And since I have brought up the idea that it might indeed be intended humbly (as some others did), I present another possibility. I don’t think it applies in this case, but if you see a more overtly smug bumper sticker, don’t assume the driver’s a jackass.
It might be irony.
“I’m Chevy Chase, and you’re not.”
Okay, bad example, Chevy is a bit of a jackass, but you get the point.
It would be better if it said We’re not perfect, just forgiven, meaning we=all of us.
To reply, in your own words…
I was KIDDING about the chosen people crap.
Yeah, actually, it does. It says, flat out, if you ain’t a Christian, you ain’t worth shit. And it is that arrogance that really turns people off.
I confess, I may have a chip on my shoulder in reference to the denizens of Cambridge. (I’ve lived in the Boston area for about 6 years now.)
To be fair, it doesn’t say that flat out. You or I may infer that, but it is possible that the bumper sticker owner doesn’t mean it that way.
It doesn’t say that, you’re just reading that into it. And that may be the intent behind it - then again, it may not.
So, clearly, you’re saying flat out that it’s inoffensive and that in fact you find it to be a source of comfort and encouragement.
You know, as an atheist, i have a hard time getting offended by that bumper sticker. Even if you interpret it in the most unforgiving way, as saying “We’re going to heaven and you’re going to hell,” it might seem rather smug and self-satisfied, but i’m not sure that it’s something to get too worried about.
After all, as an atheist i don’t feel any need at all for forgiveness from some non-existent creator. Nor do i care about assertions that i’m on the way to hell, because i don’t even believe that such a place exists. And if people want to treat me as a lesser person because of this, they’re free to go ahead, and i will ignore them, or rfeturn their abuse, as the case merits. It is, however, a bit worrying when people with this attitude start making policy.
I am sort of interested, though, in the rather antinomian message that seems implicit in the bumper sticker—the idea that, once saved, a person has no need to strive for perfection. I’m not up on the most recent teaching of all the Christian denominations in the United States, but the notion that being saved somehow absolves a person from responsibility for their actions or from the need to continue to attempt to lead a perfect Christian life is rather antithetical to much of the history of American religiom.
The Puritans certainly did not believe that receiving God’s grace was a license to disregard Biblical admonitions about worldly behaviour. In fact, John Cotton said in his Treatise on the Covenant of Grace:
And it wasn’t just the Puritans. The nineteenth century evangelist Charles Grandison Finney, a key figure in the Second Great Awakening, made it even clearer:
As i said above, i’m not sure exactly what is taught in American churches every Sunday, but i’d be surprised if there were many ministers preaching that, once saved or forgiven, you are free of any worldly obligations and need place no restraint on your worldly actions.
No, actually, it doesn’t. You’ve inferred that, which is your right, but it does not say, flat out, anything about non-Christians.
What cracks me up is how often, in Pit threads about Christianity, somebody will castigate a Christian for showing temper or using a swear word, charging the Christian with hypocrisy (“oh, you’re supposed to be so holy! But you swore! Bad Christian!”). (Paraphrasing again, I can’t cite to a specific thread).
Now, here comes a Christian saying, “hey, Christians aren’t perfect, and we don’t claim to be”. And this makes us arrogant? Some days you just can’t win . . .
That’s not at all obvious to me. It wouldn’t have occured to me that the bumper sticker was saying or implying anything about nonchristians. One of the first rules of logic is that the statement “All X’s are Y” tells you nothing whatsoever about non-X’s.
Anything else I might have to say has already been said better by Genghis Bob in Post #10.
Hmm… I can see how you might read that into it, but I don’t. As flawed beings, subject to temptation, who’ve sinned in the past - can they (the hypothetical Christians) ever BE perfect in the Christian sense? I don’t think so, but that doesn’t mean one can’t strive for it anyway.
And Puritans? Pfft. Those guys were totally boring and had stupid hats.
I don’t see it as a declaration of superiority ("I’m going to Heaven…and you’re not) as much as an admission of a lack of personal accountability (“God is my alibi”). That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody posting that sticker did feel a sense of superiority. There are Christians who take as much comfort from their belief that other people are going to Hell as they do from their belief that they are going to Heaven.
Not at all. What I have a problem with is stuff like this:
Not to pick on Cheesy, but that one guy doesn’t represent all of us. I’m tired of that attitude, not just here on the SDMB, but everywhere.
Cue the regulars to come in and accuse me of having a martyr complex.
No, that’s actually not what it says. You’re reading your own prejudice into it.
Okay, I can see some points made here, but if people are going to witness from the bumper of their car, could they at least make sure the message is clear? It seems to me that the bumper sticker is left open to interpretation, which can be easily interpreted to a message they don’t want to send. I still see the message as crass, but I’m willing to entertain the thought that the person is only seeing a narrow reading of it. If that’s the case, I’ll let them off the hook as just not all that bright.
Well, i’m sure that there are plenty who use this sticker, and who follow your interpretation. Good for them, i say; we need more people like them. I’ve already made clear that i’m not offended by it.
But unfortunately recent experience suggests that there are also plenty of Christians who interpret it to mean that they are better than others, that they are somehow absolved of worldy concerns and obligations that attach to us mere mortals. And i think that it a rather worrying attitude.
Actually, the Puritans were, in my opinion, some of the least boring people in American history.
But the hats? Totally stupid.
Christians aren’t perfect… but the lions seem to like them.
I’m tracking that damn car down and slapping that on their bumper!