As I was driving to work this morning I pulled up behind a car, the back of which look more like a collage of bumper stickers than part of a vehicle. With the exception of the rear windshield there was not one square inch on this thing that wasn’t covered, and even the windshield had a few blockages.
One of the bumper stickers was sending what I believed to be a very noble message. It said, “We need a Department of Peace.” I’m all for promoting peace. I am not a total pacifist and believe that there are times when war is necessary, but at least as a general objective peace is a good thing.
On the same car was one of those Christian fish symbols with legs attached and the word “Darwin” written inside. I can’t imagine that there are too many of you out there who do not know what I am talking about, but for those of you who may not, picture this. In the early days of Christianity, fellow Christians devised a surreptitious system for identifying one another. One person would use a stick to draw a curved line (kind of like a frown) in the dirt. To anyone looking it would just look like they were doodling on the ground. If the person watching was a Christian, however, they would draw a mirror image of the curved line, making the two lines meet at a point on one side (i.e., the nose of the fish), then crossing over each other at the other end of the line making the tail of the fish. If you want a picture, see the “Christian Links” page on the Ten Minas site. We have a picture of this “Christian fish” there.
Nowadays, a number of Christians put these fish on the back of their cars to identify themselves as Christians. As I said, this is a symbol that Christians have long used to identify themselves to one another (it’s not like we all walk around with “Christian” emblazoned on our foreheads).
In the last few years, someone came up with the idea for Darwinists to express their views on the back of their cars by creating one of these fish, but putting legs on it and writing “Darwin” across the middle. This is the placard that was on the car in front of me. It also had something I had never seen before, a T-Rex eating one of the Christian fish symbols.
My point is actually quite simple. I firmly believe that the first step toward peace is to try not to antagonize your opponent. I have often encouraged Christians to follow 1 Peter 3:15, “Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” Why use the Christian fish to identify yourself as a proponent of Darwinism? I understand that many people believe Darwinian evolution and Christianity are contradictory. But why use a symbol that obviously has deep meaning to Christian adherents and, in essence, mock it to make your point? Why is the T-Rex eating it? Why are you putting feet on it?
It seems to me that this type of behavior is essentially “thumbing your nose” at Christianity. It is the type of behavior that you should know could generate strong negative emotions in the person or class of people that you are targeting. It is behavior that is designed to antagonize. Why else use that particular symbol in such a way that you have to know would not be welcomed by those who were using it before you? The Christian fish did not in any way mock Darwinism. Christian believers were not ridiculing Darwinism by putting these fish on their cars (although please do not misunderstand me to think I am saying that many Christians do not unfortunately ridicule others). It just seems to me to be an unnecessary attack and I find it ironic that someone who advocates a quest for peace would get the first step toward that peace so horribly wrong.
Please do not get me wrong. I am not starting off some kind of a crusade to have all these placards removed. I don’t start screaming at the car in front of me every time I see one. I am only using this small example as a point of entry for something bigger. Namely, if we really want to work for peace, let us begin by trying to respect one another. This does not mean we have to agree with each other, or that you cannot tell someone that you disagree. But do this without mocking, without teasing, without ridicule, and in a manner that shows that you respect your opponent as a human being.
3 comments:
Ten Minas Ministries: In the early days of Christianity, fellow Christians devised a surreptitious system for identifying one another. One person would use a stick to draw a curved line (kind of like a frown) in the dirt. To anyone looking it would just look like they were doodling on the ground. If the person watching was a Christian, however, they would draw a mirror image of the curved line, making the two lines meet at a point on one side (i.e., the nose of the fish), then crossing over each other at the other end of the line making the tail of the fish.
Do you know where this story comes from? I have always tried to find the original citation for it, and the closest I have come is Christianity Today indicating it is “an ancient story.” (I am not questioning the fish is now considered a Christian symbol, nor that this might have happened. I was just wondering where this story started from.)
Thanks.
You are correct, as best as I can tell, that the original source for this story is not known. It is a story that has been passed down over time.
However, the figure of the fish in general being used as a Christian symbol has a well-documented and longstanding history (yes, the fish was also used pre-Christ by various pagan systems, but it was adopted by Christianity, most likely due to the loaves and fishes and Jesus' description of making His disciples "fishers of men").
Clement of Alexandria (153-217 AD), in "Paedagogus" or "The Instructor", III, xi, wrote, "And let our seals be either a dove, or a fish, or a ship scudding before the wind, or a musical lyre, which Polycrates used, or a ship's anchor, which Seleucus got engraved as a device; and if there be one fishing, he will remember the apostle, and the children drawn out of the water." He never explained why the fish would be an appropriate symbol, so it seems he regarded the reason as being already obvious to Christians of his time.
The self-written epitaph of Abercius (approx. 216 AD) appears to use a fish as a symbol for Jesus when it says, "Faith everywhere led me forward, and everywhere provided as my food a fish of exceeding great size, and perfect, which a holy virgin drew with her hands from a fountain and this it ever gives to its friends to eat, it having wine of great virtue, and giving it mingled with bread."
Tertullian (160-220 AD), in his work "De Oratione, De Baptismo", IV, i, wrote, "But we little fish, like our Fish Jesus Christ, are born in water, and it is only by remaining in water that we are safe."
There are also a number of catacombs under Rome that Christians used for burials, some dating back to the second century. These catacombs include a number of pictures of fish. Here are some of the sites where you can see some of these pictures:
http://campus.belmont.edu/honors/catacombs/catacombs.htm
http://www.jesuswalk.com/christian-symbols/
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_commissions/archeo/inglese/documents/rc_com_archeo_doc_20011010_cataccrist_en.html
So the punch line is that nobody (to my knowledge) knows for sure who first initiated this particular fish design or the story of its use during persecution other than it being a story passed down over the years (although I would argue that if it originated in the 1980s when those "Jesus Fish" first started appearing on cars, the designer certainly would have copywritten his or her work and it would not be shaded in mystery today). However, the fish in general as a Christian symbol obviously developed very early in the Christian world. I don't know if this added anything to your knowledge on the subject, but I hope it was useful.
Ken
OK. I am not blessed with even a rudimentary understanding of html, so posting links in comments is a pretty foreign concept to me (for the original post, blogger lets me just puch a button). However, because those last links I listed were too long to be seen in the comment, I am going to take a stab at proving links to them here. Wish me luck.
If this works, you should see three links to the catacombs picture below:
(Here)
(Here)
(Here)
Hopefully that worked.
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