Peace Sign A Symbol Of Satan?

[annabanana]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/27/national/main2209402.shtml

AP) A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.

Some residents who have complained have children serving in Iraq, said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs. He said some residents have also believed it was a symbol of Satan. Three or four residents complained, he said.

-snip-

The subdivision's rules say no signs, billboards or advertising are permitted without the consent of the architectural control committee.

Kearns ordered the committee to require Jensen to remove the wreath, but members refused after concluding that it was merely a seasonal symbol that didn't say anything. Kearns fired all five committee members.

Boy, does THIS guy sound like a dick!

[mike_c]

1. she should argue that ALL christmas wreaths must be removed....

eom

[Der Blaue Engel]

2. I say she should replace it with a pentacle

I remember my freepish father making claims that the peace symbol was actually an inverted cross and a sign of the devil back in the early 70s. These crackpots never come up with anything original. What a bunch of freaks.

Anyway, if a peace sign is considered advertising (how, exactly??), then replace it with a religious symbol: the pentacle. See how they like that one.

[MADem]

3. STOOPID dick, too--what does he not understand about the PRINCE OF PEACE?

And I do not speak of the guy who wears purple and lace, either....

Christmas celebrates the birth of the Prince of Peace, peace on earth, goodwill towards men.

And a wreath is a holiday SYMBOL, just like the peace SYMBOL is.

That asswipe in charge either is congenitally stoooooooopid, or he has a brain tumor that's affecting his ability to think logically. What a dork!

[Warpy]

7. My very educated guess is that

HE is the only one who is offended.

Who elected him god anyway? I knew Nietzshe said the job was open but...

[mod mom]

4. I heard on Young Turks this am it is because some see the peace symbol as

an upside down broken cross.

[baldguy]

6. Some people are idiots, too.

[Igel]

13. That's pretty much it.

There were some rather influential books (in the fundie Xian community) in the late '70s and early-mid '80s claiming various occult or Satanic influences in pop culture. The 'inverted broken cross' motif got a bit of play.

Then again, they were also into exposing the use of subliminals in the wildest products--some using sex as the theme, others the occult.

[baldguy]

5. The only real sign of Satan

is the GOP elephant.

[LittleClarkie]

8. Some think the peace sign is a broken cross

It's not, of course. iirc, it's a representation of the letters in semaphore ND. Nuclear Disarmament.

[Katzenjammer]

11. No, it's a medieval "dead man" symbol.

See the late Rudolf Koch's Book of Signs (English title). Written in the '20s iirc, he covered a lot of the medieval astrological, Christian, and runic iconography that was used for trade marks, secret societies, etc. It's a very interesting book.

[LittleClarkie]

12. How does that relate to how it ended up being used?

Why did the peace movement adopt it?

[Katzenjammer]

17. I've heard two different stories about that

One was that, although the person suggesting it hoped it would be adopted out of principle, it was actually adopted just because it was simple, easy to draw, and looked neat. The other was that it was adopted for somewhat the same reason as the cross is used by Xians--a sort of obscure reminder that the alternative to peace is dead people.

[Kelly Rupert]

14. From Wikipedia:

This forked symbol was adopted as its badge by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in Britain, and originally, its use was confined to supporters of that organization. It was later generalised to become an icon of the 1960s anti-war movement, and was also adopted by the counterculture of the time. It was designed and completed February 21, 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a commercial designer and artist in Britain. He had been commissioned by the CND to design a symbol for use at an Easter march to Canterbury Cathedral in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in England.

The symbol itself is a combination of the semaphoric signals for the letters "N" and "D," standing for Nuclear Disarmament. In semaphore the letter "N" is formed by a person holding two flags in an upside-down "V," and the letter "D" is formed by holding one flag pointed straight up and the other pointed straight down. These two signals imposed over each other form the shape of the peace symbol. In the original design the lines widened at the edge of the circle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_sign



And from the Straight Dope:


The design for the familiar crow's-foot-in-a-circle we know as the peace symbol was completed February 21, 1958, by British commercial artist Gerald Holtom.

Holtom had been commissioned by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The CND, headed by philosopher Bertrand Russell, was planning an Easter march to Canterbury Cathedral to protest the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston.

