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| A graffiti tag of Jesus on the Cremorne Rail Bridge |
On the return trip, I came across an amusing piece of graffiti. Located on the eastern side of the Cremorne Rail Bridge, half way between Punt Rd and Chapel St, there is a large pink tag with the word 'Jesus'. Obviously it is doubtful that this handiwork was intended as a public display of an adherent's pursuit of Christ, but it does raise some speculative queries about promoting the brand of Jesus.
Firstly, could public religious graffiti tagging be a legitimate expression of faith?
The heart of this question is the about the limitations of freedom of speech that an individual may express in society. Obviously Australian law considers tagging and graffiti art to be defacing property, but the Australian constitution also protects the freedom of religion. In Victoria, this tension between these two human rights has recently played out with the religious vilification laws - most publicly with the court case involving Catch the Fire ministries.
In Australia, this 'tension' is more academic than practical as generally Christians have the freedom to express their faith to the extent of their comfort zone, however this issue becomes a literal matter of life and death to Christians in some other countries around the world which out-right ban religious expression. Christians in these countries are harassed, imprisoned, tortured and even killed for public acknowledgement of their private beliefs.
In comparably safe Australia, our civil liberties are protected by law, but our ability to express our opinion is limited and in many cases, rightly so. In this situation, the question of graffiti tagging as a religious expression is not so much a matter of freedom of expression as rather a question of appropriateness. This is because the expression is occurring on property which is not owned by the tagger. Should a tagger want to publicly express their religious opinion in the form of graffiti on their own property (ie. clothing, vehicle, website, or side of their house) then they have the appropriate authority over the property and therefore they can legitimately exercise their freedom.
Religious tagging or graffiti as a form of public protest (as separate from pure expression) within the current Australian political context would seem poorly misguided. Our political and legal system offer many other avenues to seek change to society and one would imagine that a Christian would receive equal treatment of their perspective. However, in countries where normal religious expression is illegal, it could be that protest religious graffiti may have some legitimacy - in the same way that the act of smuggling bibles is viewed.
Finally, Romans 13:1-2 states:
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves... (read the remainder here.)
Secondly, is Jesus-graffiti an effective form of expression?
Graffiti traditionally has been viewed by mainstream Australian society as a public nuisance and the development of laws and prevention programs obviously illustrate this point. Therefore, for a Christian to use a socially inappropriate act as the vehicle through which to share their views either as expression or evangelism would seemingly be damaging method for both the individual and Christianity as a whole. Street cred aside, the individual would seem hypocritical by society and Christianity may have its reputation downgraded. Therefore, public property (ie. illegal) graffiti would be counter productive for the Christian cause.That said, there is a smaller sub-culture in Australia that appreciates graffiti art and this may be an interesting point of connection or method of pre-evangelism to this particular subgroup. Although, to ensure the legality of this exercise, the methodology would have to be carefully thought out. Churches could offer wall space to budding graffiti artists, hold workshops and host events that would cater for this particular cultural genre. This allows both expression and evangelism to occur within a legal context. For more on this, check out this newspaper article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5294092.ece
For some amazing graffiti art with a Christian bent, check these out:
Thanks for your thoughts Paul. In my opinion, the issue of religious freedom is a bit of red herring when it comes to discussion of religious graffiti. If the only means of getting the Gospel across WAS grafitti and we were denied by the State of that means then we MIGHT have a legitimate excuse for going outside the law to proclaim the faith. The fact is there are many legal ways of achieving the same end - billboards, legal postering,legal grafitti walls,etc. Christians are, in my view, a little unwise and even counter productive when they employ illegal or offensive means to tell the message when there is available to us legitimate and appropriate means. Yes, when we go outside the envelope we may attract certain attention that we would otherwise not get but the question is if we do attract and impress certain people by such means just what kind of disciples of Jesus would these people actually be? I'm not trying to be judgmental here - just asking the question. Sharing the Gospel is part of the mission of every Christian but the way in which we do it can have a huge impact on effectiveness, long term discipleship and the way the community views the Church as a whole.
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