I guess I never really understood the underlying “witness” to displaying the symbol. I think of all the things I can’t do, or shouldn’t, based on the fact that I am trumpeting to the world every time I get in my car that I “AM A CHRISTIAN!!!YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW I CAN PROVE IT? CHECK OUT MY FISH!!!”…. “You’ll have to look quick though cause I’m speeding.”

Not that there is anything wrong with wanting to display your allegiance to your faith I suppose, but does it have to come with the cheese factor? Anytime a religious symbol becomes an adornment for a car in the same vein as a bumper sticker I believe it loses some of the numinous in the translation. It’s too easy. It is as though this establishes that I am a follower, not of Jesus so much, but of trends.

The fish has become de rigueur for the American Christian. But how often do we see it demonstrated in a way that sets you apart? Many sporters of car fish still speed like everybody else, I see them flip the bird, cross lanes without signaling and tailgate. If being a witness is our calling, then non-believers “witnessing” our lack of ethical uniqueness in driving doesn’t cut it. We’re being “set apart” without demonstrating it other than we have conformed to our subculture – by displaying the fish – a subculture that teaches us that witnessing isn’t who you are or how you live. It’s wearing an “Eat at Joe’s” placard that is somehow supposed to bring people to their knees when our shadow passes over them.

The original Icthus fish symbol used by the early church was actually a symbol to disguise the fact you were a follower of the Way. Only other Christians knew what it meant. This way they could safely signal each other without fear of reprisal from the culture that wanted them eliminated. It brought comfort to believers in that they were able to discover who was journeying with them. Their obligation was to God first and the tribe thereafter. It was a way to find your own and seek shelter , companionship and comfort from those who would quite possibly be dead if they were discovered. In other words it was honorable.

Often times the fish is used on a business card or yellow pages add. It is supposed to convince us that the service comes with the added benefit that the business is holy. I can’t tell you how many stories I have heard of people getting crappy service from a Christian business, and then when confronted they pulled the “can’t we all get along, brother” excuse for their incompetence. Listen my brethern, there are enough believers out there, me at the forefront, who fail miserably at our witness. Is it too much to ask that we make less of a display of our faith through symbols, and more of an introspection of our need for outward proof of our piety through actually living it?

The fish just adds too much pressure and too easily “outs” us as the pathetic sinners we actually are. Maybe, just maybe, if we made it a point to drive the speed limit, signal everytime we change lanes and always let others merge without speeding up, they might actually scratch their heads and wonder “what kind of an unusual lad is this who treats a stranger with respect, courtesy and dignity? Heck…we aren’t even neighbors?”