Tranquil Madness

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I am a little disturbed at your dislike of the Christian sayings. We are supposed to support each other and yet you are angry at other Christians because of what they wear? You said you are a Christian but you seem to have bitterness over the truth. For example "Friends don't let friends go to Hell" It's the truth not an opinion. If you don't care about your friends enough to tell them about Jesus, you are not really a friend. You say you are a Christian and if you are then you don't need to fear Hell. But you should be concerned about your friends. Would you let them burn up in a house if you knew the way out? I think that if you look at Jesus' words he was sometimes very blunt. He told the pharisees "unless you repent you'll perish" 2 times. He didn't water down his message so as not to offend anyone. If you are a true believer then you will want to tell people about Jesus. Every true that does not bear fruit will be thrown into the fire. Are you bearing fruit for the Lord? Examine yourself to see if you are in the faith.

I hope that is sarcasm. If not, you have missed the entire point.

I do not like my faith being connected with bad puns and incredibly cheesy slogans.

I quote:

"If I wasn't a Christian and I was bombarded with these little phrases, I would not want to be with the people spouting them. My thoughts about the subject would be something along the lines of: 'What a bunch of morons. I am so happy I don't have to deal with those people every day.'"

I think that now and I am a Christian. How do you think non-Christians feel about those shirts and sayings?

Examine your critical thinking skills before you question my faith.

I wear a shirt that says "friends don't let friends go to hell" and it sometimes is a starting point for me to tell people about Jesus. People question or even mock me about the message but at least they engage and it opens a door for me to share the gospel. I also wear shirts that I make that don't have cute messages. One says "Once you die it's too late for forgiveness! Choose Jesus. This is not a cute saying but it is still the truth. Are you offended by that one? How about this other shirt that I wear that says-
" America Repent
Masons, Mormons, Muslims, Jehovahs Witness, Satanists, Abortionists, Homosexuals, Prosperity preachers, and once saved always saved lukewarm christians are in danger of HELL"S fIRE."

That one is definitely not cute but it is the truth. I agree that some of the shirts are kind of cheesy and some of them are just down right border on blasphemy-Like Jesus is my homeboy.
That one I have a problem with. But it doesn't make me want to find the person who made the phrase and beat them to a pulp. That was your quote Randy. And that is not the attitude of a believer-do you agree with that? Thanks for responding.

Many people who call themselves Christians aren't. If I were to make that judgement based on what I read, I'd say that you are NOT! Jesus Christ never wanted to beat anyone to a pulp, not even his crucfiers. These are cute, sometimes, cheesy quips....so what? I suggest you, Randy, find something more meaningful in your life. You've got too much on your hand. By the way, I came upon this site because I was looking for the t-shirt that reads "Be the moon. Reflect the Son!" The children at our Christian school really like that one and we will be using it for our summer camp this year. These things do mean something to someone. Why don't you write our school and tell those children that you would like to beat the person who created the phrase? He was at our school just this last Wednesday and he is a good, kind, loving, Christian man. The children absolutely adored him. I doubt if they would you.

Right. Ok. I give up.

I'm not really a Christian because I got annoyed and vented. I repent! Thank you, Oh Glorious SageBradey, for showing me the error of my ways! I shall forever sing of how you corrected me and praise God for sending you to my blog! Thank you! Thank you!

[/sarcasm]

Did you see that? Did you see how I deliberately went to an extreme there? Do you understand that I might not have meant it literally? Do you think it is possible that I could have been doing the same thing with the "beat him to a pulp" phrase?

Would you like to backpedal now, or are you going to try and tell me that a real Christian would never use such a phrase even in jest? I eagerly await either choice you make.

The fact that you think the quotes are cute and sometimes cheesy does not change the fact that I think they are incredibly annoying. As such, I will use my blog to say that I find them incredibly annoying. This will not change until my opinion of these sayings changes. For the record, that will probably be never. If you do not like them, do not read them. Do not tell me I am not a Christian because I happen to vent when I am annoyed.

Quite frankly, your holier-than-thou and judgmental attitude is far too common in modern "Christianity." You are attempting to sound as if you have the moral highground, but all you have demonstrated is that you lack the ability to read between the lines and that you take things far too seriously.

Oh, and I would love to send the children at your school a few letters. Please, give me the address.

No. We're not sending you or your letters anywhere near children.
That said, everyone just needs to chill for a minute. Getting this angry with someone isn't a good show on either person's part.

Randy is what bulletin boards call a "troll." He's trying to gain a lot of attention by being controversial. The best thing to do is ignore his posts, pray for him and wear our shirts.

