There are days .....

I would love to have a machine in my vehicle that could produce commercial-quality bumper stickers.

I was standing in line at local grocery store, and could not help overhearing two people in front of me. One was complaining that her kids had had a "meltdown" because some program had been pre-empted by coverage of Senator Edward M. Kennedy's funeral. Not such a big deal, I suppose. I can remember all kind of events that pre-empted the usual programming, and there were always a few people who got upset.

What bothered me was the particularly judgmental way they spoke of a man who, though flawed, did a great deal of good in his life, and went through more pain and trauma than most of us could stand. Yet they both spoke about him "leaving his mistress to drown" and one of them got a laugh from her companion with "I don't see why they're making such a fuss about the old lech's body when his soul is burning in Hell."

On a better day, I might have said something, but I'm still trying to process the impact of this man's death on many levels. Besides, the only appropriate things I could think of fell into the classification of "things one does not say in mixed company."

So I paid for my groceries, and walked to my vehicle. Passing me was a car containing these two thoroughly disturbing people. On the back, they had that fish that is supposed to be the earliest Christian symbol.

Yes, I know the anchor came first, later stylized into a cross, and the Greek word for fish, being used as an acronym, is fairly recent. Before someone writes me, I will also stipulate that excavations have found the symbol, without the lettering, in the Catacombs of Rome and Tarquinia , probably dating to (or before) the First Century of the Common Era. But there is general agreement that these rooms were used by Mithrians and Zoroastrians for centuries prior to the "Jesus Cult" of Judaism that would eventually become Christians.

But I'll give these people the benefit of the doubt and assume they were just ignorant. It was the bumper sticker on the other side that cried out for amendment:

"Christians Aren't Perfect, Just Forgiven."

At that moment, I would have given a lot to add a secondary sticker to read

"But Not By Our Kind Of Christian."

No great point, no lesson, just me venting. Thank you.