You've all seen the Jesus Fish. It's everywhere. Riding around on car bumpers. Walking by on T-shirts and buttons. Being immitated by the (I must say, AWESOME) Darwin lizard. Jesus would be -- or should I say SHOULD BE -- proud. But, is he? Well, we may never know. And, that isn't what this blog is about. This blog is about the fish. The Jesus Fish.
This symbol has always puzzled me. First off because...well...it's a fish. Hardly a symbol worthy of such a figure. I get the point that people ate a lot of fish back then as the Big Mac and Whopper had yet to be invented; but, is that any reason to adopt it as the secondary symbol for your religion? I further undertand, back then, that Christians were being persectuted and had to hide their beliefs, playing the "You draw the upper half of the fish in the sand, I'll draw the lower" game. But, was the fish even theirs to draw? And, wouldn't a cross have been just as easy for two people to draw in the sand? The answers are no and yes. No, because, like many other symbols, holidays, etc, etc, the fish symbol was around long before the Christians began taking it over (see Ancient Greeks, Japanese, etc). Yes, because the fish has two sides and the cross has two lines. And they're straight. And straight lines are easy to draw. So, actually, it would have been even easier to draw then a fish...But, I digress. My point is that it's not even really an original (or creative) symble.
Jesus (whether you really believe, or simply liked the book) died for all man's sins in a pretty unpleasant mannor (See Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ). This explains the sign of the crucifixion, but does little to support the fish argument. Were it up to me, Jesus would have a symbol befitting what he did, what he accomplished. I racked my brain trying to come up with something worthy of the man who gave the world a clean slate and could come up with only one that really worked, but also harkened back to the Old testament, God fearing, Angels as assassins, slightly more cruel and unusual, turn you into a pillar of salt, God/Jesus. What I landed on (besides a stroke of true genius)...or, rather, what landed on me, was the Hammer.
First, Jesus WAS a carpenter. (Check). Second, hammers are used to not only hammer things in (Check), but also stamp things out (Check). Ladies and Gentleman, I give you the new sign (and slogan) for all of Christianity.......
The Jesus Hammer...Hammering out your sins (Registered Trademark).