White Shoe Polish on a Rear Windshield

If you live in the United States you have probably seen an automobile where the owner has taken a white shoe polish dispenser and written a slogan on the glass of the rear window.  Usually the message is something like “Just married,” or a phrase encouraging the local high school football team to win that week’s game.

Yesterday, I saw a car like that, with a slogan in large white block letters, “I love Jesus! XOXO ☮.”  Although I was pleased that someone was not afraid or ashamed to acknowledge Jesus, this disturbed me.

I know that the two teenaged boys in the car were probably sincere and were just expressing the vibrant enthusiasm of young new believers.  My objection was that they were doing it in a shallow way which opened them and the faith up to ridicule.  We must always be careful not to send unintended messages to unbelievers.

The XOXO is a modern cell phone texting abbreviation for “hugs and kisses.”  Yes, the Church is the Bride of Christ, but XOXO is not exactly what is meant by that.  Romance is fine, even silly romance, but the marriage of the Church and Christ the Bridegroom is not all bunny rabbits, bubbles, and flowers.

The Peace Symbol ☮ was popularized among the 1960’s counter-culture which was opposed to United States involvement in the Vietnam War.  Regardless of their feelings about the war, many Christians were highly offended by the symbol.

The Peace Symbol, the symbol for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, appears to be an inverted cross with the cross-arms broken and drooping downward ☮.  The symbol was soon adopted as a generic anti-war logo. The anti-war activists always insisted that the symbol was not intended as an insult to Christianity though many Christians were not so sure.  The 1960’s counter-culture was also associated with the concept of “free love” (interpretation: promiscuous sexuality) and advocated the unrestricted use of illegal psychotropic drugs.