After doodling around with several versions of the Christian cross set in a circle, Holtom hit on the crow's-foot idea. This had a couple things going for it.

First, it was a combination of the semaphore signals for N and D, standing for Nuclear Disarmament. N is two flags held in an upside-down V, and D is one flag pointed straight up and the other pointed straight down.

Second, the crow's-foot has an ancient history as a symbol of death and despair--it looks like somebody spreading his hands in a gesture of defeat. The symbol is shown in a 1955 tome called The Book of Signs by Rudolph Koch, a German calligrapher, although it's unclear whether Holtom saw it there.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_149.html

[Katzenjammer]

21. I didn't think to look it up

Interesting that TBOS was written in '55...I didn't think Koch was still alive in '55. (quick wiki check) I was right: he lived from 1876 to 1934. The book in its current form dates to 1930, but the first version goes back to 1923, it's only the English edition that dates from '55. *whew* I thought I was losing it there. I *thought* the darn thing went back to the '20s! (Die erste Ausgabe des Zeichenbuchs erschien schon 1923. Die Sammlung enthielt mit der Breitfeder gezeichnete astronomische, chemische und kirchliche Symbole sowie Hausmarken. (The first edition of the Signbook came out in 1923. The collection had chisel-pen drawings of astronomical, chemical, and religious symbols as well as trade marks))

The semaphore story sounds like one of those backfilled "explanations", doesn't it? :)

(oh, and it's a symbol of death because of being the symbol for Man upside down -- it's the upside down part that symbolizes death)

[Behind the Aegis]

15. Very interesting....

I found this, I thought you'd enjoy...

One of the most widely known symbols in the world, in Britain it is recognised as standing for nuclear disarmament – and in particular as the logo of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). In the United States and much of the rest of the world it is known more broadly as the peace symbol. It was designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a professional designer and artist and a graduate of the Royal College of Arts. He showed his preliminary sketches to a small group of people in the Peace News office in North London and to the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War, one of several smaller organisations that came together to set up CND.

---snip---

Gerald Holtom, a conscientious objector who had worked on a farm in Norfolk during the Second World War, explained that the symbol incorporated the semaphore letters N(uclear) and D(isarmament). He later wrote to Hugh Brock, editor of Peace News, explaining the genesis of his idea in greater, more personal depth:

---snip---

There have been claims that the symbol has older, occult or anti-Christian associations. In South Africa, under the apartheid regime, there was an official attempt to ban it. Various far-right and fundamentalist American groups have also spread the idea of Satanic associations or condemned it as a Communist sign. However the origins and the ideas behind the symbol have been clearly described, both in letters and in interviews, by Gerald Holtom and his original, first sketches are now on display as part of the Commonweal Collection in Bradford.

source

[Katzenjammer]

22. Clearly, whoever wrote that up had never heard of Rudi Koch

or his Book of Signs, even though they've probably seen his Neuland typeface a thousand times or more.

[YOY]

9. Please let there be a God...

So he/she/it can slap the shit out of this assclown in the afterlife.

[jobycom]

10. Isn't Satan known as the "Prince of Peace?"

Oh wait, it's that Jesus fellow. I get them confused when I hear Republicans talking about them.

[robertpaulsen]

16. And the opening shot of this year's War on Christmas has been fired!

I nominate Bob Kearns for this week's Top 10 Conservative Idiots list!

[Quantess]

18. Any symbol that is not exclusively Christian

is suspect, in some zealot's minds. The way I understand it: some fundies see Satan's motive to corrupt young minds by luring them to anything that is not 100% based in Christianity. Because then, through the interest in secular beliefs or symbols (or anything not sponsored by the church), Satan can take hold, and lead the lost souls down a slippery slope to hell.

[Porcupine]

19. Just like the cross is a threat of torture for nonbelievers

The Xtian Taliban isn't really ready to let anybody else express an opinion. They aren't taking down any of the Xmas crap in that HOA i'm sure.

[Bassic]

20. So I guess people can't hang crosses or recreate nativity scenes either?

Yeah, I thought not.

Peace sign as a symbol of Satan. Where the fuck have they been living for the past 40 years?