It appears that the “Hatefull [sic] and Unforgiving” will also be hell-bound. Pity for the sign carrier, as he hardly sounds full of forgiveness.

Chris, very true.

So a Murderer and an Adulterer are down in hell, soaking in a cauldron of boiling oil, when a new arrival comes splashing down between them. As they wipe the boiling oil out of their eyes, Adulterer says, “Welcome to eternal damnation. I’m Adulterer and this here is my buddy, Murderer. What’re you in for?”
The new guy says, “I’m Lukewarm Churchgoer.”
Murderer says “It sucks to be you!”

I suspect the signmaker feels most of his fellow congregation members fall into the category of “Lukewarm Churchgoer” if they lack his tireless zeal for spreading the Gospel.

So sad when people are taking pleasure in “dooming others to hell”, when Christianity is all about God giving up everything he had to save people from hell. Anyway, this is not the place for religious discussion.

Nice colour combo on the hand stenciled one ;)

I’m well on my way to Hell on so many counts here, but at least my kids will be keeping me company. So that’s ok then.

While we’re on the subject, does anyone else feel that Fred Phelps has ruined Kabel forever?

Phelps uses Kabel?

It occurred to me: although it’s ONE usage for which Papyrus would actually be suitable, it wasn’t used.

The flames on the word “Hell” aren’t bad. I would’ve expected something much cruder. Is this a font?

Between baby murderers and liars, does the second sign read “Puke-Warm Churghians”?

In a typographic point of view, I’m not sure if I’m happy or sad that we don’t have these kind of christianity advocates here in Europe... nahhh... I’m happy we don’t :P
One less example of bad posters on this side of the ocean, but also one less chance to laugh... :)

So, Jesus commanded that Lukewarm Churchgoers would go to hell. I always thought that St. Peter created the Church after Christ died. Was there a second resurrection that only that fellow knows about, where Christ filled him in on all those additional “facts”.

Oh, dear: the stencilled sign also condemns mockers and scoffers, so we’re aaaall doooomed. BTW, is there a Hell for those who use four-dot ellipses without good reason, and spell “without” as two words? Yeah, what is a pukewarm churghian? Someone should use that as a name for a band.

[edit: does the yellow overlay also say “STOP SINNIG”?]
________________________________________________
Ever since I chose to block pop-ups, my toaster’s stopped working.

Why would you want to go to heaven when all the fun people are going to be in hell?

I prefer reincarnation as an afterlife anyway.

“Rebellious wives and kids... God will judge you.” There’s a desperate family man.

I am intrigued by the warning against “the hatefull (sic) and the unforgiving”. It must be scaring like hell to be carrying around one’s own indictment.

Thomas Milo
DecoType
www.decotype.com

>“Rebellious wives and kids... God will judge you.” There’s a desperate family man.<

Can’t you imagine his wife saying:
“Henry, you are NOT going out with those stupid signs again this weekend, are you? And leaving me with 6 kids and a baby and your mother to deal with?”

Kids: “My Dad is SOOO like embarassing me with those signs.”

I was there, and I didn’t mind the signs at all, quite humorous is all. What wasn’t humorous was the intense hateful debating that accompanied it, from people on both sides of the argument.

The nasty things said made the baby Jesus cry AND the Buddha weep, besmirching the names of whatever deity the participants might have claimed to follow.

On the other hand, you have to give it to the person who made the sign by hand. The professionally printed signs indicate the showy display of one’s means of life, almost certainly the type of thing that indicts the bearer of said sign :)

Here is a beautiful hate-filled sign that is commonly found in the center of tourist hell, Powell St Cable Car, SF:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zara/3304456

THAT is a sweet sign. If only it was for a punk band or something.

The Q and the semicolon in Zara’s sign are stunning.
Definitely something to file away for a future design.

Wow! The NO SEX guy is still there doing his thing? I haven’t been by that station in a long time.

Gotta love that “Q”

Better to reign, I guess.

