I'm sure there's counter-references to be found but I imagine the parent is thinking of things like this, from an interview with assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki:
> Can you explain the symbolism of the cross in Evangelion?
? KT: There are a lot of giant robot shows in Japan, and we did want our story to have a religious theme to help distinguish us. Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan we thought it would be mysterious. None of the staff who worked on Eva are Christians. There is no actual Christian meaning to the show, we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool. If we had known the show would get distributed in the US and Europe we might have rethought that choice.
Any reference?