I'm sure most of you have seen this bumper sticker somewhere - Calvin peeing on...- A Ford logo
- "Ex-Girlfriend"
- "Terrorists"
Does it bug anyone else that this is totally out of context with who Calvin really is as a character? He's not just a nihilist who goes around peeing on things. In the comic strips whenever Calvin destroys something the destruction has some sort of creative purpose behind it.
When he digs a big hole in his parent's backyard it isn't just to mess up the grass - he's looking for dinosaurs. And when he conspires to smack Susie Derkins with a snowball it isn't out of pure hatred. He considers it a central part of his mission as a part of the Get Rid of Slimy girlS (GROSS) club. Calvin's response to the outside world is determined by what narrative he is embracing at the time. It's the same with us - grown ups just tend to pick more suitable narratives (or not).
Another problem I have with it is the general attitude it displays to the people who see it. Fine, you hate Ford, your ex-girlfriend, etc. If it's worth telling it to the world it's worth some sort of argument to explain why. I once heard a radio host say that anyone who puts a bumper sticker for ___ on one's car automatically must be highly irrational on the subject of ___. I don't know if I'd go that far, but he had a point. In order to truly engage others with your viewpoint more context is required than just "I want to pee on this". But I guess
in case of rapture this car will be un-mannedfits easier on a bumper sticker than
I interpret I Thessalonians 4:17 as Christ taking his favorite people up to heaven rather than Christ coming down to earth to assume lordship over all creation.*Is it asking too much of the body politic to desire complete sentences, maybe even whole paragraphs from time to time?
*In "The Rapture Exposed, Barbara Rossing makes a convincing argument for the latter interpretation. She argues that the verb translated "meet" refers to a cultural practice of the inhabitants of a city meeting a visiting dignitary while he is still outside the city and escort him into the city in a triumphal entry. Apparently the only other time this exact word shows up in the Bible is when church leaders do exactly this to honor Paul in the book of Acts.
