Intersections of religion and government of society

A week or two before the November 3, 2020 General Election in USA

 

Most yard signs in the month or two before a national election are concerned with supporting one party or the other, with a few in support of neither Republican or Democratic parties and instead promoting the names and websites of third-party candidates such as Libertarians, Green Party, and so on. And for the Trump versus Biden campaign season, a few pun-worthy signs use text or visual jokes to make the point in support of one side or the other: Biden spelled "Bye Don" (as in Donald J. Trump), or the one showing a swoosh of dyed orangey-blonde hair to stand for Trump in which the word NOPE is spelled out in large letters and the "O" stands for the head of the President and the colored swoosh adorns the top to stand for trademark hair. A variation on this negation of Trump substitutes NOPE with NAH.

This photo, though, takes a completely different approach. It does not identify either the candidate for the Democratic Party or the Republican one. Instead it uses the symbol-colors of both main parties (red =Republican; blue =Democratic), which coincidentally signal the USA national flag (rectangular and with red, white, and blue as bars and a sprinkling of stars, as well). The this sign puts forward the candidate that rises above either Biden or Trump. It is Jesus of Nazareth, crucified about 1990 years ago and said to have risen from the dead, according to believers. 

Without asking the owner of the yard sign about the reasons to obtain and plant it here, it is hard to know exactly what it asserts, but it does seem to be a way that is partly humorous (suggesting that Jesus could be a write-in presidential candidate) and partly serious about seeking to overcome divisiveness from demonizing and dehumanizing people who do not support your own candidate. News commentators have talked about casting a vote for the person who seeks to unite the many communities: choose the country, not the (cult of) personality. "Choose country loyalty over party loyalty," as the commentators have phrased the matter of voting this week.

addendum: One writer looks into the origins of the message in Alabama and concludes this is a veiled message of Trump brutalism, https://gen.medium.com/the-story-behind-those-jesus-2020-signs-76e620bf2a52