Not quite. You see, there is a very large difference between being a troll and calling bullshit when it's merited. I used to wear these types of shirts in another life, but then I realized that most of what these t-shirts are about is Christian materialism. "I'm not going to buy the immoral things that the world has to offer, but I still want to have my stuff." Christian books, Christian music (of all the genres you can find in secular music), Christian knickknacks, Christian greetings cards, Christian entertainment films...and yes, Christian t-shirts (Most of these items I learned all about during my stint as a clerk in a Christian bookstore). Yes, we do need to be different than the world, but creating our own miniture, sanctified version of the world is not the right way of going about this. So I'm with Randy, and I'm calling bullshit on Christian t-shirts and with them the rest of the Christian sub-culture.

You can't be a troll on your own blog, silly.

I'm trolling my own blog? Wow.

While it would be impressive to be able to troll the entire internet simply by writing something on my blog, I do not think I have that much influence. I am rather surpised by the amount of attention this little post has gotten. You must really respect my writings.

I have a question, though. Is not liking bad puns and cheesiness "controversial"? I could understand supporting the legalization of gay marriage (which I do, at least while government is involved in any form of marriage) or supporting the legalization of marijuana (which I do) or supporting the right to die (which I do) would be considered "controversial." For some reason, a rant about T-SHIRTS gathers the most disagreement from the random Christian visitor and is deemed "controversial."

You people really confuse me.

Wow, this is great! I didn't even realize this whole conversation was going on. Randy trolling on his own blog! Amazing!

I just finished reading the excellent book "The Radical Reformission" by Mark Driscoll. I *highly* recommend it to every Christian. Driscoll puts forth the idea of getting know people and making real relationships with them (even non-christians!! gasp!) and don't bother with stupid methods of witnessing. Just live your life with them, invite them to activities with your Christian friends, and just nurish a good relationship. This type of witnessing is FAR more effective and long-lasting than "shotgun wedding" witnessing that these shirts and slogans appear to be trying. As a Christian, I find these signs and t-shirts offensive and degrading. They do not represent the gospel well and cheapen rich theology.

Honestly, I want to start a collection of their dumb sayings.

"God answers knee mail"

*ho ho ho*

I just googled and found someone who already started a collection: church sign-ology.

I found this totally on accident. It saddens me to hear the way you speak of the "Christian sub-culture". I hear what you are saying about how cheesy some of these sayings can be. I also understand what someone has said about the materialism of Christianity. This type of mindset is only here in the states. We as Christians are made to be set apart. We are not to be like the "unsaved". We are now followers of Jesus and we need to act accordingly. I don't think anybody has a problem wearing a shirt with a stupid saying or silkscreening on it from AE or Aeropostale. I am not into a lot of the things that are copies of "secular" stuff. I think it is lame. Again, we are different, why copy the world? We need to keep our eyes on eternity with Jesus and inform all those who don't know Him.

hey Randy, I have never seen any of those tshirts but I readily believe you. And agree with you. I am sure authors of these examples are trying to get a little extreme and witty in order to catch some attention, and ultimately get some conversations started... but I personally think it's BS. It is both cheesy and dumb. I wonder what kind of people wear that stuff. Probably some teenagers.

Bridget: Personally, I get annoyed with stupid saying no matter what shirt on which they were printed. I am particularly offended by Christian ones because people may identify me with that idiocy, and I do not like it when that happens.

christian t-shirts: I'm not sure if that was intended to be a subtle advertisement or not, but I think I'll let it slide if it was since you made an actual comment. I doubt I'll buy a shirt from that website because those shirts aren't really my thing, but I have to admit that first image is a cool design. Is it yours?

We here at JesusBranded agree with what you have to say about corny Christian Clothing. We've designed our t-shirt with that exact thought in mind-to not show the world that we're "THAT" kind of Christian.

That's the main reason why we aren't in Christian bookstores because of the bad rap you get when you think of getting t-shirts there. So please, give us a try and tell us what you think. We'd love to hear from you.

-Tim
Technology Director
JesusBranded
http://www.jesusbranded.com

Hey Randy.... I think you need Jesus.

Wow! I agree with the person who said you don't sound much like a Christian. You sound very angry and full of hate. I wear some of those "stupid" shirts and love them. I feel they say something to other people and give them something to think about. When I walk throught Walmart and someone reads my shirt they may just start thinking about things they wouldn't normally. I think someone who uses the phrases you used and sounds so explosive has some deep issues and really needs to but about 3 dozen of those shirts and read them.

Among the many offensive things i see on clothing i can attest to the ever increasing inappropriate, rude, morally objectional, sexual, overt, pronagraphic, cursing, male bashing, woman bashing images and messages.
So if Christian sayings disgust and anger you that bad, I trust that the above mentioned is absolutley detestable?
"For whatever is good pure lovely.think on these things.... "Do not be polluted by the world" "guard you heart, your eyes and so forth" Scipture