Posted by Eliza on: 09.28.2006 /
This has bugged me for a long time: Why do some Christians use “Son” as a pun for (and replacement for) “sun” — as in “Sonshine”, “Sonrise”, and “the Son rises”? (In this use, the Son nevers seems to set.) Is the connection John 8:12, “I am the light of the world”?
My questions follow, with commentary, then at the end I’ve put more of an essay about what I see the Bible saying about the sun, in case anyone wants to know where I’m coming from with this.
First: is it considered okay (respectful?) for Christians to make puns involving Jesus? (It sounds funny to this non-Christian’s ears.)
Second: I read the Bible as relegating the sun to a passive, obedient position. Does the above punning try to elevate Jesus above the sun, or equate Jesus and the sun, or replace the sun with Jesus?
Third: Can you see why a non-Christian might object to what seems like Christians co-opting the sun, replacing it with their god? (Seeming to say those believers see him as more important than the sun, without which no life, of any belief system, would exist on earth.)
As a naturalist and non-Christian, I don’t worship the sun, but I recognize that all life on earth depends crucially on the sun, whether that was part of God’s design or whether God does not exist. (I don’t see a middle option of God existing but not designing it that way — maybe some of you do.) Without the sun, our hunk of rock would be bitterly cold, close to absolute zero. Without the sun, there would be no energy for plants to harness into biological products through photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the source of all the food and all the oxygen on earth, whether that was God’s design or whether God does not exist. All energy sources on earth except geothermal and nuclear energy come, directly or indirectly, from the sun — solar power, wind power, fossil fuels (coal, oil, gasoline), and plant-based fuels like ethanol. The water cycle depends on the sun, to provide heat for evaporation and for moving clouds around the earth.
Further discussion, with citations, for those who want to see where I’m coming from on this:
“Light” has a far grander meaning than “sun” in the Bible, as far as I can tell, and I find few comparisons between Jesus or God and the sun. (“The Lord God is a sun and shield” in Psalm 84:11, and John says Jesus’s “face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance” in Rev 1:16 — but that’s how an angel is described in Rev 10:1.)
The sun is a bit player in the Bible. In Genesis 1:3, God says “Let there be light” and there was light, and he separated light from dark into day and night and that was the first day. It’s not until the 4th day (Genesis 1:14) that God makes “the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night” — the sun and moon. From then on, the sun is usually mentioned only to mark time or the passing of a day. “Under the sun” is used to mean things that exist.
The sun is obedient. The sun rises and sets due to God (Matthew 5:45, Luke 1:78), or it knows how to do it (Psalm 104:19, Ecclesiastes 1:5). The sun praises God (Psalm 148:3), bows down to God (Genesis 37:9) and is controlled by God (Isaiah 38:8, Amos 8:9) and even some of God’s chosen people (Joshua 10:13, Micah 3:6).
The sun is the object of false worship. Pagan priests worship the sun and are wiped out (2 Kings 23:5, 23:11). Bowing down to the sun (Deuteronomy 4:19, 17:3; Ezekiel 8:16) is detestable to God. Regarding “the sun in its radiance” and paying it homage would be a sin and be unfaithful to God (Job 31:26-28). A godless person is like “a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden” which dies after uprooting (Job 8:16).
The sun has damaging effects, scorching people (Jonah 4:8), the land (Isaiah 49:10, Psalm 68:6), and plants (Matthew 13:6, Mark 4:6), and destroying plants’ beauty (James 1:11). This is perhaps not surprising for a book written in a hot, arid climate. Water gets higher billing (Isaiah 49:10). Jesus is, or contains, the water of life (John 4:14, Rev 21:6), which also flows — or will flow – in a river (Rev 22:1, 22:17).
The sun won’t be necessary in the final glory of God: “the sun will be darkened” (Isaiah 13:10, Matthew 24:29, Mark 13:24) — or, more graphic, “the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31, Acts 2:20). It will be light but not hot before the throne of God: “The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat” (Rev 7:16) and “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp” (Rev 21:23).
Comment by: Julie Marie
1my former church used to use overflow parking @ a daycare across the street called the Sunshine House. Of course, in church it was called the SonShine House. I don’t think a whole lot of intellectual effort went into that…but I can see how it might be annoying to nonbelievers. To me now it seems silly and a bit presumptuous, kind of like insisting on sending religious Christmas cards to your non Christian friends. (its been years since I’ve done this, but I must admit, about 5 years ago, I looked upon it as my opportunity to share my faith.)
