Sound off on Church Sign Propaganda

From a series of rants to a friend writing a college paper

I think a lot of this [the church road sign messages] stem from a sincere desire by the religious community to appeal to the sound byte culture or give a memorable slogan that can be read quickly. Unfortunately, it is a poor medium for communicating truth, in my opinion, and complex theological/spiritual questions and usually comes off as patronizing or re-inforces a stereotype of religion as not understanding or being dishonest to the complex issues that exists in people’s spiritual lives today. They don’t bother me much personally because, unfortunately, I have come to expect it from the religious community in many cases. I’ve grown indifferent.

Analysis of Several Actual Church Signs:

The wages of sin is death…Repent before payday.

This is truth that comes across as judgemental. Unless you have time to have an honest conversation and qualify those statements, it does more harm than good. A lot of the bad with religion has been caused by the religious community not taking the time to invest in communicating their sincere concern for people’s needs before launching headlong into a sermonette. "The wages of sin is death". How do you say that from a road sign without being immediately offensive to a postmodern culture conditioned to respond to relativism? You don’t get two feet with that approach.

What’s missing in ch_ _ch? UR!

This message makes most people roll their eyes. The better question is “Why R They missing in the church?” Is the church missing you or are many churches missing relevance to you? The days of the "build it and they will come mentality" died with Laura Ingles Wilder. Jesus Christ is alive and well, but He would feel about as at home in most churches these days as He did back when He walked the earth! The tag might read, “Who’s missing in C_urch? Him.”

How will you spend eternity: smoking or non-smoking?

To which a lot of people would say, "sure, non-smoking, why not, I’m a good person". But if heaven is anything like First Whatever the City down the street, the only way I’ll go is if I get a smoke break on occasion.

Prevent truth decay: Brush up on your Bible!

I hate it when the horse is running over the cart. Last time I checked, we weren’t in need of fighting truth decay in this country. We’ve already got bleeding gums and we’re wearing false teeth! It’s more of a “Hello, America, meet truth. Truth, meet America. Here’s an exclusive! And sorry if that offends you.

“Tsunami---Aids---War---Do you hear me now???” —God

Alert! Alert! Theologic Doozy-of-the-Day Award. So God causes pain and suffering? God might use it, but cause it? Let’s perpetuate bad theology to a world that already has enough excuses not to believe. Newsflash to the foolhearty sadist…we cause pain and suffering by our choices, not God’s imposition. He’s almighty, sure, He could impose His rule all day long. And then, we get no choice in choosing Him. Now there’s an authentic option. So we want God Almighty to violate the natural laws He has put in place. About how long would we truly respect or TRUST a God who couldn’t even honor His own laws? If He’s God, then He’s constant. We aren’t talking about Greek mythology here where Helios wakes up, sticks his wet thumb up in the air to see which way the wind blows and then decides whether he wants to put out a sunrise today.

A free thinker is Satan’s slave.

Smacks of fear to me. If there’s one phrase that would turn off the Wikipedia, Info-at-My-Fingertips culture, that would have to be it. If Christianity is the Truth then what does it have to be afraid of from the free-thinking world? The truth should be able to stand on its own two feet without a crutch. If not, what is it trying to hide? Religion that is afraid of the free thinker raises suspicions in the community of free thinkers. It's a severe disservice to the free-thinker who might otherwise have given it a serious look.

Seven days without prayer makes one weak.

Agreed.

Read the Bible—it will scare the hell out of you.

Oh now there's reason enough. If a good scare is my criterion for a good read, I can read the NY Times for that, or watch an Al Gore film...or a Stephen Hawking slideshow presentation. And all three of those have pictures! Not to mention we live in a society that thinks we know hell already because it's what we're familiar with. We’re Americans. We come from broken homes. No offense, but "broken homes" in the US means single parent. Try broken homes in North Korea or pre-liberated Iraq as a Kurdish man, woman or child…(i.e. "I lost my parents to a chemical weapons blast when I was five." "My sister was taken to a rape room and I never saw her again." "My brother was burned alive in front of me by a car bomb.") In light of current global conflicts and the reality of the hell that the media brings us every day, a phrase like that seems to cheapen the work done worldwide by Christians who have seen the Christian faith triumph over the hell around them. And for the love of Allah-Akbar when are you "Christians" going to start getting hacked about the smear campaigns being mounted against you? Quit with this humility schtic and try violently reacting to a cartoon or something. Don't you know the media PR machine has the power to release you or have you crucified?!

