What I love about t-shirts is that they're so revealing. Usually when you see someone in normal clothes you have no idea what that person is like -- what they believe, where they've been, what they love. But when you wear a t-shirt it's as if you are saying "This is who I am!" – even if it’s pretty weird.
T-shirts are a way for us to make a statement about life. In our day-to-day lives we are surrounded by commercialism and superficiality. Just think about it: everywhere we look, everywhere we go, there are advertisements, commercials, ads, company logos, trying to get us to buy more stuff. On television, radio, in papers and magazines, on our computers, at sporting events, even on many of our clothes, companies advertise their wares. We are constantly being bombarded by sales pitches which proclaim in one way or another, “You are what you buy.”
The church is one of the few places you can escape the corporate hawkers. We’re lucky there’s not a Microsoft ad in the Order of Service or Nokia cell phone logos on the hymnals or a “Just Do It!” slogan on the pulpit. (Actually, I do get a kickback every time I mention a product from the pulpit.)
Certainly not all t-shirts are appropriate. Some of them are walking advertisements for corporations or they’re tasteless. There’s a cartoon that shows a sign at the top of a long stairway with many people in line and clouds floating about. The sign reads, “Wait here for final judgment.” The second man in line is thinking: “Today... I just had to wear this t-shirt today...” The t-shirt reads, “Holier Than Thou.”
We do need to be careful in choosing our t-shirts because they are a way we tell the world who we are. It might be an image of a place that is sacred to us, or a photo of someone we love, or a work of art we appreciate, or -- my favorite – a message about what we believe.
What is your message? Hopefully we wear the message that tells the world what we find meaningful and purposeful in our lives. Or perhaps it’s a vehement protest against that which is life-denying and prejudicial. Or perhaps it just makes us laugh.
Some of us are shy about letting the world know what we believe, but why not be proud of our convictions – proud enough to let our credo shine.
My favorite t-shirts, as you might guess, have to do with religion. There are many with traditional Christian messages and symbols, usually of a fundamentalist nature, but I have more appreciation for those that are more unique.
More often these days I see pagan t-shirts, such as “Born Again Pagan.” I like the one with a picture of Stonehenge on it that says, “Give Me That Old Time Religion.” Another one asks the intriguing question, “Are you a good witch or a bad witch?”
You may have seen a t-shirt that creatively defines the world religions, but using language that is not quite fitting for a church – even a UU church. The version I prefer may be too long for a t-shirt. Some of the questions are:
How many Charismatics does it take to change a light bulb? Only one. Hands already in the air. How many Roman Catholic does it take to change a light bulb? None. Candles only.How many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb? None. Lights will go on and off at predestined times.
How many Amish does it take to change a light bulb? What's a light bulb?
And of course my favorite: How many Unitarians does it take to change a light bulb? We choose not to make a statement either in favor of or against the need for a light bulb. However, if in your own journey you have found that light bulbs work for you, that is fine. You are invited to write a poem or compose a modern dance about your personal relationship with your light bulb, and present it next month at our annual light bulb Sunday service, in which we will explore a number of light bulb traditions, including incandescent, fluorescent, three-way, long-life and tinted, all of which are equally valid paths to luminescence.
Touche!
Another articulate t-shirt is one that reads: “Religion is for people afraid of going to hell, spirituality is for people who have already been there.”
The meaning of course is that many people cling to institutional religion out of fear of damnation whereas those who have suffered and faced their suffering courageously are the ones who have learned to live meaningful spiritual lives.
Some t-shirts portray religious heroes. There is the Famous Unitarian Universalists t-shirt with people like Thomas Jefferson, Susan B. Anthony, Adlai Stevenson, and Olympia Brown.
Another t-shirt lists “Heretic In Good Company,” including Galileo, St. Joan of Arc, Matthew Fox, Copernicus, and of course, Jesus of Nazareth.
I like the one with this quote: “The Church says the Earth is Flat. But I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church.” Do you know who wrote that? Ferdinand Magellan, the first person to sail around the world, so he should know.
I’m wearing one of my favorite religious messages: “Love the Questions.” The German poet, Rainer Rilke, once advised a younger poet to cherish his deepest questions. Learn to love the questions, he said, and then "live the questions now."
Perhaps that is what distinguishes Unitarian Universalists from other faith communities more than anything else: we are much better at asking the questions than coming up with the answers. Or as Rilke put it, we live our way into the answers.
