head.
However it does mean I’m technically always wearing a cross.