I once heard a dude who, in all seriousness, said something akin to the following:
People, people, people … I’m not trying to debate Polycarp over theological issues. And although I am a Christian, I’ll take the word of people who know almost nothing about me other than what they read on a message board and concede that Polycarp can debate my butt into the ground regarding such issues.
But I still fail to see the message many of you seem to feel is implicit in these bumper stickers: namely, that the person driving the car feels they’re better than you. If they wanted to say that, why not just stick a piece of paper that says “I’m going to Heaven, so I’m better than you” on their bumper? In my view, this “Rapture” bumper sticker is just a semi-cute, trying-to-be-funny way of saying the driver of the car believes he or she is saved. What’s the big deal?
It is not laughable to call someone narrow-minded if they automatically impart motive and an overall philosophy on someone based on a bumper sticker on a car. That is circumstantial evidence of the worst sort. Let me give you a hypothetical example: My friend, an athiest, borrows my car, upon which is placed one of the aforementioned bumper stickers. Polycarp (or Tengu or someone of like mind) sees my friend driving this car, and makes the assumptions they’ve outlined above. They’re dead wrong. So why is it okay to make these assumptions?
Look, I don’t like the bumper stickers myself; they don’t do anything for me. But assuming you know the mind and attitude of a person driving a car with such a bumper sticker is wrong … unless, as I noted earlier, you’ve done a survey of a statistically valid subset of people with those bumper stickers, and the results indicated that it was fair to draw those conclusions.
Maybe God will take their cars up in the rapture.
I wasn’t saying I am Sure I’m going, I Hope I am.
I think also lots of christians will be surprised if they see Clinton and/or Gore up there. “Hey, who let them in?”
My pastor has actually implied that anyone who voted for Gore had the blood of murdered unborn on their hands. Guilt by association, I guess.
I am Not a typical member of my church, obviously.
Re: God is a republican: well, then my vote for Nader helped the republicans so there!
Like my sig says…
You’re absolutely certain you and Poly are going to heaven, but you’re concerned about the “holier-than-thou” attitudes of others? Hooooo, boy. The cognitive dissonance expressed here is nothing short of staggering. What makes you so certain you won’t be in the group getting the dressing down?
There’s something so Monty Python’s Meaning of Life about that image.
as regards the bumper sticker, isn’t humility a virtue?
And if the Rapture does take all those people land leave me behind, thats ok. There should be 144,000 people less to cut me off on my way to work.
I think Tengu summerized the logical conclusion of what message the sticker conveys quite well. But yes, I suppose it’s wrong to assume that the driver of the car believes what’s on the bumper sticker. If the rapture does come and leaves me behind with someone with said sticker I’ll give them a few minutes to proclaim that they borrowed the car before i go to work on them with a flail.
Bumper stickers can proclaim some fairly powerful messages. Words are like that. When people see them, assumptions are going to jump out at them. That’s a democrat, that’s a republican, that’s a luny who thinks that oranges feel pain when you eat them. But for most folks, myself included, the thought passes through pretty quickly. I certainly wouldn’t confront someone because of a bumper sticker, [<kidding> except of course after the rapture when civilized rules no longer apply</kidding>] I don’t really have enough evidence to form a true opinion of the person and everyone is entitled to their opinion anyway.
Still, I’m not borrowing anyone’s car that has a “Hitler was right”* sticker on it. Imagine the assumptions that brings out.
*In no way, shape, or form does the topic’s sticker compare to a Hitler sticker. This was mentioned only as an example that bumper stickers can spark a strong reaction when viewed. Meanwhile Robert Hitler is trying to get his name changed so he can get on with his life of copy editing.
One of my neighbours has a “Jesus is my deliverer” bumper sticker.
I want to get one that says “The USPS is my deliverer.” 
Does anyone still see those huge billboards that God supposedly authored?
There used to be quite a few here in Cleveland.
Like “Don’t make Me come down there”. etc.
Blackclaw…hmmm what an evil username…
I guess it’s human nature: we all assume everyone in the world gives a good goddam what we think (why else do any of us post to this Board?).
I see bumper stickers reading, “I Miss My Ex-Wife (I Need Better Aim),” “My Other Car is a Boat,” “My Grandson Is On Honor Roll,” and I think, “who are you, and who CARES if you’re in the NRA or who you vote for or HOW smart your goddam grandchildren are?” I see huge banners and storks and balloons reading “It’s A Boy!” in front of someone’s house, and I wonder why they think total strangers driving by could care less that they have just reproduced.
Then again, I am a crabby old dowager.
Man, you’re just making wild assertions all over the place. How do you KNOW oranges don’t feel pain when you eat them? Have you done a statistically significant survey of oranges to find out?
And I’m about to reverse my position on this. (Alert Ted Koppel.) Although I’ve read all the posts in this thread several times, I’ve been applying my own filter on them. My experience with these bumper stickers has had one minor change from what the OP discussed. On almost all the bumper stickers of this sort that I’ve seen, the word “Warning” was NOT part of the message. The bumper stickers just said “In case of Rapture, this car will be unmanned.” (In some cases, it read " … will be minus one driver.") And although every post in this thread that spelled out the wording on the sticker included the word “Warning,” it just slipped completely under my radar. In my mind, I was seeing all those bumper stickers that did NOT include the word “Warning.” So given that context, I agree completely that the people who buy the “Warning” bumper stickers are sanctimonious, pompous jerks.
Still don’t think you can assume that the driver is that same person who bought the bumper sticker, though. I once had a “Nuke the Smurfs” bumper sticker applied to the bumper of my car while at a concert, and didn’t notice it for days. I don’t particularly like the Smurfs, but I have no reason to call thermonuclear destruction down upon them, either.
