I was in Lansing, MI giving a talk at MSU the other day. Although time was very constrained and I didn’t get to see much of the campus at all, on the way back to the airport, I saw a very odd fundamentalist billboard. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a picture of it with my cell phone camera; so I’ll have to do the best that I can by memory to tell you what it says.
The billboard said something like this (I could be off considerably in the exact phraseology, but this was the gist of the sign):
Forgive us, O Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Too long we have relied upon the automobile industry instead of Your beneficence, and now we are suffering for it. We turn to You and ask that You hear our prayer and restore prosperity to our community.
So, let me get this straight: Jesus is punishing Lansing by throwing American carmakers’ sales and profits into the crapper just because the people of Lansing (and, I presume, the entire state of Michigan) have supposedly relied on the auto industry instead of God? And, I suppose, He did it by making the Big Three executives fail to realize that, with gas prices going up, SUVs aren’t as popular as they once were, resulting in their continuing to rely on big SUVs for the bulk of their profits. Or maybe God interfered with their car designers so that they produce products that people don’t want to buy. Or perhaps drove up the cost of health benefits for unionized workers to make it hard for the carmakers to be competitive on price. The possibilities are endless. Who knew God was such a micromanager of industry?
Who comes up with this stuff? I wonder if there are more of these signs and, if so, whether Ed has seen any of them?
ADDENDUM: A reader in the comments has found a photo of the billboard in question, and I’ve placed it below the fold for you to check out.
Yep, I got the gist right, even though my memory of the exact wording wasn’t so hot. On the other hand, I saw it for only a few seconds as we drove by…