Wow. The ESes audibly hiss, don’t they. That guy could make a living teaching seminars in dizzying and masterful poster design. If only he were sane.

But with meds his genius would likely disappear.

That’s cool. I like the way the handle in the middle is painted blue so as to blend in with the N behind it.

Look carefully at the No Sex sign. There isn’t a single curved line on it, anywhere. I imagine the signmaker designed it that way because it was easier to draw the letters with a straightedge. But the end result is letterforms that powerfully embody the strictness of the message: Stay on the straight and narrow! Don’t cut any corners!

Not to mention sinuous curves.

I love the moral absolutism of it, tho. Not many people equate leches and masturbators with necrophiliacs.

I like the four-period ellipsis .... reallllly lonnnnng pauuuuuse. THEN DAMNATION!

Edit: This is in reference to the very first image.

What does it mean (first image):

“LORD LORD and HE will say:”

I thought there was only one LORD? Or was that a weird printed typo that no one noticed?

Someone needs to make ’PUKE-WARM CHURGIAN’ t-shirts for next year’s festival.

“LORD LORD and HE will say:”

It’s a reference to this passage in the Gospel of Matthew 7:21-23, made weird by lack of punctuation and context:

21 Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22 Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?”
23 And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”

I wonder why they paraphrased from that bible passage. It would have been just as easy to use it word for word.

dinazina said:
> But with meds his genius would likely disappear.

yes but his signs will live _forever_, praise the lord,
thanks to these pictures now up on the interwebs...

-bowerbird

If someone believes that their warning could save someone from hell, wouldn’t it be more hateful not to say anything?

Forgiveness comes after repentance. (1 jn 1:9, lk 17:3-4) If someone remains in sin, then God will not forgive them. People seem to think that God will forgive them even if they continue in sin.

If something as good as heaven exists, why not something as bad as hell? Hell is real and it is easy to get there. One of the easiest ways is to pretend it doesn’t exist.

If someone believes that their warning could save someone from hell, wouldn’t it be more hateful not to say anything?

It would. On the other hand, if the presentation of the warning is such that it alienates the very people whom it seeks to save, what value does it have?

Odd how none of those histrionic “warnings” mention love or kindness or generosity of spirit as an antidote to wrongdoing.

Instead they screech of evil and damnation, imagining that repeating this message like a pounding hammer will somehow be effective to instill fear, guilt, and (I suppose) redemption - when instead it provokes revulsion, resentment and ridicule.

Says something about the winning personality of the writers. I doubt they lead a congregation of their own. No one would attend services.

Sorry this has spun so far off topic but i had to respond.

The typographic element of such messages, as we’ve discussed, IS fascinating to me, though.

“Credo in un Dio Cruel.”

.. “Credo” would be a good name for that angular font — don’t say anything, shout it!

BY the way, below are more signs from the same Folklife.

One features a photographically detailed image, the crucified Jesus with his skin flayed off, looking like a hanging side of beef. I can’t imagine where this came from - maybe a blowup from that Mel Gibson movie, “The Passion of the Christ”.

from Wikipedia:
[blockquote]”Although only one sentence in three of the Gospels mentions Jesus’s flogging, and it is unmentioned in the fourth, The Passion of the Christ devotes ten minutes to the portrayal of the flogging.” [/blockquote]

The other sign says “Do you know this man?” depicting Christ with a crown of thorns. These people seem fascinated by punishment and torture themes.

At least the lettering is a decent brush font, not Comic Sans. Now THAT would be hair-raising.

Gibson’s film of the Passion relies heavily on the meditations of St Anne Catherine Emmerich. One of the reasons I don’t like the film is that it is incapable of making a distinction between these pious mystical meditations and the Gospel account. It’s a mediaeval passion play given the Hollywood treatment, and what it loses of the simple piety of the mediaeval drama is not made up for by the realism of the gore; rather the opposite.

If something as good as heaven exists, why not something as bad as hell?

Figuring that out is easy. It’s realizing that the gift of free will can make heaven a much a hell as the alternative that’s really interesting.