What bothers me about said bumper stickers is that presumably that the driver is a Christian, and as such has dedicated his life to following the teachings of Jesus, the stickers seem to me to fly directly in the face of Matthew 6, to wit:
Matthew 6:1 :“Be careful not to do your `acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”
and
Matthew 6:5:“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.”
Just do what you say you are doing, twit. Don’t proclaim to be a Christian, and ignore the parts that are hard or that require you to be humble.
But what do I know? I have a “Freedom From Religion” bumper sticker on my car, so maybe I’m pissing these people off in return. shrugs Oh well, that’s not agains my faith, so fuck 'em if they can’t take a joke.
*Originally posted by TwistofFate *
Just to clarify. There will be alot more than 144,000 people not to cut you off any more. The 144,000 number you are thinking about are the Jews that are converted during the tribulation to become witnesses for the Lord.
Comments on the sticker:
While I agree it is not one of the best witnessing stickers, it doesn’t bother me either. But one thing nobody has considered it might make a huge statement on the news seeing those stickers on cars that people disappeared out of when the rapture does happen.
Bill, mate - if there’s going to be a Rapture, it’ll be enough of a news story in itself.
“WARNING: If Cybele returns, this driver will be unmanned.”
(Explanatory note: Cybele was a goddess in ancient Rome whose followers danced through the streets, castrated themselves, and flung their genitals through people’s windows.)
-Ben
Pldennison remarked:
I’m not going to speak for Daniel’s point of view, but I’m not into Christianity to “buy my way into Heaven.” I encountered the Lord and found out He loves me, and I love Him, and want to do what He wants of me. Here and now. Just because I want to please Him. And, incidentally, because I like the person all this has made me into much better than the one I was beforehand. (Selfish, but oh, well…) If John Lennon is right (in “Imagine”) I’m not going to get flipped – the rest of the world he paints there is a pretty decent one to live in. I characterized my viewpoint once as a reverse Pascal’s wager – if I’m following the moral code I feel right for me, regardless of whether I “win salvation” by it, then getting to go to Heaven is simply gravy.
I felt quite concerned by Sauron’s more-or-less valid point, which you reiterate, that in condemning the people who take the sanctimonious view about the Rapture we’ve inferred from those bumper stickers, I too am being judgmental.
Perhaps. This sounds too close to “love the sinner but hate the sin” to feel comfortable to me, but my standards are based on the same thing that they claim theirs are, too: what did the guy whose Second Coming is supposed to be the main event associated with the Rapture thing have to say about the proper attitude to take. And the answer is, don’t get hung up on your own righteousness; you don’t have any. Just keep trying to love God and man, and don’t think you’re any better than Joe Schmoe who doesn’t. The only passing mark (as Joel Mullaney keeps noting) is 100%. And God doesn’t grade on a curve. All you have to go on is that He loves you, and will exempt you from His judgment if you love Him back and do His will, including in particular loving your fellow man. So in a way, in fulminating about their hypocrisy, I’m not being equally hypocritical, but doing them the favor of pointing out where they’re going wrong in the work we have both claimed to be setting out to do. (Like I said, there’s a bit of rationalization in that – in a way, I just like feeling good that “I’m not sinning like one of those Pharisees” – and I do see how ironic that is, and try to work on it.)
“Cybele was a goddess in ancient Rome whose followers danced through the streets, castrated themselves, and flung their genitals through people’s windows.”
—Her female followers must have been especially devoted and industrious.
[Eve has Lord Mayor or Ancient Rome over for tea. “More tea, Lord Mayor?” “Why thank, you, Lady Eve.” SPLAT. “Oh, my, what was that that just landed in my sugar bowl?” “Never mind, Lord Mayor, the cat got it.”]
Poly, I wanted to note that my exception was not to anything you said, but with Daniel (and I considered just putting ellipses where your name was when I quoted him–should’ve done that).
It’s my impression that it’s an ongoing attitude of his. “I’m a good Christian, not like those bad Christians over there. My Christian church doesn’t believe anything but the ‘words of Christ in red,’ my church isn’t anti-gay . . .” and so on, ad nauseum.
I’m just a bit bowled over by the idea that he can in the same breath both condemn the Rapture-bumper-sticker crowd for their arrogance, and state unequivocally that not only is he going straight to heaven, but that he will get to stand around kibbutzing with others while snickering as St. Peter yells at the bad Christians. You know, the prideful ones, over there somewhere.
Frankly, it takes a complete lack of self-examination and humility to make a statement like that. I have absolutely no doubt that, in his own mind, Daniel thinks exactly the thoughts that most of us assume to be present in the mind of the bumper-sticker wielders.
Wouldn’t it just be a hoot if he had to put up with me and Phil when he got there?
Isn’t the internet wonderful?
http://members.tripod.com/~Coronzon/lucifuge.html
(Google + I’m feeling lucky button)
Didn’t know you were into the Kabbalah.
Unfortunately I can’t collect on that (although the only thing I’d really care to see at the moment is a reply from you on a certain thread) since multiple user names are frowned on.
Thanks, Phil.
This being the Pit and the SD, however, I cannot resist the temptation to pick up on a typo…
I think the Big Fisherman would get a kick out of Daniel starting up a Jewish agricultural commune in Heaven, myself.
This gives me an opportunity to hijack the thread to something I’ve never had the chance to comment on. One of the epistle writers, John I think, fulminates on something called the “Synagogue of Satan.” I know it’s perverse of me, but this calls up images in my mind of a bunch of Hasidim celebrating a Black Seder, reciting the Sh’ma backwards, naked except for yarmulkes and tephillim. They had the Star of David hanging upside down for a while, but nobody noticed… ;j