This church sign in Newton, MA is fascinating. What did you see when you saw it?
Presumably the intent was, “God is now here.”
But if you’re me, I saw “God is nowhere.”
Spacing is everything.
But maybe I’m being too presumptuous. Perhaps the minister or sign attendant or even the congregation took a long, hard look across the American landscape and thought, “What has happened to our country?”
- A serial adulterer who bragged about sexual assault, attacked Gold Star families, publicly disgraced veterans, failed to keep his promise to release his tax returns, operated a fake university that stole millions from American citizens, and has spent more than 25% of his days in office on a golf course is now President of the United States.
- A billionaire’s wife who never set foot in a public school is Secretary of Education.
- A billionaire who spent his career suing the Environmental Protection Agency is now running (and dismantling) the EPA.
- A millionaire who campaigned on the desire to eliminate the Department of Energy (and did not know it regulated the nuclear power industry) is now running the Department of Energy.
Maybe whoever is responsible for this sign assessed the state of our country and decided that God is nowhere to be seen.
Or perhaps this is a signal of an existential crisis. The minister or groundkeeper is doubting God’s existence. Maybe the person responsible for the sign is like me:
A non-believer who wishes he could believe in a higher power.
Maybe not the vengeful, wrathful, violent God of The Bible who sent 42 boys to death at the hands of two bears after they insulted a Hebrew prophet’s hairline (2 Kings 2:23-25), but a kinder, gentler God who is less prone to pointing large, angry mammals at disrespectful children.
I would like that kinder, gentler version God to be somewhere.
