The Bible has a very strong passage to support taking the time to gather facts to make a truth-filled decision. Proverbs 18:15, “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” We cannot afford to jump to conclusions on unfounded rumors or quickly repeated gossip.
I have witnessed one incident of such false information that has spread like a raging forest fire due to individuals not doing their homework on the subject matter. I am talking about some recent “observances” during the funeral of Pope Francis.
During his funeral, several individuals noticed that there were “upside-down crosses” displayed in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Many took to social media in a wild frenzy to associate “Satanism” or “satanic” images to the Catholic Church and Pope Frances. It was painful to watch the ignorance pour from the videos.
Proverbs 18:13, “Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish.” It had become quickly apparent that many of these individuals making the videos had not done their homework. They made it obvious that they didn’t know what they were talking about at all.
This “upside-down cross” that they were making such a huge fuss about being “satanic” is known as “St. Peter’s Cross.” It is not satanic at all. The upside down cross is an ancient symbol of Peter’s crucifixion. Tradition tells us that when Peter was executed, he insisted that he be crucified upside down as he did not believe himself worthy to be crucified in the manner of Jesus Christ.
In John 21:18-19, Jesus speaks of the kind of death that Peter would suffer: “I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.” Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, “Follow me.”
“You will stretch out your hands.” In Biblical times, “to stretch out one’s hands” was a common reference to crucifixion. How do we know Peter “followed” Jesus in obedience to his death? By the time of the writing of John’s Gospel, Peter’s martyrdom had already occurred and could be attested to have occurred.
As we now see, there is a lot more behind the story of the “upside down cross” that some have attributed to satanic themes rather than the Apostle Peter. Let us learn from this lesson that we need to take a step back, reassess the information we have received, and then go spend some time in research to investigate the information before rendering a verdict or passing the stories along on social media.
When it comes to passing along unchecked or uninformed stories and rumors, may we remember the more important cautions given to us from the Ten Commandments. The ninth commandment tells us not to bear “false witness” (Exodus 20:16). Let us make sure we have all the facts and have done our homework before jumping to conclusions.