a sign of the times
Ya know, I’ve been thinking critically lately, and one thing I don’t like is church signs in places where church signs shouldn’t be. For instance, I have some family that lives in East Texas. On the way back into Dallas from visiting them, there’s an “adult giftshop” on the side of the highway. About 200 feet, or a little more, away from it is a giant billboard with some inspirational church message on it. What is this doing? What is this church expecting to happen?
It’s my opinion that the sign shouldn’t be there, as it is most likely doing more harm than good, and here’s why I believe that. First, I feel it’s a deliberate attempt at showing that shop, “Hey, we know you’re here, but we wanna make sure you know we don’t approve.” Second, I think, paired with the first, it’s a gross misuse of funds and resources. And finally, I think it’s an attempt to guilt the patrons of that store to either not go, or to guilt them to Jesus.
Let’s tackle these issues real quick. The first, as if the shop didn’t already know evangelicals don’t approve of that, “let’s make a giant sign just to prove our point and hopefully they’ll get mad and shut the shop down.” This doesn’t work, and obviously only makes the owners mad, again, putting more and more distance between them and potentially coming to know Christ.