In response to a recent object of the month,
Heather Hartel of the University of Iowa sent us this short paper based on her research
into church signs. She finds meaning in the signs by examining them within the context of
commercial architecture.
A comparison can be made between the Guild House sign that Robert Venturi comments on
in Learning from Las Vegas and the signs of small community churches in the rural
South. Venturi states: We have borrowed the simple literary distinctions between
"denotative" and "connotative" meanings and applied them to the
heraldic and physiognomic element in architecture. To clarify further, the sign saying
GUILD HOUSE denotes meaning through its words; as such, it is the heraldic element par
excellence. The character of the graphics, however, connotes institutional
dignity, while, contradictorily, the size of the graphics connotes commercialism. (101).
When the Bethel Church in Cherry, Tennessee puts
"Dusty bibles lead to dirty lives" on its sign, it is not only a denotative
testimonial to the rest of the community to keep the dust off of their bibles, but an
adaptation of commercial advertising techniques for evangelical purposes. The large black
letters on a lit white background connote a commercial strip, an announcement, something
that is being sold, yet what is being sold is a piece of religious advice in the form of
saying that could be easily memorized like a commercial. When it says "If evolution
were true, women would have 3 arms" on the Community Baptist Church sign on the
Austin Peay Highway in Raleigh, Tennessee, a conservative religious cultural commentary is
being denoted with the connotations of an advertisement. The detonation of the words can
be read as testimonial for the product of religion on a kind of sign that could just as
easily read in another context "2 for 99 Egg McMuffins" or "Alan King, Ben
Vereen."
Placing religious sayings in a commercial context makes these signs "the familiar
that is a little off," something that has a "strange and revealing power."
Unusual meanings are produced by "adjusting of the scale or context of familiar and
conventional elements" (Venturi 130). The connotation of a commercial sign works both
to defamiliarize the content of the sign and to enhance its evangelical purpose in the
community. The fact that these churches are not always located in a distracting setting
where they would have to use these methods to attract attention only further reinforces
their evangelism. In addition, the changeable nature of these kinds of signs allows the
message displayed to the community to change in accordance with each week’s sermon or
with the congregation’s current concerns. What evangelical idea do we want to sell
this week? What is this week’s testimony?
I would like to point out, however, that these signs are probably much more
"strange and revealing" to myself and Venturi than they are to the congregations
that produce them. For the congregations of these churches they are practical, affordable
ways to spread the word of God. The interactions between connotations and denotations in
these roadside churches and their signs reflect the elements of the existing cities around
them and do so without realizing it, and this is a technique that perhaps cannot be
learned from analyzing them.
When the Bethel Church in Cherry, Tennessee puts
"Dusty bibles lead to dirty lives" on its sign, it is not only a denotative
testimonial to the rest of the community to keep the dust off of their bibles, but an
adaptation of commercial advertising techniques for evangelical purposes. The large black
letters on a lit white background connote a commercial strip, an announcement, something
that is being sold, yet what is being sold is a piece of religious advice in the form of
saying that could be easily memorized like a commercial. When it says "If evolution
were true, women would have 3 arms" on the Community Baptist Church sign on the
Austin Peay Highway in Raleigh, Tennessee, a conservative religious cultural commentary is
being denoted with the connotations of an advertisement. The detonation of the words can
be read as testimonial for the product of religion on a kind of sign that could just as
easily read in another context "2 for 99 Egg McMuffins" or "Alan King, Ben
Vereen."