There is an orphanage in Romania supported by my former church that actually is called the SonShine House. I think the intention was to show how the love of Jesus love can brighten the world. The work they do, in the face of official persecution, chokes me up. I always get choked up when I see humanity at its best.
Comment by: Helen
2Eliza, I think it does relate to Bible teachings such as “Jesus is the light of the world”.
I suppose it’s not considered disrespectful by Christians because it’s considered an honoring allusion to Jesus being the light of the world; a source of essential things for us, etc.
I just looked up Sonshine in Google and it does get used a lot:
google search on sonshine
I think one thing about it is it’s a way of saying “We’re Christian” to other Christians. I doubt you’ll find “Sonshine” in the name of anything that isn’t.
To me this falls in the ‘language category’ i.e. it’s one of those Christian uses of language which I agree is questionable.
Comment by: Paul
3Thanks Eliza, great research on the sun – I so want to make some quip about places where the sun don’t shine etc…but I’m gonna restrain myself for once…
personally i think it’s just a bad pun but i can’t talk i sent an email with “sinical” in it today :)
Comment by: Eliza
4Julie Marie, it sounds like they’re really filling a need – maybe it’s silly, but I’m inclined to look more favorably on that use when it’s used by a group that does “Christ-like” work (rather than referring to overflow church parking!). In that use it comes across (for me) as upbeat, positive, radiant – rather than sounding like “he’s ours and he supplants the sun”.
Comment by: Karen
5This is one of those quintessential “Eliza questions” (and I mean that in a good way!) because it brings up a perfectly valid point that Christians never really consider (that I have heard of anyway). “Son”shine is Christian-ese that falls into the “cutesy” category and often is used commercially (like in preschool titles and Sunday school curriculum).
In terms of devaluing the essential contribution of the physical sun in the bible verses you cited, that’s a really good illustration of how the religious worldview places the spiritual world on a higher, more noble plane than the reality-based or natural world. God can sustain life and light without need for the sun, the bible says, so its role in the physical world is devalued by believers, particularly since some ancient groups worshipped the sun.
The switching out of “Son” for “sun” in pop culture is a perfect example of how a spiritual belief gets expressed in our language.
Julie:
Oh gosh – you too!?! We did that for years, and usually also included an evangelical Xmas letter, particularly targeted at our “non-believing” friends (Jews or Mormons who DID have religious beliefs, but ones that we didn’t recognize as valid). Ugh. :-( I cringe now just thinking about how people must’ve reacted (“Merry Christmas, and please accept that my religious doctrine is superior to your own! Oh, and Happy New Year!”)
I’m just thankful those people were tolerant enough to stay friends with us. Interestingly enough, we always got “neutral” cards from them – I can’t recall any proselytizing in exchange.
My husband and I still argue over the Christmas cards, because he insists on buying those with a religious picture and message, and I now prefer the ones that are particularly beautiful artistically, or carry a meaningful ecumenical message. We’ve wound up going 50-50 in recent years – sending the Christian themed ones to our Christian friends and the non-religious cards to our (my, really) non-Christians friends.
Comment by: Eliza
6Probably best not to go there with that one, Paul! But it does point out some limits of the analogy/pun for Cs: If someone approaches me to evangelize, I’m gonna put on my Sonscreen. Sonset, sonburn, sonstroke – these are all more “sinical” uses of the pun :-) (To give credit where credit is due: I seem to recall that someone – maybe jim?? – brought up the Sonscreen line in some discussion on one of the otm blogs a few months back.)
Comment by: Julie marie
7so could we call Paul’s experience on the Damascus road a Sonstroke?
OK, I’m sorry. I’ll go sit in a corner now, I know that was bad.
Comment by: Pam Sardar
8I can’t think of anything particularly clever to add or say, but I really did enjoy reading this blog! :D
Comment by: jim
9Eliza
Your analysis of the usage of the word “sun” in the bible would put most pastors to shame. Very nice work and insights.
I think the interchange of these two words reflects how out of touch evangelical culture has become from the normal world.
It is a cheesy (imo) attempt to send a playful message that essentially says “My God is bigger than yours” and more important than the sun itself – in fact to prove it I’m going to replace it with the spelling of my Gods name.
Bad Marketing – thats all I think of when I see this play on words
Comment by: Eliza
10Pam Sardar, I’m glad you enjoyed reading it!
Julie Marie, you may come out of your corner now :)
Karen, my next few posts will be about the Religious Education class I’m going to (first session was tonight) – I’m hoping to expand my repertoire & not keep posting the same type of “why? why? I don’t get it” questions! :)
Helen, I think you’re right on with “Son-” being a signal to other Christians. It’s probably handy to have some ways of doing that. Are there others you know of?
