The question is what kind of attitude. T-shirts being marketed as supporting the Christian faith have made on the naitonal news in the last week or so.
Did these shirts have messages that someone familiar with the faith would recognize as scripture. Such as-
"Feed my sheep"
"Blessed are the Peacemakers"
"Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done"
"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive the trespasses of others"
"Love your neightbor as yourself" - (that's a biggie. I'm not sure a lot of us love ourselves very much, let alone our neighbors.)
"Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
I'm sure that anyone reading this could come up with their own list and not use any of my examples.
So did the shirts in the news have any of these captians. Words that could be recognized as coming from the New Testament. At least I hope they could. Maybe that's part of the problem.
What I saw on the news (and looked up on the Net, just to double check-heck I watched All the Presidents' Men, gotta have two independent sources) were shirts with captians like "My God can kick your God's butt" and "Satan Sucks." "Jesus is my Homeboy" and "Mary is my Homegirl" at least mention somebody from scripture.
Problem is there's a bunch of ass whompin' folks over in the Middle East who could probably wear the "My God........" T-shirt and aren't shy about blowing up a bunch of kids or other civilians to get what they want.
I keep asking myself what is "Christian" about these messages and I keep coming up with NOTHING. The only thing that makes these messages Christian is that the people selling them say they are and they've found enough kids with extra money to buy into it. And I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Some say that when the Angels cry the tears fall as rain. Maybe that's why we've been having so much rain lately.
1 week ago
11 comments:
I've seen a lot of this lately...this attempt to, I guess, make Jesus and God cool. There is nothing really Christian about them. But there seems to be this desire by some to throw their religion out there. "Jesus Freak" is one I see a lot out here. Odd stuff.
dave
When I see the type of t-shirts you mention, the only worship I see is that of the dollar.
Why is it that we want to hate the people who worship a violent God (Muslim extremists) and emulate them at the same time? Lisa :-]
It does make me sad how the Christian faith is being perverted and mis-represented. It almost makes me want to call myself a "follower of Jesus" instead of a "Christian" because the latter is getting a bad name from people like you mention. When I think of what Jesus taught, I think of love, acceptance, tolerance, non-violence, valuing the spiritual above the material, non-judgmentalism..... those are the kinds of messages that move me.
I guess it's a good thing that I am increasingly oblivious to much of what is passing for culture out there.
I featured some of those shirts on my marketing Christianity entries. There are some graphic ones, too, very bloody and gory.
Love your Journal...I think a good T- Shirt would say "You Reap What You Sow".
And we can make our own thanks to transfer papers, right on our own computers.
Just an idea...Thanks again and God Bless
Just stopping in to say Hi. :-)
Thanbks for visiting. I agree with you completely about the terrorists situation.
This is my frist time to your journal and what a great time to be popping in. I guess it all goes along with what a person defines as "Christian". Everyone has their own opinons I suppose and I believe so many people have used the statement "I am a Christian" to their own benefit. For instance in Real Estate, when you first get in, if you don't have a big networking base they suggest you join a church, get involved and pass your cards out and ask for their help spreading the word that your a "Christian" and therefore a trustable, good person, "You can trust her" type of attitude then makes you a "Christian". Why don't we just call what Jesus taught "How to be a representative of what He represented- a loving, caring, compassionate person who did not try to change another, just love them anyway. Didn't look down upon anyone or think anyone lower then He, just loved them anyway. How about a tee shirt that reads " That Which Is Everywhere Present, let us see Christ in us all." Amen. Great ideas you have, let's just make than broader then a word in a box...let's put meaning and action to that word "Christian" and demonstrate what it truly means to claim we are that. Say, like Jesus did - I am That and oh so much more.
Marlene-PurelyPoetry
http://journals.aol.com/mkolasa101/PurelyPoetry
Wow! I think I've become so desensitized to biblical principals that it didn't even dawn on me just how repulsive these shirts are. They actually sound quite arrogant in some respects. Kind of like when I heard a statement made by Bush that if he could make one thing happen (or some such - I'm liberally paraphrasing), it would be to MAKE people love one another. If he knew anything about the doctrine he espouses, he would know that his mentality is sooooo not like Jesus. Oh sure, he got the love part but Jesus never made anyone do anything. He set the example and hoped that people would follow.
:-) ---Robbie
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