August 14, 2011, on this blog: Testamints, tattoos and holy underwear
In general, I don’t think much of “witnessing tools.” I think they become a cheap substitute for authentic living witness. And as I discussed in the previous post on this topic, I think they’re prone to becoming the kind of tribal symbols that can feed a corrosive Us-vs.-Them outlook.
Plus a lot of them are just tacky and ridiculous. The gap between the wearers’ expectation of how they will be perceived by others and those others’ actual perception of them can be vast. Rather than facilitating conversation and communication, they tend to be an obstacle to them.
… At best, such witnessing tools come across as clumsily misguided, which is why, again, I’d advise against them. But perhaps even something as tacky as Testamints could serve a better, more useful function as an inward, devotional reminder.
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