Jesus was a fish

Since Stef got married and got all of her stuff out of the storage unit that we'd been sharing since I moved back to Tulsa, I've been paying too much rent on a somewhat overpriced storage unit that was larger than I really needed (as well as being kinda out of my way). So last week I went to the storage place that we generally use at the bookstore and rented a plain ol' 5x10 unit that's less than half the price of the 5x15 that I was in. That's good. We like to save money. Especially with Christmas approaching, although it's not like I have a ton of people to buy for anyway.

Anyway, as I was leaving this place I noticed for the first time (and I've been there at least a dozen times in the last few months on bookstore business, so you can tell how much attention I pay to things when I'm in the Gardner's zone) that they have a Jesus fish on their big sign out front.

As an aside, would you like to know the history of the Jesus fish (or ichthus, if you prefer)? Sure you would. See, if you read the gospels, there's a lot of fishiness to Jesus to begin with... and no, I don't mean that in a smarmy way. Not in this post, anyway. I'm still working my way up to the God Rants. But there was the miracle with the loaves and fishes. There was Jesus telling the disciples which side of the boats to cast their nets on and a subsequent miraculous fish haul. There was the "I will make you fishers of men" deal. And it was foretold that just as Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, Jesus would spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth before returning from the dead (although that's not what ended up "happening," but no, there's no inconsistencies in the Bible). The early Christians latched onto the fish as a sort of symbol for their religion, and during the days when Christians were persecuted for their faith, the use of this fish symbol really took hold. If a Christian met a stranger on the street and wanted to find out if the person he was speaking with shared his faith, he would surreptitiously draw an arcing line in the dust/sand/dirt with the toe of his sandal (half of the fish). If the other person was a Christian, he would then also toe out an arc and complete the fish, and the two of them could go their merry way talking about Jesus without fear of being reported to the authorities or whatnot. Fish and the fish symbol became so central to Christianity that early Christians were in fact often called "Pisciculi," a word whose root is the Latin word "fish."

So there you have it. Just a little something to let you know that I'm not anti-God/anti-religion just because I'm uneducated about the whole thing. ^_^

Where was I? Right, the fish on the business sign. This really annoys me, and not just because I don't share the Christian faith. The way I see it, there are really only three reasons why a business would do this, none of which are exceptionally valid:

• The owner of the business is proud of his or her faith. This is the least problematic reason to me, although I don't believe personally that things like this have any place in a business. Would you plaster your kids on your sign if you were proud of them? Of course not, that's too personal. Your personal life and your business life are two different things, and your faith belongs on the personal side of that equation.
• The owner of the business wants to show that he/she is a Christian because this somehow implies that he/she is more trustworthy or less likely to do you wrong or whatnot. Which is crap. I've seen a ton of shitty things done in the name of God over the course of my lifetime, both to me and as an observor - and let's not get started on what I've read in the history books. Hypocrisy, as it always has, abounds. And it's not like you have to take a test or get a license to use the fish or anything anyway, so what's stopping your friendly neighborhood devil worshipper from slapping a fish up there to try and increase his business? Nothing. In this context, then, it becomes meaningless.
• The owner of the business is knowingly catering to those people - and there are plenty of them out there, probably especially so here in the Bible Belt - who "would prefer to give their money and/or business to a Christian if they have the choice." Replace "Christian" with "white person" in that sentence and that should tell you all you need to know about the bigotry behind this idea. Religious discrimination isn't just discriminating against people who are religious, it's also discriminating against people who aren't. It's just another -ism in the end, and it's just as disgusting as the rest of them.

So did I, as a studious little atheist, go back inside and ask for my money back? Well, no, because I was late for work. Heh. Seriously - it's not like I'm not going to pull out of that storage unit and find a different one that doesn't wear God on its sleeve. I'm not that uptight about all of this - and besides, then I'd be the one with the -ism. (Godism?) I'll just gripe about it here instead.