Religious grammar

Every day on my way to and from work I pass a big church. This particular church is on the corner of a highway and another main road, which means there are always cars waiting at the lights. To me, this puts them in a perfect spot to advertise things on the huuuuuge noticeboard they have on the lawn. They've obviously thought the same, because there's a different thing on there each week. (You know - it's one of those boards where you slide in plastic letters, and the board lights up from the inside.)

Unfortunately, this church has chosen to put up the kinds of meaningless platitudes that are exactly the reason why people think Christians are unbelievably daggy and out of touch. I almost always cringe when I drive past it. Last week it had something like, "Don't steal from tomorrow; that belongs to God." It sounds deep but if you think hard about it, it actually means... not a lot. Plus, they didn't have the semi-colon which really bugged me. This week's saying, though, is a winner. It says, "Love is a verb." Look, I know what they're trying to say... but, being the grammar geek that I am, I drove past it and said, "Uh huh - and it's also a noun."

My sister, who is not interested in Christianity in any way, suggested years ago that I should get a t-shirt made saying, "Christians can be cool". I've thought about it, but with things like this noticeboard... who would believe me??

4 comments:

Hippomanic Jen said...

Preach it, Sister!

Givinya had a post some time ago about church noticeboards. We thought we'd start a club of two to protest against them. Do you want to join? We probably don't need a blog for this one. :)

I feel like slinking past our church with hung head for the same reasons. The board went up to announce things, but a dear, sweet lady from our congregation (whom I otherwise respect greatly) has a love affair with platitudes and inflicts them on everyone - thinking they are very deep and thought-provoking.

This is hard for me because our church is pretty involved in the community in 'non-churchy' sorts of things.

We've rented out one of our buildings to a local organisation that do work with people who are struggling - food, money, counselling etc. We have a team who go over to the magistrates court across the road and offer tea, coffee and homemade biscuits to those waiting to see the magistrate. We have another team who tutor school students and help them with their homework.

None of these are 'Bible Bashing' events - they are support for people whose needs we've seen around the community.

And then we have the sign. *sigh*

Femina said...

I think you'd find a lot more people than just the three of us who are embarrassed by those boards. Thankfully MY church just uses the board to advertise services and other events (we're also in a fairly prominent spot) but I fear I'm tainted by association...

Sometimes I think, "The Bible warns that people will be against us because of our beliefs - but do we really have to make it so easy for them???"

Dee said...

There are a few chruches in Brisbane that have pretty funny and clever sayings, of course I cant remember them at present. Next time I pass one I'll jot it down for you, maybe you can use one.

Givinya De Elba said...

Oh boy I hate these stupid platitudes. The one close to us has "Eternity is in the moment - seize it!" which I think is particularly meaningless.

Hip-Jen was right - here's the post.

http://friendlyblackandwhitedog.blogspot.com/2008/05/playing-scrabble-with-church-signs.html

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