Church signs in the US can be a lot of fun, cheering us up but also making us think. Though the vast majority of churches are now either closed or seeing far fewer people walk through their doors because of the coronavirus, their sense of humor and ability to give well-timed advice haven’t gone away.
Bored Panda has compiled a list of some of the very best church signs that give hilarious and sometimes brutally honest advice for living during the Covid-19 pandemic. Scroll down, upvote your faves, and let us know in the comments which signs you liked best and why. And if you’re still in the mood for some more clever church signs, check out our previous post here.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that no more than 10 people gather for public or private events. That means that a very large number of religious institutions have shut their doors and congregations are now meeting online.
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That is very true, yet so many people are still not heeding the warnings.
Bored Panda reached out to the Journey of Faith Church in Baltimore, Maryland. Pastor Patrick Gahagen told us that they've been overwhelmed with responses about the sign: some of them have been "affirming and appreciative" while others labelled the church as "blasphemers and condemned" the wording.
"The sign came about from trying to figure out a way to encourage people to practice physical distancing. If I put 'Stay home. Be safe' nobody would have taken note. So with the approaching Palm Sunday celebration—scripturally Jesus rode a beast into Jerusalem which can be referred to as a donkey or ass so were good there. Practically, people need to keep their butts, derrieres, asses home."
Pastor Gahagen confirmed that the church is holding all of its services online. "We had already recorded all our sermons and had them posted to our webpage by the next day so now we just stream things on Facebook live at 10:30 AM."
The pastor also had some words of advice for anyone who's losing hope in these dark times. "Honor your feelings of hopelessness. They're legit. But know we don't stay there. In the same space where despair sits in the soul, so does hope. I have found my faith has become healthier when I have accepted the wholeness of the human and divine experience. It's not joy or sorrow but joy and sorrow. It's not love or fear it's love and fear. But because of the Easter moment and message of Jesus' resurrection—love wins!"
Pastor Gahagen added that "I believe as followers of Jesus, we need to cling more to our faith which is built around the questions of God and life and not our religion which is too defensive of our answers."
From Biblical parables to straightforward tips on staying at home and how social distancing is important, these church signs are grabbing people’s attention and they can’t help but share them on social media.
While some religious institutions are inspiring people, one Russian language church near Sacramento in California is getting a lot of heat. CNN reports that at least 70 people at the Bethany Slavic Missionary Church were infected with the coronavirus.
That's what some people don't get. You don't have to attend church for the Powers that Be to know what's in your heart.
Yup - go ahead and pray if you wish, but also take real-world steps to help yourself.
As I say: Stay safe and keep praying! (hope not to offend anyone who is not a christian, catholic, ect.)
Yes after everything I touch. Darn paws 🐾 are so raw but worth it.
Sin is a fictional, man-made concept. No such thing. They sell you the invisible disease, so they can sell you the invisible cure. Save your money, folks.
B******t! I've heard of his other magic tricks like turning water into wine, healing the blind and lame, producing thousands of loaves of bread and fish out of thin air, walking on water, coming back from the dead, floating up through the sky to heaven and the list goes on, so I'm pretty sure he could wash my germs away with the snap of a finger!
Exactly. If an all-good, all-powerful god really wanted this disease cured, he would cure it. There are a few possibilities: he is evil, or non existent, or isn’t all-powerful.
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Sacramento County Department of Health Services director Dr. Peter Beilenson said that he named the church because he really wants to “hammer home the importance of not congregating, not only in church but also in prayer gatherings in people’s homes.”
Dr. Beilenson also pointed out that this particular church’s leaders “told us to leave them alone” and added that “this is extremely irresponsible and dangerous for the community.” The church believes that it’s being singled out and claims that reports about the number of infected are “inaccurate.”
Meanwhile, Health Department representative Janna Haynes says that officials believe that Covid-19 is being spread during Bible study and meetings at congregants’ homes. However, others from the church are attending services online.
“It's a touchy subject. A lot of people believe they will be divinely protected, that God is stronger than the virus," Vlad Kirgiz, the editor of The Evening Sacramento, a Russian language news blog, told CNN.
Not a believer but I could be convinced to attend any church that has a sense of humour.
I'm not particularly religious, but I have no problem with believers as long as they're not jerks about their faith. A church near me is having virtual services - must have them on Google Hangouts or Zoom or something like that.
