Quoting Trent W. Buck (trentbuck@gmail.com):
It's substantiable, see e.g.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifix
Well, sure, but it's very much a Not Nice, decidedly catty thing to say. I usually reserve my characterisation of Christianity as a 'Middle-Eastern death cult' for sideways slaps delivered onto dumbasses already concentrated on ranting about how Muslims are inherently a threat and suspect of being terrorists, etc. It produces a bracing effect when I nod and say 'Sure, we of course need to expel all members of Middle-Eastern death cults. Let's start with the Lutherans.' I cherish the look of confusion when I said that to my Orthodox Jewish friend Ruben Safir (of Brooklyn), for example. Quite priceless. Truth: Until just a couple of years ago, I had absolutely no idea what the word 'crucifix' properly referred to. I had just assumed that it was a synonym for 'cross'. I was a bit appalled when I learned what it denotes. Sheesh, that's really pretty disgusting, and gory. Seriously, we want to have a miniature reproduction of a human body being tortured and killed on the wall? That's a bit sick. The late Lenny Bruce, master of black humour, observed: 'If Jesus had lived in the 20th Century, we'd now have little parochial school children running around with model electric chairs hanging from their necks.' (My wife Deirdre comments: 'He wasn't wrong!')