Worst cutesy church sign so far
The local Anglican church is in a lovely old building, surrounded by a graveyard, and with the ocean nearby.
Unfortunately, they also have a sign on which they not only place times of worship, but also those cutesy slogans mainline Protestant churches seem so enamoured of. You know the kind: "What's missing in this ch__ch?"(answer: "u r"). There's actually a great post on the subject of these types of signs on the Church Marketing Sucks blog.
I am not a church-goer, so I read the signs with a vague, idle interest. But one a few weeks ago almost had me hitting the brakes as I drove by. It said, "Jesus is my Prozac." The local Anglicans are clearly not the first church to have thought up this gem, but that doesn't excuse its sheer awfulness.
Where to begin?
I can't really think of a more limp, milquetoast, bland approach to religion than to compare Jesus to Prozac. Is the Anglican church a happy pill? Did Jesus die on the cross to relieve our symptoms of depression? Do depressed people need church to pick them up? Are people who take Prozac being made to feel they are inadequate, and they should be in church instead? Will quitting the church potentially make you suicidal?
It's an awful, awful analogy.
If this is the best the Anglicans and their like can offer, no wonder the fundamentalist churches are booming.
Unfortunately, they also have a sign on which they not only place times of worship, but also those cutesy slogans mainline Protestant churches seem so enamoured of. You know the kind: "What's missing in this ch__ch?"(answer: "u r"). There's actually a great post on the subject of these types of signs on the Church Marketing Sucks blog.
I am not a church-goer, so I read the signs with a vague, idle interest. But one a few weeks ago almost had me hitting the brakes as I drove by. It said, "Jesus is my Prozac." The local Anglicans are clearly not the first church to have thought up this gem, but that doesn't excuse its sheer awfulness.
Where to begin?
I can't really think of a more limp, milquetoast, bland approach to religion than to compare Jesus to Prozac. Is the Anglican church a happy pill? Did Jesus die on the cross to relieve our symptoms of depression? Do depressed people need church to pick them up? Are people who take Prozac being made to feel they are inadequate, and they should be in church instead? Will quitting the church potentially make you suicidal?
It's an awful, awful analogy.
If this is the best the Anglicans and their like can offer, no wonder the fundamentalist churches are booming.
posted by Philip Moscovitch Link
Stumble It!
4 Comments:
At the risk of providing a response fraught with irresponsible generalizations and inconsistencies i would like to offer the following retort...
Actually I would say the fundamentalists are worse. In fact the Anglicans have really taken their direction from the fundamentalists. The evangelists in particular.
While the protestants were the first to introduce the idea of having a personal relationship with God...(as opposed to Catholics who have typically held that the relationship with God must be mediated by a priest) it was the evangelists who took it one step further and talk about Jesus/God like he's there to influence every mudane aspect of one's life.
It's the fundamentalists who talk about God moving them to speak or take certain actions such as what movie they should see or which book they should pick up and read...
Now (and again this is just my theory) a lot of this stemmed from the movement to popularize religion especially with younger adults. Bring them back to church and keep them there with modern Jesus themed rock music and casual sermons.
In my mind, the Anglicans are only trying to copy what the fundamentalists have been doing for years. But I would agree that perhaps they have borrowed the worst aspects of fundamentalism, the tacky personification of God.
Once again, I think you are probably right. I was thinking that "Jesus is my Prozac" was one of the most bland descriptions of a religion you could possibly come up with.
But you are right in pointing to the whole rise of the personal relationship, and Jesus helping people micro-manage the mundane details of their lives.
About a week after reading your blog. I came across something in a parking lot that comes pretty close to "Jesus is my Prozac".
A bumper sticker, stylized to look like the "Intel Inside" swirled logo that you can find on PCs.
Except instead of "Intel" the logo said "Jesus Inside" presumably meant to indicate that the car's occupants were filled with the love of Jesus or something like that...
Now here's the kicker...either the car's owner had a sense of humour or he was just plain stupid but at any rate he put the sticker on the cap for his gas tank...
Phil, if you're ever feeling like doing a little direct action, cover Prozac and write Viagra.
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