WEAR is your faith?

While browsing through some t-shirts at one of my favorite stores, I came across one that had a religious message on it...or so I thought.  For some reason, those kinds of clothing always catch my eye.  I love to see people showcase their faith on their person, whether it be on a bracelet, a necklace, a key chain, or article of clothing.  The front of the shirt I came across had glittered words on top that said "Hallowed" with two crosses standing on top of the word.  Below it, the words "be thy name" were printed with the name of the label also.  I thought it was rather cool to see a shirt like this.  Normally, you'd just see the crosses, but this one actually went as far as to quote a scripture from the bible on it.  And it didn't look cheesy either, as most religious clothing do.

I was rather sold on purchasing it...until I flipped it over to the backside.  It had a drawing of what one could assume to be Jesus praying, with the words "Unholy" written on top of his image.  Beneath his image was the word "Alliance."  The entire phrase would read:  "Unholy Alliance," also with two crosses beneath it.  This was rather odd to me.  How could in one breathe this label take a statement like "Hallowed be thy name" and in another breathe, deem his alliance to be unholy?  It was a smack in the face to me personally.

Being the inquisitive person that I am, I did a little research.  This label's top guru said that his label is "edgy with a youthful rebellion."  When you think about it, most of the urban clothes today have this same look: crosses, tombstones, skulls with angels, etc.  His label also uses razor blades, brass knuckles, and skulls with wings.  I read an article online where he was quoted saying his new fall collection would be "Saints & Sinners."  He says that his line is evolving with the times and that "all of the worlds are meshing; there's more crossover now." Hmmm.

This troubles me.  You know why?  Because I think those of us who consider ourselves to be very fashion conscience tend to think that wearing religious clothing is a bit over the top.  I must admit myself, most of what I have seen is very cheesy-looking and not a good representation of what we stand for.  But somehow, the "urban" religious clothing seems to be much more appealing to us.  I can't tell you how many young people I've seen wearing all kinds of skulls on crosses.  Why is that cool to us?  Although we are believers, we still appreciate the luxury of being able to look nice and have nice things.  But what really bothers me is that labels such as this one feed us with these rebellious-type messages and we eat it up!  How are they so bold with their messages and we are quite reluctant to wear His name on our person?

I think if more Christian designers would be so bold as to make something we all could be proud of wearing that this would change; at least I hope it would.  My friend said that he's not into the whole "honk your horn if you love Jesus thing."  I thought that was hilarious!  I understand that position completely.  However, I wish there were more designers out here who would give us something we could be proud of wearing to combat all these crazy demonic, anti-christian designers who don't give a care about our faith, and are not afraid to degrade the sanctity of the Christian faith.  I'm not calling this particluar label anti-christian, because I don't know that to be a fact. However, I do know that a sincere Christian could not in good faith degrade a cross like that.  Perhaps it doesn't mean anything to some, but it does to me.  We have to care, because no one is going to do it for us.

Question:  I'm doing a survey for my upcoming mag: Do you wear clothing or accessories with a religious message? (cross, scripture, etc) If not, would you if you saw something you actually liked?  Please let me know...THANKS!

L8r:

~faithful