Stuff Liberal Christians Like: #2 Coexist Stickers
By Chad Crawford • Jun 23rd, 2010 • Category: Stuff Liberal Christians Like, engaging
Very few would argue that Liberal Christians have the upper hand when it comes to religious merchandise. Those other Christians have the most sales in bumper stickers and T-shirts. There’s a lot of money in “putting a God-spin on popular secular ideas.”
The formula is fairly simple for youth ministers in this group … take a hit TV show like LOST, make it the theme for X-treme Summer Camp 2010, throw an evangelistic Bible verse like Acts 4:12 after it, and there it is … a T-shirt is printed that’s all the rage. This approach might look cheesy to some, but it’s key for maintaining that crucial relevant-but-not-worldly balance.
Cut off the red part.
For the most part, Liberal Christians are content with letting the other Christians have the corner on the cheesy merchandise market. But a few notable exceptions exist. One is the ‘God is not a Republican…or a Democrat’ sticker … although Liberal Christians often think they’re supposed to circle one or cut part of it off prior to application.
Then, there are the ‘Coexist’ stickers, which are very popular among Liberal Christians and their spiritual-but-not-religious friends. Liberal Christians like these stickers because they like the idea of diversity, and really like counting how many friends they can possess from the other religions represented (possible future posts).
You might find yourself looking to play a good joke on a Liberal Christian. Your desire is not surprising, because they make good targets. They … along with their conservative counterparts … like being offended (possible future post).
You already know how to identify one. All you need to do now is obtain an evangelistic version of the sticker, which puts a God-spin on the popular ‘Coexist’ decal. The evangelistic version says, ‘Convert,’ rather than, ‘Coexist,’ and comes complete with ‘Acts 4:12′ across the top.
- Approach the Liberal Christian’s car when he’s not around.
- Carefully apply the sticker over the original.
- Then, just wait days … or sometimes weeks … for him to notice.
You might even get to be there to see the look of horror when someone asks him about it.
Thanks to Pastor Mack for suggesting this post. Leave any suggestions you have for future SLCL posts in the comments. What’s your favorite Liberal Christian merchandise?
If you like this kind of stuff, grab a copy of the book, Stuff Christians Like, by Jon Acuff.
…And speaking of stickers…Get a free Homebrewed Christianity sticker!
Chad Crawford is a graduate of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and Wake Forest University Divinity School. He is originally from Austin, Texas and now lives in San Francisco, where he is the online communications manager for Interfaith Power & Light, a nonprofit organization mobilizing a religious response to global warming. He's a former youth minister and long distance hiker sharing thoughts on ecology, politics, culture, and faith.
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Faith in Public Life has a great new bumper sticker that I, as a proud Progressive Christian will be displaying as soon as it arrives.
“Driven by Faith not Fear”
check it out — http://www.faithinpubliclife.org/
Good one Chad.
@Kimberly Aw heck, I went to the site but couldn’t find a sticker. But since I don’t have a car, I don’t know where I’d stick it. The “driven” part makes me want to put it on a car. Or maybe a Vespa.
[...] June 26, 2010 by pastormack TOOT… [...]
huh, generic masculine, eh? I didn’t know people still used that. Or is it only male liberal Christians that drive cars? Or are only men liberal Christians?
I keep thinking, well maybe these slick “new”/emergent/wev brands of Christianity will be so new they won’t assume that the default human being is a dude. And then I look at their speaker line ups and the people whose pictures they put on things and the folks who get book contracts and get their blogs promoted… and posts like these… And I think, “Oh, right. the face of new Christianity is a lot like the face old Christianity, only younger and with an iPod ‘Come into our big tent, just don’t expect the people who own the tent to have questioned their privilege.” Yeah, not so new.
On the first post I used a feminine pronoun for the hypothetical Liberal Christian. http://homebrewedchristianity.com/2010/06/08/1-saying-%E2%80%9Ci%E2%80%99m-not-one-of-those-christians-%E2%80%9D-stuff-liberal-christians-like/
I thought I would alternate.