The shape of a longsword is also utilitarian as a weapon designed to be held by two hands and crush through mail. Possibly, the idea of a portable grave marker appealed to the soldiers, but then again, the fact that a Christian grave has a cross over it goes back to the same symbol of love and eternal life.
Nothing was “tainted” by the Holy Crusades, except maybe it would be fair to say that their failure to roll back the Turkish horde is a sad memory.
Yes, I stand corrected about the pagans. I should have checked with the article. You are right, paganism is not by itself against anything, although given the cultural disintegration in America chances are those pagans wouldn’t know the difference, especially if the self-description is “Earth-centered”.
That's not completely true. Unfortunately the Crusaders, like any army, committed acts of cruelty and excess. The sinfull behavior of a few tainted the image of Christians and gave fuel to God's enemy.
However, the first thing one must do, to remain intellectually honest, is remember the crusades were not one war during one short point in time. They ran pretty much from the 11th century (when the muslims started acting up) until late in the 13th century.
When the crusaders captured Jerusalem (IIRC, during the first of nine crusades) the conquerors killed everyone in the city. Any reasonable Soldier would agree that was unchivalrous and repugnant to Christianity.
While I'll admit that wrongs were committed on both sides during the crusades (also know as the wars that liberated Europe from the Moorish invaders), I'm sure melkor would echo Michael Moore's beliefs that the peace loving muslims were happily dancing around with kites and rainbows and sunshine and unicorns until those evil rotten Christians showed up because Bush wanted their oil.