Our school bus route used to take us past the famous Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in central New Delhi. Every Monday morning during our middle and high school years, my friends and I (most of us non-Christians) used to eagerly look forward to the new signs on the church’s curbside billboard that were posted every Sunday, bearing messages which were clearly religious but also quite entertaining. Some of them were pretty clever. The signs were a novelty for us – their mixture of religion and banter. No other places of worship, Hindu & Buddhist temples, Muslim mosques or Sikh gurdwaras resorted to pun and word play to get their spiritual message across. Whether the Sacred Heart Catholic church gained any converts with their humorous approach, I do not know. Some of the signs I remember even now – decades later.
- Sheep gambol; men gamble. (never quite figured this one out)
- Do your best, let God do the rest.
- Modern man’s prayer: "God, give me patience and give it to me now!"
- What are you doing on earth, for heaven’s sake?
Strangely enough, I haven’t come across many church signs of this kind in the US although I have lived in very religious parts of the country. Vehicles bearing unusual religious bumper stickers are common enough ("In Time Of Rapture, This Car Will Be Driverless!" , "Relax, God Is In Control" and the rather plaintiff "Catholics Love Jesus Too!" among others) but most church signs tend to contain prosaic information. The Houston area bristles with churches of every possible denomination. If you draw a circle with a radius of 3 miles with my home as the center, you’d encompass more than a dozen places of worship in the vicinity. There are mainstream Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches, as also a Buddhist temple, a synagogue, a Mormon church, a church for Arab Christians and an elaborately carved Hindu temple. My home in fact shares its backyard fence with a church. But nowhere have I seen church signs which declare anything more unusual than announcements for prayer services and church functions. I have occasionally come across religious bill boards with more unorthodox messages while driving through the countryside. But within the city they are mostly non-descript. Of course, while most signs are geared towards spreading the "good word," some churches do not flinch from messages of hate even when their name is Lovingway.
Doree Shafrir had an article in Slate a few days ago about church signs in America.
The pun-laden signs you see outside churches have always intrigued me. "Seven days without prayer makes one weak." "Forbidden fruit creates many jams." "We have a prophet-sharing plan." They’re funny and a little bit alien, if you’re not a regular churchgoer. And it’s hard to tell whether they’re intended primarily to amuse regular congregants, or to attract soul-searching passers-by. The pun-laden signs you see outside churches have always intrigued me. "Seven days without prayer makes one weak." "Forbidden fruit creates many jams." "We have a prophet-sharing plan." They’re funny and a little bit alien, if you’re not a regular churchgoer. And it’s hard to tell whether they’re intended primarily to amuse regular congregants, or to attract soul-searching passers-by.
Don’t forget to visit the site where a blogger envisions a sharp but friendly argument between a Baptist and a Catholic church, using church signs!
Accidental Blogger 