"There are no fire escapes from Hell" Church Billboard, Johnson City
I failed to note the denomination of the church as I was driving past, but the phrase amused me as it revealed two dominant traits of that particular church's mission.
Firstly it feels the need to connect with people in modern, everyday terms – the fire escape being selected as something easy for a potential member of the congregation to relate to. Secondly it promotes a faith built on fear and threat – come to Church to escape Hell. Both strike me as negative. The former destroys the mysticism which is one of the few elements of faith that I have any time for, whilst the latter seems wrong as a building block of community.
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Truly a telling remark. A billboard requires getting a large message into a quick read as people are driving past. I agree with your assessment. The statement implies a danger by way of warning.
ReplyDeleteIt’s funny how the common need to connect sometimes gets mixed up with an uncommon need to escape. A few years ago, a billboard outside of Knoxville declared, “JESUS IS THE ANSWER!” in a way that left anything negative as a reason for action. Below someone attempted to help clarify the argument by scrawling “What was the question?”
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