bumper sticker theology

This should be a fun little topic to write about. This is a topic I feel strongly about, and have kept meaning to write a little bit about it, but hadn't gotten around to it until now.

Sometimes I understand why non-Christians dislike Christians and think we're stupid. If you really face the facts, we have done some stupid things. We say some cliche things. We say downright stupid things. This is intended to be constructive criticism; I hope it inspires cerebral activity.

I found a web site recently that sold some pretty funny bumper stickers. A couple were vulgar, but most were funny. Some made me sad. Real Men HATE Jesus, for example. Some made me laugh at first, then sad. Hi. I'm God. Now give Me your money, for example.

1) Real Men Love Jesus
Do not get me wrong, I understand the meaning behind this bumper sticker. However, the meaning and intention of the sticker I think are completely lost on non-Christians. Put yourself in their shoes for a moment; how does this bumper sticker come off? To me it almost would seem like a testosterone-driven-male-ego thing, harkening back to high school. "Hey man, you wanna be a REAL man? Then you gotta do ______" Another easy way to put it is that this bumper sticker just preaches to the choir. It's condescending and doesn't say why real men love Jesus, or why anyone should.

2) PRAY: In America's public schools it's a four letter word
This hardly needs commentary, in my opinion. This falls under downright stupidity; yes I know it's supposed to refer to swear words/vulgarities, but they could have more intelligently portrayed the intended message w/o making us look like morons. Outside of public shools it's a four letter word, too, ya know. Just like "duck". Maybe I should make one: "DUCK: In America's public schools.."

I'm not saying water down the Message, but please think and use some tact, Christians. Meet people where they're at, don't shove stuff down their throat. I think birdwalking is a great example of this. I don't know the guy super well, but just reading his weblog about the things he does to show God's love to people.. WOW! I'm not on some "high horse" either, trust me. I need to show God's love to people more and I know it.

While t-shirt theology isn't really the topic of this post (that's an entire other post, but similar), I found a site yesterday where some Christians are selling stuff that I can really support. Check them out (fresh). I definitely am going to get their "love your enemies" shirt.

So what do you think on this topic?

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published September 17, 2002

Responses

Girl who_gave_you_h-e-doublehockeysticks – September 20, 2002
Super amen.

bryan – September 24, 2002
hmm. that's cool. thanks for the reference. that makes me feels special. especially in light of what's been happening to me lately (see xanga september 24th). i agree with you on this stuff one hundred percent. communicating the gospel and god's love requires a very high degree of finesse and as you say, tact. i get a little better at this all the time. it's actually kinda funny. when i saw my login name there, i thought you were gonna say something bad -- like maybe that i force it on people. i was kinda sweating it, but i wanted to wait until i got down there before i read it -- not jump ahead. so that was a whew-er. :-) you're right about some of those t-shirts and stuff being condecending. hey, what do you think of a t-shirt that says "jesus is cool?" i've been wanting to make one of these for a long time. also (and this one is to excite flat christians -- i'd just wear it to church or something), what do you think of "paul didn't have a 401(k) plan?"