After seeing the last bad church sign I had posted, a friend suggested this should be an ongoing blog project, so I’m kicking it off with a sign posted outside my own local.

Reasons why I can’t stand signs like this:

1. Very little effort in making it visually appealing. You have to stop and read it to get the message, and can’t just glimpse at it and keep moving. And then you realise that by stopping and reading you’ve lost three seconds of your life that you’ll never get back (if you read slowly like me).

2. I feel like throwing up when I see Christians trying to sell their religion with the whole “believe in what we believe in and you’ll get to heaven”. It assumes people are so selfish that they’ll only go to church to get something for themselves.

3. It also smacks to me of bad theology. I don’t know about you, but when people try to sell me the whole heaven thing, I think about all the instances in the Bible that God says she adores this planet, this level of existence. And if that’s the case, why do we spend so much time talking about the afterlife? To me (Is it only me?), this world is enough, and I can’t believe it’s only a testing ground to determine our entry into the next one.

If you’ve got any bad church signs, send them on to me, or post them on your blog and let me know about it so I can link you.

The Coming Out Conference had some great speakers, but the one who I felt really challenged my thinking was Lisa Usherwood, author of The Good News of the Body. Drawing on ther evaluation of a certain para-church mission, “True Love Waits”, Lisa gave us her evaluation of white male Christianity, and the general oppression of women.

I was utterly convinced by her excursus of contemporary Christian society’s ongoing project of subordniating women, and how the value of virginity over sexual freedom and integrity participates in it. What moved me, however, was her argument at how unchristian it actually is, and how unbiblical. First she mentions the call of James and John, who were not called to ministry and give money back to their father’s house, but to the poor. Likewise, the gospels do not claim a disdain on marriage per se, but a disdain for the “father’s house”, and how marriage is seen as the trade of women for its own upkeep.

Then she calls us to consider Song of Songs not just as a book of love, but one of freedom. She describes a woman, so comfortable in her own skin, gender and sexuality that she becomes the embarassment of her brothers, who see her only as an asset to be sold to other men. And she becomes God’s delight.

Throws into question why people like passages from this book read at their weddings.

I’m sitting with my best blog buddies, but they’re not the type to be so excited that they have to blog about it right now!!!!

Alleluia

Today is a joy of most joys.

Democracy works!

Let us run out into the streets, “The future is sane!”

This sign appears out the front of a certain Baptist Chruch on the road from Shepparton to Bendigo. The second time I drove past I felt the urge to take this photograph, just to share with you.

For one, apart from perhaps high schools sarcasm, I think puns are the lowest form of humour. I mean like anyone can make a play on words. Sometimes humans need the power to filter all word plays before deciding to place one on a huge friggin billboard outside their community’s houses.

And secondly, what this poster says about this community’s ideas of evangelism, mission and relationships with the community is that even the lowest form of entertainment must be good enough to get your attention. It says nothing about what they believe, apart from the fact that only kneeling down by your lonesome will get your closer to God. Not reading the Bible, not sharing your faith story with others, not trying out new experiences of the world, not even drugs. Just bending over repentantly will get your there.

Which basically means if we treat our audience like idiots who only respond to punny lines will we ever make a difference in the world.

Or maybe I’m just sick of churches at present, especially ones throwing themselves in my face. Sorry. End rant.