I respect the way you view it! Too many people will pick a fight with someone because of their beliefs, and not their personality
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I really do understand that religion offers hope to most people. Not all churches are closing or encouraging social distancing, and I want to reiterate: be better. Be smarter than the churches that said "this church will only close for the rapture" and then had a hand-holding ceremony, be better than the megachurches that held services for 1000 when their state was recommending no more than 50. I'm an atheist, but I don't want people's belief in the supernatural to end up killing themselves and overwhelming our hospitals. Some congregations are smart about this, but too many are not.
I'm Catholic and I haven't gone to a church since last week with my family to receive the holy Eucharist and confession with less than ten people in the building and social distancing. I go to mass online which is great because I can go to mass from my favorite priests.
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I'm just glad there's some churches who are actually being safe. I've seen too many stories of churches not canceling services, and in some case trying to claim they are essential to stay open.
The signs that don't say "Stay at home" are doing their congregants a terribly dangerous disservice.
Religious guy here. Totally agree with you. We haven't had services in about a month, and we probably won't have any for another month at least. It's shameful to risk your congregants and others lives because you keep services going. Especially those horrible televangelists who are demanding people send them money during these hard times.
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I hope that the ministers and church council of Bethany Slavic Missionary Church - and every other place of worship that is holding in-person services - are charged with a felony crime.
Who else goes to church for free food. (A joke, kinda ;) ) edit: all the people don’t come at me. I never said I didn’t believe chill out.
I went for the humor. Then there was a regime change. The food got worse too. :( On the upside, I got out before I got sucked in.
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Good to know that not all religious ppl are blinded by faith, the evangelist will still say that these ppl are not real Christians, or are doing Christianity wrong and will still go to hell
This doesn't relate to the Coronavirus, but there was a church sign that said "God prefers kind atheists over hateful Christians".
Terd, what religion is not harmful? Any religion equals oppression, religions are not about worshiping God, they're about playing God. Any religion is a product of imagination of human mind, therefore is harmful. People need religion to justify their way of life or to deal with life.
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During these times we as a society need to do these things: love one another, pray for one another, and for the love of God stay home.
Again, my comments keep getting deleted. To the one about god making house calls: If god is making house calls, is he in the homes where children get raped? If god is making house calls, why doesn't he doesn't he stop atrocities in peoples' homes?
Your comments keep getting deleted because nobody came here to read your bummer take. I'm a secular humanist, and I will happily take the side that God doesn't exist in a way that deserves reverence but churches do exist, and if they help keep us all safe then bravo. Seriously. As people talking to people, these churches are doing something good, so save the god or not argument for the jerks who pack in the families and spread misinformation.
Load More Replies... My comment keeps getting deleted. To the one that says that they are listening to the scientists: That's a step in the right direction. But, the science says that there was no worldwide flood. I wish they would take this a little bit further logically. Scientists say because of mountains of evidence (including DNA evidence) that we have common ancestors with chimpanzees; which means that there was no created Adam and Eve. No created Adam and Eve means no original sin and no need for jesus and his "sacrifice". Most scientists are nonbelievers. The people with the most evidence in the universe about our universe are largely not christian. Every time the bible talks about science, it gets it wrong.
People who took Bible study understand that Genesis, "the Creation Story," is just that. Similar yet different to other cultures' ancient creation stories. It is a way to explain how it all began & it's not cut in stone. (But there are other cultures that have a big flood story by the way. As far Adam & Eve, this a way to explain how humans differ from all other animals in that we are sentient beings, have a conscience & because of that we became arrogant & decided instead of just accepting what was, we would do it our own way.(goes back to the flowers & birds not having a worry, etc. This is abbreviated). Well doing our way is just the human race evolving on its own. Pretty hard work from the looks of the fossils. Skipping to the Bible & Science: considering these people lived over 2000 years ago, it's not surprising they got some things wrong. Same thing 100 years ago. But considering the length of time humans have been on Earth, what's in the Bible was old Oral History not science
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I was under the impression that this was a forum for humor, not bigotry and hatred...if you don’t want to deal with religion, stay off this post, or at least, don’t show how scared you are that we might be right by hating on us.
Christianity is a monstrously evil religion. How do you know for a fact that your god is not a devil? How would you know that your god is not a trickster god, like Loki? How do you determine if your god is even real? Has he ever spoken to you directly? Have you ever had a conversation with him? Has he ever showed up to your birthday party or graduation? Has he ever hugged you? Do you think that you could have been fooled?
Load More Replies... Not a believer but I could be convinced to attend any church that has a sense of humour.
I'm not particularly religious, but I have no problem with believers as long as they're not jerks about their faith. A church near me is having virtual services - must have them on Google Hangouts or Zoom or something like that.
