Have you ever seen an atheist T-shirt or bumper sticker (of the taunting kind you linked to) in the wild? I haven’t. Yet in this town of atheists and keep-it-to-yourself Catholics, I have seen plenty of Christian bumper stickers. Just this morning I was in a cab where the driver had a big “God’s Chosen” sticker on his glove compartment.
We can quibble about whether the intentions of the bumper sticker in question are smarmy and judgemental or not. But when someone chooses to display it on their bumper, it says volumes about the intentions of that person.
Like Anaamika I prefer the Chrsitians who try to live what Jesus taught without advertiseing. I also agree with the poster who reminds us that Jesus specificly warned against wearing your religion on your sleeve. I believe his message was, pay attention to what is actually going on in your heart and what you do, rather than spouting your beliefs.
I can see how this bumper sticker would remind people of the smug slightly superior style of Christianity. There are lots of Christians who definatly believe that only Christians are forgiven by God. My objection is to the concept that kindness, compassion, and loveing behavior doesn’t matter if you’re not a Christian. To me thats a gross distortion of what Jesus taught.
On the other hand, I don’t think Christians deserve any different treatment than anyone else. I try to be tolerant and forgiving of their imperfections because I know people are tolerant and forgiving of mine. Christian imperfections aren’t any better or worse than atheist imperfections or any other random label we choose to apply.
Yes, I find it offensive and I don’t claim to be Christian. I know there are many wonderful sincere, kind, loving, compassionate, Christians out there and they are not suckers simply because they seek to find their way.
However, since more Christians seem aggressive these days with their “We’re right and we won’t apologize for it” attitude then it’s to be expected. If you insist on getting in someone’s face then expect a response.
You seem to think this is a Christians vs. Atheists argument. I’m sure there are plenty of us here who are neither.
You don’t see how this can be read as “God likes me better because I have religious belief A”? And that this might come across as a bit smug to people of religious beliefs B, C, and Q?
Is Christianity the only faith with beliefs about divine forgiveness?
Also, even if I think the bumper sticker comes across as a bit smug and arrogant, I’m not “offended”, just a little annoyed.
Amen, And I would add to that that all people doing those good works are co workers with God even if they don’t know it. So Christians and anyone who believes in a similar fashion should treat the efforts of others {no matter their religious preference} with the proper reverance and gratitude.
Yes, the place that people who are not avowedly “Christians” but who please God through their life is left pretty open-ended by the Bible (with, for example, its reference to “other flocks”, if I recall correctly - too busy to check Bible Gateway at the moment). Corrie ten Boom, a Dutchwoman who looked after Jews in Holland during the war, once dealt with the objection that not all “Christians” are very nice like this: “Just because a mouse gets into the cookie jar, it doesn’t make it a cookie”. In terms of judging our future, God is the only judge. I’ve often said that while we are commanded in all things grow into the head (again from memory, I’m afraid), i.e. become like Jesus in all ways, the one aspect that God reserves for himself (the Godhead) is judging others regarding their destiny.
The sticker is clearly intended for an audience other than the driver to interpret. Otherwise, why is it on the outside of the car? It is also intended for a non-christian audience to interpret. If it was intended for a christian audience, why the use of the third person? “I’m not perfect… Just forgiven,” would be more clear and effective.
Because of this, the most logical way to read this sticker is the owner is a christian, and is speaking about christians to non-christians. Their message to the non-christians is, "we’re not perfect, but we’re forgiven.” It is not illogical to continue that thought and extrapolate, “and you’re not.”
It is no different from, and it is just as offensive as a sticker that would say, “Atheists aren’t flawless… Just informed.”
Perhaps because of the too-common belief that Christians are perfect—or, that is, that Christians think they’re perfect; or that they pretend to be perfect; or that you have to be perfect to be a Christian.
I interpreted the bumper sticker’s message that way: that it was rebutting beliefs like that: “Us Christians, we’re not perfect, and we know it, but that’s okay, because God forgives us when we fall short of his ideal.” It specifically mentions Christians because whether or not non-Christians are perfect was never an issue.
I can see, thanks in part to this thread, why this sticker would rub some people the wrong way. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be offended by it, just asking that you not assume the implications that are offending you are the ones the person had in mind when putting that sticker on their car.
I think the next time you see that bumper sticker you should cover it with one from the SDMB that says simply “CITE?”
I’ve always been irritated by that bumper sticker. Rightly or wrongly I read it the same as I would somebody saying “Well, I get drunk three nights a week, but I go to AA meetings so I don’t have a problem!” The implication is definitely that Christians are better than others because they’ve said the magic words (and the Bible is the inerrant word of God, which we know, because it’s in the Bible). And it’s in a nutshell the same philosophy as every televangelist who ever got caught in a sex-scandal or embezzing or with a porn collection the size of the Library of Congress: “I am a lowly sinner… [but Jesus died for my sins so that’s okay… I mean really, wouldn’t want him to have died in vain would ya?”]). I’m not disputing the rights of people to put this on their car, mind, just their interpretation of Scripture regarding moral responsibility.
The bumper sticker that drives me nuts is the “IN THE EVENT OF THE RAPTURE THIS CAR WILL BE DRIVERLESS”. Cool- can I have it?
I wandered into a Christian store in a mall to see what kind of merchandise they were selling.
If the store served a Christian’s needs and was geared towards articles to help foster the Christian faith, I would have no issues with it. But, a large number of goods in the store were divisive just as this bumper sticker. IMO, the items in the store reflect two alarming trends in the current social environment:
(i) Sense of persecution and political activism: Christians (before someone uses the word generalization, let me qualify that with “a vocal and potentially substantial number of Christians”) seem to collectively believe that they are persecuted. I saw a T-shirt with a hand-cuffed hand which read “I prayed at school - Arrest me”. This sense of persecution is thoroughly misguided.
(ii) Sense of superioririty: I saw a number of articles in the store with the same message as the bumper sticker about how lucky and proud it is to be a Christian.
There are some christians out there who delight in the idea of being persecuted for the lord. What better way to earn glory points?
I wonder if they realize that if they ever got thrown in jail for being a christian that some of the very people they feel persecuted by would be the ones fighting hard to get them out.
Since they can’t seem to see their own tendency to persecute I’d say probably not.
It drives me batty when some-but-not-all christians claim that they’re being persecuted because they can’t force their beliefs on me. We’ve stepped through the looking glass.