Slogans are my co-pilot

Slogans are my co-pilot

(Staff Photo: Richard Davis) A car bearing not one, but two stickers with the slogan "Beware of God," seen Monday, Nov. 1, 2010.

Believe what you want to believe. Or don’t.
Christianity, Islam, Judaism.
Fine.
Daoist, Buddhist, Hindu.
Sure.
Mennonite, Catholic, Episcopalian. Thor, Zeus, Osiris, Cthulhu. Heck, if you want to believe in the coming of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (www.venganza.org), then go for it.
But for the love of your god, gods, goddesses and/or philosophical tenets, please, PLEASE stop trying to reduce your belief system into a quickie bumper sticker.
If you can’t see it in the photograph, the car here was sporting not one, but two stickers with a simple three letter message: “Beware Of God.” Seriously? That’s it? You took all those deep, personal feelings, any message of sacrifice and redemption, complex concepts designed to bring order into society out of chaos and reduced it to a trite little play on words — “Beware Of God” instead of “Beware of Dog.” Twice.
Sigh.
It’s something that’s bothered me for a long time. I remember in my early college years seeing people wearing “This Blood’s For You” instead of “This Bud’s For You.” Great, you just piggy-backed your belief system on an ad campaign for a six-pack. Currently, you can buy “got jesus?” mimicking “got milk?” My favorite recently is “Jesus Didn’t Tap Out,” an absurd metaphorical connection to wrestling and Ultimate Fighting. From what I recall, Jesus also didn’t forearm choke anybody into submission.
Whatever your religion, spirituality, philosophy, etc. may be, please don’t cheapen it by turning it into a marketing slogan.

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