Its not that often anymore, but sometimes you know whether the car in front of you is driven by a Lutheran, Baptist or Episcopalian. Some of the stickers affixed to the car may be small and subtle — perhaps just that Episcopalian symbol that mostly only other Episcopalians will recognize. Or maybe the flames from the United Methodists symbol. If theres a The Mass Never Ends sticker, you’re following a Catholic.Or maybe it is a straight-forward bumper sticker promoting ones church as a wholesome and wonderful family church. A few mega-churches seem to be the only ones anymore who tout themselves with bumper stickers. Obviously there must be some reluctance or restraint from the faith community to advertise or proselytize with bumper stickers. Or maybe theres second thoughts about being seen speeding or cutting in and out of traffic with a Beautiful Savior Baptist Church bumper sticker on one’s tail.
My wifes car displays the common Christian fish symbol, not to be confused with the atheists’ Darwin fish symbol, which simply adds two feet to the fish.
With modern plastic bumpers on vehicles, bumper stickers generally seem to be in sharp decline. Still there are some pretty direct spiritual messages out there like “My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter or Life is Short. Pray Hard or As Long As There Are Tests, There will be Prayer in Public Schools.
I must admit that the landscape of America when I was a kid — in the 1950s and 1960s — was more “informative” and provocative. And I miss massive signs that covered the sides of farm barns at curves in the road, the Burma Shave message signs (A poetic maxim spread out on six or seven small signs) and the wider number of billboards before Keep America Beautiful reduced them.
Travel any distance and there was surely a foreboding biblical quote like The wages of sin is death Romans 6:23.
These days I read the signs on the interstates proclaiming what organizations clean up debris along various miles of roadway. Sometimes they are religious congregations — often a project for youth groups or ambitious retirees.
I relish pulling up to a stop behind a vehicle plastered with stickers. I hope it is a long light so I can read all the messages and find something thoughtful or provocative. I admire such gall, such shameless messaging.
A lot of wonderful religious bumper stickers on the market just seemingly don’t get put on the cars on my roadway: Life is Short. Pray Hard, This Car is Prayer-Conditioned, The Road to Heaven is a One-Way Street, Go to Church. Dont Wait for the Hearse to Take You, How Would Jesus Drive?, Separate Church and Hate, Jesus is God With Skin On, In Case of Rapture, This Car Will Be Unmanned, Are You As Close to Jesus as You Are to My Bumper Sticker?, Who Would Jesus Bomb? and “Lord Help Me to Be the Person My Dog Thinks I Am.
