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Pastors play with church signs
Ministers roll the dice with quick, hip remarks
1228CHURCH-SIGN
Pastor Darrin Lee poses Dec. 24 at his Cornerstone Baptist Church in Farmington Hills, Mich. Some pastors are eager to update the age-old practice of luring in worshippers with messages on marquees in front of the church. Long the place for Gospel quotes and Christmas Eve sermon hours, now the signs are often clever, pithy or funny. But pastors are finding joking about religion is a serious business.
ST. LOUIS — Pastor Mike Butzberger insists he only had holiday spirit in mind when his Florida church’s marquee read, “Christmas — Easier to spell than Hanukkah.” But after a passer-by told him she found the message offensive and a local television station inquired about it, the Lighthouse Baptist Church preacher hustled to blunt any uproar by begrudgingly changing the sign to: “Jesus Loves You.” “By no means would I as human or Christian ever put anything on the sign with the intention of hurting or insulting,” Butzberger told The Associated Press from his church in North Palm Beach, Fla.