catapult magazine

Has anyone seen the new ad campaign rebuking people for driving SUV’s? It ends with “What would Jesus drive?” and quotes scripture here and there throughout the commercial.

I just saw a portion of the commercial on BBC World news and almost choked from laughing so hard. Apparently there’s a website with the same message but I haven’t found it yet.

i just saw the report on BBC and i think the site was flashed across the screen at some point:

http://www.whatwouldjesusdrive.org

i haven’t been able to get there yet because it’s probably swamped.

although i think the idea of this campaign is interesting, i don’t know so much about the execution. like you, grant, i found myself laughing at the snippets of the commercial they showed. but, just as with the clothes you wear, what you drive says something about you. so, thinking about what you’re driving isn’t necessarily an entirely loony idea.

The ad is put out by the Evangelical Environmental Network, a decent well established organization that obviously lacks funding for their website—it looks like everything on the website is broken right now. But what a coup they managed with this! For all I know they didn’t pay for one commercial spot but got international coverage through the news media (I saw it on the news here in Canada too).

I got the impression from the BBC news show that the people behind the campaign realize that being a Christian means trying to live Christianly. It seems that ending a commercial with “What would Jesus Drive?” puts them in a camp with the “What would Jesus Do?” people. But maybe they are turning the tables on those “What would Jesus Do?” people who think the question only has moral implications.

Do you think then that Christianity is now seen as mainly a set of moral credos that people follow? How much “get involved” responsibility should Christians have? To what extent (and in what ways) should our Christianity be evident in our lifestyle—what we eat, where we go, what we buy?
On a side note—Because of the poverty I’m seeing through a geography class I’m in, I’ve been struggling lately with the way I live. I love to live comfortably, to be able to get everything that I want. Is there something wrong with that? Is it okay to enjoy my security and prosperity when so many people worry about their daily food?

I mentioned this ad campaign to one of my profs who is an environmentalist of sorts. He thinks Jesus might have preferred an SUV because the robes he wore would make getting into and out of a compact car difficult. I countered with the argument that Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, not on a stallion. A brand new donkey too, so the emissions standards were better.

i strongly believe that Christians should, at the very least, lead very intentional lives. we should constantly be thinking about how our faith affects every part of our lives — what we drive, wear, eat, etc.

i personally feel that if i have to drive a car, i should drive one that gets good gas mileage and pollutes as little as possible. i think that creation is a gift from God and i’d rather not contribute to the destruction of it. so, i drive an ultra-low emission vehicle that gets 50 mpg. i’m not trying to say that my decision is some sort of absolute answer for every Christian. but, when i went to buy the car, i was very intentional about why i was buying it and how my faith affected that decision.

i think that’s part of what this “what would Jesus drive” campaign is getting at. think about the repurcussions and consequences of your decisions as a Christian. as a Christian, should you feel comfortable polluting significantly more by driving an SUV when, in most cases, you’ll never need all the room, power and off-roading abilities an SUV provides? should you feel comfortable shelling out more money than you should for a car that’s fuel efficient (ala me), instead of spending money on causes that might be more worthy? i’m not saying these decisions are easy, but i think we should at least be struggling with the issues involved in making the decisions.

and that’s kind of what *cino is all about. end of sermon.

It would have been interesting if Jesus had to choose between a donkey and an SUV in the Bible story. Unfortunately, the donkey was the only means of transportation available to him.

I think Jesus would have chosen the SUV over the donkey too. The SUV would have enabled him to cart the kids to school, then to soccer practice, stopping only briefly to pick up a few happy meals at the McDonald’s drive-up window. “Soccermom Jesus” could get so much more done in a shorter period of time than “Donkey Jesus”.

this came up in another thread and i thought i’d answer the question here (because it fits this topic better). here’s an article on Jerry Falwell’s take on the “what would Jesus drive” campaign:

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=14606

It should be noted that Falwell is part of the “Kingdom Comer” movement that believes they can “force God’s hand” by ensuring that things go as sour as possible thereby making the Kingdom come ASAP. No wonder he wants everyone to buy SUVs. That way we will destroy the Earth that much faster and make Christ’s return happen sooner….whatever.

Oh, and Grant…the donkey was prophesied in Daniel. I don’t think Jesus had much choice at that point. Now if the angel would have shown Daniel an SUV…Jesus would have been sporting in style.

Soccermom Jesus…ha ha ha ha.

When Dan and I were engaged (Spring ‘99) we went out to dinner with Jim Ball (guy who is behind the What would Jessus Drive campaign) and Nicole Holt in DC. He is a wonderful man with a great reputation in the Christian Environmental Community. A woman from my church told me yesterday that Jim Ball was interviewed on Points of View on Friday night and had a lot of great things to say. I missed it so I’m going to check out the Points of View website soon.

Apparantly, he is having, or had had a meeting with some folks from Ford. He has been doing a great job with anticipating people’s problems with the campaign and providing answers. The most difficult part is showing how increasing fuel efficiency, etc. will strengthen the car industry. Great guy.