Honest confession: I really liked wearing Christian T-shirts when I was a teenager. Not particularly the one’s that were highlighting certain causes that were, for instance, raising awareness for hunger, clean water, or for serious mission endeavors around the globe. I wore the t-shirts that attempted to take a popular slogan or product and change the wording and design ever-so-slightly in order to give the t-shirt a Christian “spin,” thus making me a walking billboard showing everyone that not only was I a Christian, but I had a sense of humor as well.
I was proud walking through the halls of my middle school with a t-shirt that seemingly had the Crest toothpaste logo on it, but had ever-so-slightly been changed to “Christ” with a message about His “whitening power” over sin, or the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups logo that had again, ever-so-slightly been modified to say “Jesus” scripted in its characteristic yellow cursive. The examples are undeniably abundant.
As I write this, I’m looking back on this time of my life and in the life of my faith with a slight twinge of embarrassment, not for the Jesus in which I believed, but in the way I was displaying His message. Perhaps one of the reasons people, and especially young people decide to emblazon their torsos with such, if we can be perfectly candid here, campy clothing choices is the fact we have been told to “be bold” for Jesus and be a light everywhere we can. This is true. However, boldness is far greater than a t-shirt, and must run deeper than the logo displayed on our poly-cotton blend.
It’s one thing to wear the t-shirt outwardly, quite another to wear the t-shirt inwardly. A Christian kid, or whoever, wearing a Christian t-shirt can be seen by others as categorically no different from a person who identifies himself with a band, sports figure, or a particular retail store. At the core, it has the same message that the marketer relies on: Advertisement without personal investment. No longer do I have to tell you directly about the band, athlete, or style of clothes I love; I can simply wear it and get the most views for the least amount of effort.
Could this really be true? After all, aren’t some t-shirts great at reminding kids of certain times they experienced God in a real ways such as a camp, etc., or about a band they love? Surely there are worse things our young people can be wearing than a shirt that, instead of saying “Guitar Hero” says, “God is my Hero”?
True. The heart of the matter isn’t about clothes. The issue basically comes down to three levels:
1. Does this shirt minimize and/or trivialize, in its attempted wit and cuteness, the God in which the shirt is advertising? Asked differently: Does this t-shirt make a person want to take the God of the Bible with greater seriousness?
2. Is my outward shirt wearing accompanied by and inward wearing of the screen-printed message on the shirt? This is the most crucial aspect of all. Our lives must be lived in consistency with the message in which we wear.
3. Am I wearing this shirt as a way way to avoid getting to know a person intimately and personally as Jesus would, or am I using this shirt to get the message out to as many people with as little personal investment as possible?
As odd as this may seem, Weird Al might have something to contribute here. His career has been built upon taking otherwise serious songs, tweaking them ever-so-slightly, and selling the funny new rendition of the song. We all listen, get a quick laugh them move on. However, Weird Al rarely makes a person reflect deeply on the words of the original artist. If the music industry relied with seriousness upon Weird Al bringing awareness to the original artist the industry itself would be in trouble. If there were a hypothetical people who had no idea of music was and had to rely on Weird Al to point them in the right direction in terms of good music, I doubt seriously people would want to listen (at least to his brand of music).
I am happy to say that 15 years out of that stage that I have let the t-shirts go, but never the Jesus in whom I attempted to display. Hopefully, now I am more concerned with wearing my Jesus on my sleeve than on a t-shirt with sleeves. May we always be on display - t-shirt or not - for Christ - and His “whitening power”.
SK
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