Collecting information for an article about mystical fires in the United States, I drew attention to a very interesting thing. I looked at the church buildings that were in Chicago before the fire of 1871, as well as photographs after the fire. Interestingly, all these churches practically do not have such an important Christian symbol as the cross. I was interested in this fact, and therefore I decided to find out which god the Americans were praying to in the middle of the nineteenth century.
A little historical background: in 1790, the population of the United States was 4 million people, of which 700 thousand were black slaves. 98 percent of the white population in the United States was Protestant. The Protestants who settled in the British colonies were famous for having solid religious buildings, were devout people, and their churches were always overflowing with believers. This means that in the United States in the early 19th century, most of the white population believed in Christ and Christian symbols. This means that the churches that these people built in the 19th century must have an important Christian symbol.
Let's take a look at 19th century churches. Let's start with the Presbyterian churches that were built in Chicago before 1870.
Here is the first Presbyterian church before the fire of 1870. Of course, a beautiful church, but for some reason there is not a single cross on the facade or on the spiers. If you enlarge the image, then there are no Christian symbols at all.
Let's move on to the next church, which is just that - the second Presbyterian church.
The large stained glass window of this church, of course, looks somewhat like a cross, but on the steeples of the church there are some incomprehensible objects that do not resemble a Christian symbol.
Promotional video:
I decided to check: maybe it was this Christian trend that did not have a tradition to decorate their churches with the image of a cross on a spire?
I found a photograph of a Presbyterian church in Odessa at the beginning of the twentieth century with a cross on it, as expected.
You look at the spire of this building and you immediately realize that this is a church. But in Chicago, for some reason, crosses were not put on the spiers of churches of this denomination.
Now let's look at the building of the second Baptist church in Chicago.
A very beautiful building, but at first glance it is impossible to determine what it is. There is an incomprehensible vase on the spire. And here's the strange thing - in our time, there is a cross on the spiers of Baptist churches:
And here is the Church of Unity, after the fire:
Above the entrance, instead of a cross, there is again some strange object.
Lutheran Church of Chicago:
It is also difficult to determine what kind of building it is.
Methodist Church:
Again, the purpose of this building is not clear. There are no symbols familiar to us.
I just showed you the building of Protestant churches, and now we will look at exactly the Christian church. This is the Church of the Holy Trinity. She was in Chicago before the fire, and this church will certainly be decorated with crosses on spiers. And what do we see? The spiers of this church are again decorated with incomprehensible objects.
This is somehow very different from the churches in Russia and Europe. After all, even on old engravings, the churches of Russia are decorated with crosses, but here there is something incomprehensible. Maybe it's just an artist's fantasy? But this is not so: here is a photograph of this church and again we do not see any crosses.
It seems that we were deceived somewhere again, because this church is simply obliged to decorate with crosses! Or did the Americans have other gods?
The buildings of American churches are similar to each other, just the names are different. A lot of churches in the United States were built according to this project: there is a main building, and on the left there is either a bell tower, or some kind of tower. We have a project of the same type for churches of different denominations, but for some reason this building reminds me more of some kind of industrial premises: as if there were abandoned factories or factories, and they were simply occupied by representatives of different churches. And this photo seems to confirm it:
Look at this amazing factory chimney! In other places, they were probably simply demolished so as not to raise unnecessary questions, but here, probably, they have not yet had time. It seems that the Americans at the end of the nineteenth century only had Christianity, and before that either these churches were for other gods, or, more likely, these are some kind of technical premises, converted for church needs.
Most interestingly, what I noticed in America applies to Europe as well. Let's take a fresh look at Cologne Cathedral:
It was built by Christians for 500 years, but for some reason there are no Christian symbols. Some strange objects on the spiers. Outwardly, it is impossible to determine that this is a Christian shrine.
Now Notre Dame:
You look at this cathedral: for which religion it was built is unknown. How can you determine the ownership of this building?
It seems that not only in America there was no Christianity until the end of the nineteenth century! What do you think? Write in the comments!