#5 Integrating Fashion and Evangelism

If you were born in or before 1994, then you most likely recognize this acronym:

 

For any pre-teen surfers of web, it stands for What Would Jesus Do? During the mid-late 90’s, Christians and non-Christians alike decided to wear a virtual reminder of their calling, most often seen in these forms:

For the especially holy and craft-oriented, Jesus-fish clasps were available at the low price of $12.99. Fortunately for Christian bookstores and Oriental Trading Magazine, the Christian fascination with faith-wear predates perms and shoulder-pads. Our parents weaved macramé bracelets at Bible Camp in the 70’s and even before that, the beaded key-tassles were popular (also available in lizard and seasonal varieties).

 

But why did Christians begin to spend $8.99 apiece at Christian bookstores for WWJD pins and Jesus fish lanyards? The desire to proclaim started, no doubt, long before anyone was Bedazzled, before the Bronze Age or the Iron Age: in the Pewter Age. Well, dear reader, let me enlighten you:

 

19 centuries ago, the first followers of Jesus all dressed the same. Truth be told, cloth was pretty rare and if you could find a color other than Dark Mud, you were considered wealthy. When traveling to spread the evangelion, or Good News, it was often hard to locate other fans of Yeshua, since they didn’t have super-cool T-shirts at this point in history:

The apostle Paul, somewhere between widows, orphans, and planting a theological foot on the neck of women, got the super-fabulous idea to make cheap trinkets out of pewter so that followers of The Way could recognize each other. And behold! We are a sub-culture!

 

Throughout all recorded history, Christians have attempted to show others how their beliefs by wearing the fish, the WWJD bracelet, or the cross as a symbol of love, hope, perserverance,

 

oh… uh… well, “Yah-Wear”, like Christianity itself, has seen some rough interpretations over the years. Perhaps if the pilgrims had keychains, we could have avoided the whole Witch Trial thing.

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