why walk: faith

I am a pastor by training. I've led congregations in the Christian Reformed Church, a denomination that includes elements of thoughtful cultural engagement (see Calvin College) as well as outgoing evangelical zeal. Because of the latter some in our denomination have adopted the practice of placing the ancient Christian symbol of the fish on our cars.

I've wondered about whether my reluctance to put a fish on my car indicates an unwillingness to be identified with Jesus or other Christians. I've come to the conclusion that it's not because of my unwillingness to be linked with Jesus, but rather because of my reticence to identify my car with Jesus. That may seem to you to go without saying. I would argue, however, that cars affect the ways in which people relate that most of us would be reluctant to connect with the meaning of Christian faith.

Communication, for instance, is truncated; we neither speak and hear, nor see faces and hands (our most expressive body parts, and therefore the parts we allow to be naked). Thus when we communicate in cars, it is woodenly, as if returning from the dentist: honks, blinks. Given this inability to communicate with nuance, it is no wonder that we feel frustration while we drive, why we go quickly to anger, overt or contained.
I cannot understand why any Christian would want to have their relationship with Jesus and his followers associated with such a limited, clumsy mode of relating, one that so quickly becomes negative. To place one's faith on one's automotive shell is at very least non-relational; at worst, similar to putting a cross on one's shield. (Perhaps the intent is, in fact, not to initiate communication, but to end it. A sign of aggression that creates distance rather than the extended hand that invites intimacy.)

That's how I resolved the fish issue. But it left a lasting impression: human community is not fostered by people in cars. And, given the tension that is mounting around differences of faith, human community is not benefitted by declarations of faith that are placed on cars. I want you to know me face to face, to see my faith in the context of a relationship that is warm and inviting. When we share a walk, such relating is possible.