This is one thing that bugs me to distraction with NO end. I remember back in the day when church signs were actually just meant to advertise coming events in the church, to welcome visitors, or give the times of the service. But it seems like in the last few years there has been an explosion of extremely corny, cutesy, and sometimes even condescending slogans, all seemed bent on outdoing each other. It really aggravates me because the messages could be meaningful, they could provide a little slice of what that church stands for but instead, they are just clichés. So the one I passed on the way to work today stuck in my head:
"It's not luck, it's God!"
What does that even mean? It seems to come back to my earlier discussions about fate vs. God vs. free will. Some people would argue that God can only guide you and the rest of your decisions are left up to free will. Others argue that things are all predestined according to God's plan. So is this church asserting that what people believe to be luck is actually God influencing the direction of our lives? If some churches are to be believed, God controls all, so wouldn't luck and got be essentially the same thing? And why does this church choose to tackle the concept of luck, when there are so many greater topics? The people that this church would want to bring in would be people who are searching for a higher power, a meaning to life, a truer purpose. This type of person may only have luck to hope for. So wouldn't it be more useful to say "God is Luck" or "God creates Luck?" Not nearly as catchy to compete with the church down the street.
It just bothers me that these churches seem to think so little of the intelligence of the people driving along, that they would believe these inane little sayings would draw people in (or worse yet, they're only putting them up to keep up with the Jones'---er, Baptists). Why not say things like "Find your spiritual home with us", "God welcomes all comers", or something else that says what your church stands for. Those are more likely to draw someone even remotely intelligent.
Why am I bothering to discuss this, you might ask.... Well these sayings just remind me of all the reasons I stopped going to church in the first place, and they are the exact opposite of the reasons why I started going to PUUC. We don't put slogans up. We have a sign with the name of the church, and the rainbow flag proudly flying, which tells me all I need to know: All are welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment