Culture, faith collide in America

Although 90 percent of Americans claim a belief in God, public expression of faith is more contentious than ever. Even as discussion of religion floods the media like never before, the rhetoric is divisive and hyper. Fed up with the angry, strident language filling the airwaves that has come to represent the Christian faith, author, director, and follower Dan Merchant set out to explore the collision of faith and culture in America. What is all this fighting really about? The effort led to “Lord, Save Us from Your Followers.” Here's an excerpt:

I think America has become a bumper sticker culture — we’re way too comfortable with one-way communication. We like to tell people what we think, but we don’t like to listen and I fear we’ve lost the fine art of conversation … which explains why I’m standing in Times Square at 11:15 on a Tuesday night in December dressed like a human bumper sticker.

Call this a creative attempt to resurrect dialogue and understanding or, as my wife affectionately puts it, “I can’t believe you’re going to go out in public in that stupid suit just to have a conversation with a stranger.”

Yes friends, desperate times demand desperate measures.

I should let you know that I’m taping my “adventures in conversation” — if I can actually engage people, people whose beliefs may vary from mine, in genuine conversation then I want some proof to show the skeptics.

Crossing Broadway I stride confidently in my Bumpersticker Man suit toward Jimmy the cinematographer who keeps pulling his headphones off and making that “I can’t hear anything” face.

“The wireless won’t work with all this interference,” he shrugs. I follow his hand as he gestures at the plethora of glowing video screens, neon signs and electronic billboards that define Times Square. I notice the ABC television studios across the intersection and, above me, the MTV studios. I’m probably not the only guy on the block with a wireless microphone.

“Could be the radios in the taxi cabs,” Jimmy thinks aloud.

“The interference could be caused by small bursts of evil emanating from MTV,” I say with a straight face.

After twenty years of friendship and labor together Jimmy merely cracks a smile and keeps working, “You’ll have to go hand-held.”

He pitches me the stick microphone.

I notice a couple strolling down the wide New York City sidewalk toward us, “We’re on,” I whisper. My eyes get wide as I gesture at the pair with my eyebrows. It may look like a nervous condition to the untrained eye, but Jimmy understands my subtle signal and in a flash he has the camera on his shoulder. Young Jim Bob from Wichita, Kansas, spins his finger in the air to indicate, “we’re rolling.”

As the couple approach they can’t help but be drawn in by the mesmerizing power of the bumpersticker suit, their momentary bemusement is all the opening I need.

“Hi, can I ask you five quick questions for a documentary film we’re making?” The man, tall handsome man with gray hair and beard, glasses and a gray jacket — who reminds me a little of Harrison Ford — exchanges a quick glance with his cute, bespectacled companion, “Okay, sure.”

DAN: How do you think the universe began?

LOU: With a big bang.

DAN: Where do you think you’ll go when you die?

LOU: Nowhere.

DAN: Just in the dirt someplace?

LOU: From whence I came.

DAN: Anytime you can work poetry into an answer you’re in good shape. All right, third  
question: Name something Jesus Christ is known for.

LOU: (thoughtful pause) Raising the dead and caring for the poor.

DAN: Those are two pretty excellent feats. Okay, name something the Christian people
are known for.

LOU: Today? Selective hatred and intolerance.

DAN: The ball kinda got dropped somewhere along the way?

LOU: Between Jesus and the Christians I think it was dropped a long time ago.

DAN: Okay, last question: I’ve heard the phrase “Culture Wars,” do you know what this
phrase means?

LOU: The Culture Wars? Sure, it’s secular culture that’s based on reason opposed by
religious culture based on superstition. 

DAN: So following Jesus is a superstition or you’re saying religion, in a broad sense, is
superstitious?

LOU: Believing in Jesus … (Lou breaks up laughing), I don’t believe I’m doing
this … Yes, following Jesus as He is followed today, as a religious icon, is superstition. Following Jesus, the man, who is probably, in some way, a Son of God, is not.

DAN: I appreciate the distinction, I see where you’re going with that. In conclusion, I’d
appreciate it if you’d take a moment to gaze upon my suit, I am Bumpersticker Man, is there a particular emblem or bumper sticker that speaks to you?

Lou takes a moment to study the bumpersticker suit before selecting a favorite.

LOU: Let’s see … I like “God Spoke and Bang It Happened.” I think that fits nicely with
Darwin and the Jesus Fish — not a Jesus Fish but a Fundamentalist Christian Fish.

DAN: (laughs) Thanks. The whole idea with this suit, well, it seems to me like complex
ideas are being reduced to simple bumper sticker slogans and that seems good enough for a lot of people. What are you finding?

LOU: I find that I agree with you, complex ideas are reduced to bumper sticker
statements and that there is no conversation between the two extremes that are
represented on your costume.  I shouldn’t say costume — on your clothing, sorry.

DAN: No, I’m not offended by “costume” because we’re having an open dialogue, this
is how we do it. We’re actually having a conversation. My name is Dan, by the way.

LOU: My name is, uh, is, Lou, good to meet you. And that’s my real name.

Lou and I shake hands and share a final laugh. I have to tell you I was exhilarated by this chat with a smart and interesting person … who doesn’t believe what I believe. I loved that Lou was open to the idea that he and I could complicate our national conversation together by respecting each other and sharing with each other.

In a way, the Bumpersticker Man suit is my twist on the time-honored tradition of the believer on the street corner with the sandwich board. You know the classics, “Repent or Burn”, “Repent Sinner,” “Jesus Loves You” and even the more friendly “John 3:16”, but somehow, over the years this one-way, one-sided approach failed to foster engagement and mostly just alienated the folks they most wanted to connect with.

That approach always seemed like, “I have the answer and you don’t. Come over here and I’ll tell you why you’re screwed up.” Even if we do have the answer, do you think anyone is going to listen to that? 

And as a believer, a Christian, a guy who loves Jesus, these street preachers would offend me because they assumed I needed them to lecture me, to save me. They never asked where I was coming from and it didn’t seem as though they cared. Well, I want to know why the Gospel of Love is dividing America and if I’m going to find the answer I’ll have to do more listening than talking … but first I have to get people to talk.

The thing about the bumpersticker suit that stops people is the dichotomy on parade. Most nut jobs on the street who are wearing a ridiculous get-up like this only display their own point of view.

It becomes clear to any onlooker, “This guy is just going to shove his idea of the world down my throat and I don’t need it.”

That wasn’t going to work for me, I wanted the bumpersticker suit to mirror the debate we’re having in our country. The suit is an invitation of sorts to anybody who wants to have a conversation.  That’s why I went out of my way to represent as many points of view as possible with the bumper stickers and emblems.

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