Our faith demands that we ask the hard questions about religion and spirituality as well as politics and society, and that we craft our own answers that come from our lived experiences and from our mind and heart. We believe that if you don’t ask the right questions, you can never find the right answers.
The biggest category of t-shirts is probably those that express political opinions. T-shirts give us the opportunity to express our outrage when politicians are corrupt and unethical or just plain stupid – and of course those opportunities are endless.
There were quite a few t-shirts that came out immediately after the last presidential election, such as “Hail to the Thief,” and the one that states: “The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” Do you know who said that? Josef Stalin.
Feminist t-shirts are popular, including the one that says, “Well-behaved women rarely make history.” And another one: “Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.”
I wouldn’t be surprised to see this one in our church: “Homophobia – insecurity about being heterosexual”. Or this one: “Stereotypes are devices for saving a biased person the trouble of learning.”
T-shirts that send a message about our environment are plentiful. One says, “I pledge allegiance to the earth, one planet, many gods, and to the universe in which she spins.” Another suggests that we “Live simply that others may simply live.” And then simple and to the point is this one: “Treehugger.”
I’m expecting to see new t-shirts pop up soon that say something like, “Down With The Wall.” You may have heard that the government has decided to deal with the protestors who are showing up in Washington this month to demonstrate against issues relating to globalization by building a 9 foot high fence 2 ˝ miles long around the White House and World Bank building. Washington has withstood protests on every imaginable issue, but now they will build an American Berlin Wall to keep people from legitimately expressing their indignation.
Perhaps we need more t-shirts like this one: “I think, therefore I’m dangerous” with a picture of Rodin’s Thinker. Or “I do not intend to tiptoe through life only to arrive safely at death.” Many of us can relate to this one, “Why be normal?” One that is especially relevant has the caption, “Joe Chemo,” showing the cartoon figure of Joe Camel in a hospital bed hooked up to an IV.
Perhaps the most dehumanizing report of the summer concerned a plan presented by the Philip Morris company to balance government budgets and save billions on the rising costs of rising life expectancies. How would they do that? It’s simple.
Philip Morris actually commissioned a study in the Czech Republic that shows how the financial benefits of smoking outweigh the costs. Not just by providing jobs and tax income but by the "indirect positive effects" of early deaths.
I find this incredible and incredulous. As the columnist, Ellen Goodman, writes, “Tobacco companies used to deny that cigarettes killed people. Now they brag about it.”
“In 1999 alone,” she continues, “the study showed, those ‘indirect positive effects’ shortened lives an average of 4.3 years and saved the Czechs $30 million of reduced costs for pensions and housing and health care for the elderly. Ta Da! There you have the Morris Plan for saving the safety net without bankrupting governments.”
There is something terribly wrong with a society that promotes and protects such death-dealing companies. And it’s not just happening in Europe. Our own government is now safeguarding the tobacco industry so that they can continue their Morris Plan here as well. Dave Berry captures the absurdity of our policy with this fictional dialogue:
Q. Could you please explain the recent historic tobacco settlement?
A. Sure! Basically, the tobacco industry has admitted that it is killing people by the millions, and has agreed that from now on it will do this under the strict supervision of the federal government.
Q. Will there be monetary damages assessed?
A. Yes. To compensate for the immense suffering caused by its products, the tobacco industry will pay huge sums of money to the group most directly affected.
Q. Lawyers?
A. Yes.
Q. Will the federal government also receive large quantities of money?
A. Of course.
Q. How will the tobacco industry obtain this money?
A. By selling more tobacco products.
Q. What if consumers stop buying tobacco products?
A. That would be very bad. That would mess up the economics of the whole thing. The government would probably have to set up an emergency task force to figure out ways to get people smoking again in order to finance the historic tobacco settlement.
Q. You're kidding, right?
A. I'm not sure.
This is a humorous way to bring our attention to the way we allow the promotion of illness and death in our society at the expense of health and life. The real issue behind all of these issues is whether we will be a society that honors, respects, and sanctifies life or one that negates, represses, and destroys life.
T-shirts are a way to let our life-enhancing values shine, to express our opinions and beliefs, our hopes and dreams, our anger and sense of humor. What is your message? What is it that you want to say to the world? What is your hope for the future?
My favorite political t-shirt is this one: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world, indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” Who said that? Margaret Mead.
Our faith ultimately is luminous only in our actions: how we live our lives, how we love one another and our planet, and how we go about liberating those who are in bondage. The definitive t-shirt, the most profound sermon, is what we do with this life we have been given. May the message of your life shine brightly in all that you do, and may you share that light with the world. Amen.