I respect the way you view it! Too many people will pick a fight with someone because of their beliefs, and not their personality
Load More Replies... I really do understand that religion offers hope to most people. Not all churches are closing or encouraging social distancing, and I want to reiterate: be better. Be smarter than the churches that said "this church will only close for the rapture" and then had a hand-holding ceremony, be better than the megachurches that held services for 1000 when their state was recommending no more than 50. I'm an atheist, but I don't want people's belief in the supernatural to end up killing themselves and overwhelming our hospitals. Some congregations are smart about this, but too many are not.
I'm Catholic and I haven't gone to a church since last week with my family to receive the holy Eucharist and confession with less than ten people in the building and social distancing. I go to mass online which is great because I can go to mass from my favorite priests.
Load More Replies... I'm just glad there's some churches who are actually being safe. I've seen too many stories of churches not canceling services, and in some case trying to claim they are essential to stay open.
The signs that don't say "Stay at home" are doing their congregants a terribly dangerous disservice.
Religious guy here. Totally agree with you. We haven't had services in about a month, and we probably won't have any for another month at least. It's shameful to risk your congregants and others lives because you keep services going. Especially those horrible televangelists who are demanding people send them money during these hard times.
Load More Replies... I hope that the ministers and church council of Bethany Slavic Missionary Church - and every other place of worship that is holding in-person services - are charged with a felony crime.
Who else goes to church for free food. (A joke, kinda ;) ) edit: all the people don’t come at me. I never said I didn’t believe chill out.
I went for the humor. Then there was a regime change. The food got worse too. :( On the upside, I got out before I got sucked in.
Load More Replies... Good to know that not all religious ppl are blinded by faith, the evangelist will still say that these ppl are not real Christians, or are doing Christianity wrong and will still go to hell
This doesn't relate to the Coronavirus, but there was a church sign that said "God prefers kind atheists over hateful Christians".
Terd, what religion is not harmful? Any religion equals oppression, religions are not about worshiping God, they're about playing God. Any religion is a product of imagination of human mind, therefore is harmful. People need religion to justify their way of life or to deal with life.
Load More Replies... During these times we as a society need to do these things: love one another, pray for one another, and for the love of God stay home.
Again, my comments keep getting deleted. To the one about god making house calls: If god is making house calls, is he in the homes where children get raped? If god is making house calls, why doesn't he doesn't he stop atrocities in peoples' homes?
Your comments keep getting deleted because nobody came here to read your bummer take. I'm a secular humanist, and I will happily take the side that God doesn't exist in a way that deserves reverence but churches do exist, and if they help keep us all safe then bravo. Seriously. As people talking to people, these churches are doing something good, so save the god or not argument for the jerks who pack in the families and spread misinformation.
Load More Replies... My comment keeps getting deleted. To the one that says that they are listening to the scientists: That's a step in the right direction. But, the science says that there was no worldwide flood. I wish they would take this a little bit further logically. Scientists say because of mountains of evidence (including DNA evidence) that we have common ancestors with chimpanzees; which means that there was no created Adam and Eve. No created Adam and Eve means no original sin and no need for jesus and his "sacrifice". Most scientists are nonbelievers. The people with the most evidence in the universe about our universe are largely not christian. Every time the bible talks about science, it gets it wrong.
People who took Bible study understand that Genesis, "the Creation Story," is just that. Similar yet different to other cultures' ancient creation stories. It is a way to explain how it all began & it's not cut in stone. (But there are other cultures that have a big flood story by the way. As far Adam & Eve, this a way to explain how humans differ from all other animals in that we are sentient beings, have a conscience & because of that we became arrogant & decided instead of just accepting what was, we would do it our own way.(goes back to the flowers & birds not having a worry, etc. This is abbreviated). Well doing our way is just the human race evolving on its own. Pretty hard work from the looks of the fossils. Skipping to the Bible & Science: considering these people lived over 2000 years ago, it's not surprising they got some things wrong. Same thing 100 years ago. But considering the length of time humans have been on Earth, what's in the Bible was old Oral History not science
Load More Replies... I was under the impression that this was a forum for humor, not bigotry and hatred...if you don’t want to deal with religion, stay off this post, or at least, don’t show how scared you are that we might be right by hating on us.
Christianity is a monstrously evil religion. How do you know for a fact that your god is not a devil? How would you know that your god is not a trickster god, like Loki? How do you determine if your god is even real? Has he ever spoken to you directly? Have you ever had a conversation with him? Has he ever showed up to your birthday party or graduation? Has he ever hugged you? Do you think that you could have been fooled?
Load More Replies...
