Bumper Sticker Faith

I recently found a website that posts humorous and thought-provoking bumper stickers under the title "Virtual Bumper Stickers." In truth, it's a collection of pithy sayings that could be printed on a bumper sticker or may have been spotted on one. Over the years, I have rarely attached my thoughts to the back of my car, only occasionally expressing my preference for a specific presidential candidate. In the most recent election, I chose to do that. Soon after, I went out to my car (which is housed in an open, rather public location) and discovered that someone had torn a portion of the sticker off. It was, I suppose, an act of dissent, done under cover of darkness and without any possibility of dialogue or discussion.

Of course, that's the point of bumper sticker politics and bumper sticker religion, isn't it? You get to express your opinion for all the world to read without having to engage in conversation about it. It's like declaring, "I have my beliefs, and I don't need you to try to convince me otherwise." James P. Carse, a professor of religion at New York University, has written a book about belief and belief systems. In The Religious Case against Belief, he argues that religion has been tainted by the close-mindedness of absolute belief, which assumes authority and draws boundaries. It's a fascinating and challenging read that calls into question our tendency to lock ourselves into ideologies and defend them by claiming that what we believe is absolute truth.

One of the virtual bumper stickers that I discovered on that website cautions "Don't believe everything you think." I suspect Dr. Carse would second that thought. While it is not a thought I have plastered on my vehicle, I did print it out and tape it to the door of my office. It reminds me that, as a human being who calls himself a child of God, I have been blessed with the gift of thought, and blessed with a curiosity about life that leads to ideas, a lot of them. It also reminds me of the danger of drawing borders around my ideas in the name of belief and daring anyone to question them.

My hope is that, when I make my thoughts and ideas public, those who read and hear them will feel invited to engage in conversation, sharing what they think with me, so that we can all move toward the horizon of truth that draws us ever onward, toward what I trust is the eternal grace of God.