What Do Spires and Steeples Represent?
Such objects long predate Christianity. In fact, they go back to ancient pagan fertility rites. The male symbol of fertility was represented by the pagans as an upright stone, pillar, obelisk, or slender tower.
According to Edward Carpenter, in the book Pagan and Christian Creeds, the lingam (a stylized phallic symbol) occurs all over the world.
The Biblical Cyclopaedia, by McClintock and Strong, says: "Even the spires of churches are symbols retained from the old phallic worship" ("Phallus," vol. VIII, p. 55).
Thomas Inman, in his book Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism, writes that ancient fertility rites and phallic worship resulted in the setting up of various architectural structures such "as we now see towers or spires before our churches, and minarets before mosques" (p. XXII).
This is sufficient evidence that our churches should not be adorned with such symbols and that they should have no connection to the worship of God.
