Symbols

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St. George's Cross / England world cup squad / Sky TV

Kasabian's lead singer advertising the English away football shirt.

Its odd that every time I see the St. George's cross, I see it as a 'Christian cross'. England used to be officially Christian, but now the red cross is a symbol of us - the English. But I still see it as a symbol of Christ, which is weird on adverts and taxi's and thugs. 

Obviously symbols change meanings - my little sister was wearing rosary beads for a while because the person who had given them to her got them from a prison chaplain. She thought wearing them made her look rough and glamourous. When my mum told her they were prayer beads she didn't believe her.

I recently met a 22 year old Iraqi living in Manchester. He was a really nice guy. His family, which moved to the UK 2 years ago, is unusually Christian. He told me that after the war began in Iraq life became much more difficult for Christians there. Churches started burning down. He said this was partly to do with the end of Saddham Hussein, who as a relatively secular, nominal Muslim, was more liberal with minority faith groups. It was also because the western invasion of Iraq was seen as a 'Christian war'.