Trading Spaces - Andrew Young Plays the Gibson Race Card

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! The only thing overrunning our precious national security faster than undocumented workers (and that is the only PC statement you’ll get in this piece) is media coverage hypocrisy. Let me see if I can drum up some race-bating like my fellow media brethren. Trying to get these guys to connect the dots is like trying to draw a perfect circle on an Etch-A-Sketch. In a statement earlier in the week, former U.N. ambassador and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young responded to questions about Wal-Mart running mom and pop out of town with this little gem, “But you see, those are the people [talking `bout Mama] who have been overcharging us – selling stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables…First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it’s Arabs; very few black people own these stores.” Let me paraphrase for Brother Young. “The Jews, Koreans and Arabs are responsible for a lot of the world’s worst capitalistic greed at the expense of the poor working man”. How about this one. “The Jews are responsible for all of the world’s worst wars”. Sound familiar? It should since we as a people have spent the last few weeks running to pell Mel Gibson into oblivion. The difference is, Young retracts his statements and it’s hardly mentioned in the news until after he’s made penitence. When it is, it shows up buried on the bottom of Section G under a specialty story in the AJC Business section. Apparently Gibson was important enough for general issues coverage. What’s more, whether Gibson was sincere in his comments or not, the world does not turn on the words of a filmmaker. But a former U.N. ambassador? Should not anti-Semitism have higher stakes for those charged with representing the U.S. to the world community? Instead, Young gets to pawn off anti-Semitism in the name of propping up the race card. Sounds like a double-whammy to me. And no, I won’t mention the Muslim terrorist on a shooting rampage in Seattle christening the day of Gibson’s comment. Nor will I draw attention to the Iranian-sponsored exhibit of over 200 anti-Semitic art pieces that premiered in Tehran the next week. Why should I? My fellow gate-keeper media types didn’t see the newsworthiness. Why run from the fray? Still, that nagging question surfaces, “When did racist comments trump physical aggression in the name of anti-Semitism (a la Hezbollah)?” “When did the opinions of former politicians with a real direct impact on national security fall under less scrutiny than a Hollywood entertainer?” And perhaps the most sinister and incriminating, “Whether Mel Gibson felt sincere remorse or not, would PC America ever allow itself to lay its head to rest without hearing an apology from him? Is this an earnest thirst for justice or a ploy to resolve our own discomfort with the world around us? A desire for truth to prevail or a result of social conditioning? Give the pundits a rest. You be the judge for a change.

Trading Systems - Religion Gets A Makeover

In Response to an article on Monday, February 14, 2005 in Neal's Nuze
Regarding An Author's Views of Religion

Hi Carol,

I agree with Walsh to a certain point, though he may have gone a little too far and made it a bit confusing. Religion, as he would agree, is an ORGANIZED SYSTEM, it's a SET OF RULES, and if one develops their relationship with the system, instead of the SOURCE of life and Truth, which is Christ, and cannot differentiate the System from the Source, then it becomes a barrier to reaching, developing relationship and submitting to the Source of all Truth. Religion should never be confused with tradition, though, and that's where I think the danger lies when we talk like this. A lot of people immediately assume, because it's fast becoming the "in" thing to bitch about organized religion, that religion and tradition are synonomous and our ultimate Christian duty is to get as far away from tradition as possible if we are truly to be free and discover God. This kind of thinking sets people on a war path toward what we commonly call secular humanism, or self-actualization, or any one of a number of New Age, "Answer-Lies-Within" philosophies on life. We become our own God, we write our own rules, we follower whatever feels right and good, we drift away from the Source due to our natural inclination toward pride that causes us to trust self above all others. There is something to be said for TRADITION. John Wesley thought so. R.E.S.T. or Reason , Emotion, Scripture, Tradition were some of his fundamentals. You could not and cannot have authentic faith without all of these working together. They maintain balance. Why Tradition? (And when I say tradition I don't mean sacraments, symbols, etc). Tradition is the testimony of the ages. It is the witness of the validity of Truth and the Christian Belief System that hundreds of thousands of searching, serious, and committed men and women of history have arrived at. It is the belief system that has been tested by time and serious questioning and proven itself to be fundamental to a righteous and effective and full life. Tradition only becomes tradition when it is proven over time. It must pass the litmus test of history and, therefore, it is one of the ultimate and most powerful testimonies to the Truth of Scripture. Anyhoo, your articles always get me going. I just had to think this one through. I think I'll save a draft. Hope y'all are doing well. Stay Focused,Joel Foster