I work in a Catholic hospital with crucifixes in every room. Some people seem offended by this and rip the corpus off leaving the empty cross.
The crucifix is a reminder of the ongoing solidarity of Christ suffering with us and our sharing in his suffering.
Why do people find this offensive enough to take this action on property not their own?.
Reminds me of a Francis Schaeffer story. Francis Schaeffer, a well known Calvinist apologist, was sick with cancer at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN. Now Mayo uses two main hospitals in Rochester, Methodist and St. Mary's. One does abortions and the other not. One doesn't have crucifixes or crosses while the other has crucifixes. And Francis Schaeffer was a bit of a known anti-Catholic bigot. But he realized something. He belonged in the Catholic hospital and not in the Methodist hospital, even though there was a crucifix there. Something dawned on him. And for the rest of his rather truncated life he began to stand up against abortion so that his obituary called him a notable anti-abortion activist. And he always then chose St. Mary's over Methodist Hospital after that day. St. Mary's had an effect on him. And it started with contemplating a crucifix, something he was very unlikely to want to do.
I'd say replace all the decorpsed crucifixes, send the patients an exorbitant bill for their vandalism, and soldier on. It obviously had an effect on those people, and maybe in the long run for the better. We try to preach Christ, and him crucified. It's folly to some and a stumbling block to others, but the power of God.
1Cor 1: 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach[
b] to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