Comment by: Eliza
11jim, thanks for your comments – being able to search an online Bible & having a word processor make putting together a topic like this possible. How did people ever live without computers? (LOL)
I guess I read/feel the cheesy, exclusive aspect of the message. But I can also see (after this discussion today, like Julie’s example) that people may just want to express their – what’s a good word – exuberance about Christ, and their feelings of kinship with other Christians. Hard to know the benefit/drawback ratio. Maybe alot of non-Christians don’t ever run across the “Son”/”sun” exchange, or don’t really realize the meaning conveyed by the change in that one letter. (After all, cutesy alternate spellings are pretty common, say in store names and in ads.)
Just as a side comment, “Son”/”sun” doesn’t work in most languages. (????/?????, Filius/sol, Hijo/sol, Fils/soleil, ?????/?????? – nope. Closest besides English I could come up with is German: Sonne/sohn).
Comment by: Pam Hogeweide
12nicely summarized karen.
good call, eliza. i’m so immersed in evangelical culture that i don’t have a clue how it looks to those on the outside. thanks for sharing your eyes with me.
Comment by: Karen
13Eliza:
I’m interested in your thoughts on the education class, but I hope you don’t completely forego the ‘why-why’ questions, Eliza.
They really have a unique (in my experience) way of opening a whole new perspective into Christian and religious culture that I find absolutely fascinating.
Comment by: Helen
14Eliza wrote:
Good question…I think Christians probably use such things as bumper stickers and T-shirts ;-) to signal “I’m a Christian” to other Christians as well them being ‘witnessing tools’ and ways of demonstrating “I’m not being ashamed of the gospel”.
Comment by: Helen
15Karen – I agree; I like Eliza’s ‘why’ questions! I do also want to hear about her experience with the classes. As far as I’m concerned I’m happy for Eliza post both ways if she has time.
Comment by: jim
16Who else other than Eliza would not only know this but be able to playfully communicate it to others
Very funny
Comment by: lisa w
17Didn’t somebody once mention on the Atheist/Christian blog the need to apply “Sonblock 45″ in order to guard oneself against pushy Christians?… I think it was Helen…in which case it was just plain clever. Hands down.
Comment by: Helen
18I did talk about applying ‘factor 45′ against pushy Christians – but I’m not sure that I was clever enough to call it “Sonblock”! I don’t remember.
Comment by: Eliza
19Yes! You did, Helen – thanks for the memory nudge, lisa w…it was on ChurchRater I think.
Comment by: Theresa Frasch
20Back to the original Son/Sun query, there is a chapter on Astro-Theology in “The Book Your Church Doesn’t Want You to Read.” It shows the parallels between ancient sun worship and modern Son worship.
The book itself is a compilation of many authors on different subjects revealing much about the origin of Christianity. It was a very interesting read. I recommend it.
Comment by: Rachel
21I hear you, Eliza! Unfortunately, cheesy and exclusive are evangelical specialties. It does get pretty tiresome. My personal least favorite is the bumper sticker “No Jesus, no peace. Know Jesus, know peace.”
Comment by: Paul
22My all time fave church sticker/poster was ‘carpenter seeks joiners’ but then I have already confessed my shameful weakness for plays on words…
and Im in (constant) danfger of getting way off message…:)
Comment by: Eliza
23I don’t like that one either. (Though so far my least favorite is one I wrote about in Bumperstickers & T-shirts: “JESUS LOVES ME …and you, too”)
Paul, that’s a great one – subtle, recognizable to many but not in anyone’s face (imo).
Comment by: Helen
24I missed joining in Bumperstickers and T-shirts because I was on vacation and it’s hard to catch up later.
Here’s a Catholic priest’s list of some Christian bumper stickers he doesn’t care for:
Christian Bumper Cars: Beware of faith-based fenders
Comment by: Julie Marie
25back in the 70s, MS magazine had a page called “no comment” where they printed various blatantly chavanistic cartoons, billboards, comments, etc. I used to read that page first every time. (how it came to pass that a young woman who grew up reading MS wound up trying to live faithfully under FE/CE…well, that would be quite a digression)
Anyways, thats what came to mind when I read the bumper stickers on the link you provided, Helen. Those would sure qualify for the “no comment” section of a FreeThinkers publication!
Comment by: David H
26Helen, I liked the term from Joe Marchelewski’s bumper sticker article: auto-evangelist. Like automatic, it requires no thought, you just do it. As in the old Monty Python skit about Oscar Wilde: “I wish I’d said that.”
Comment by: Helen
27Thanks David.
Funnily enough, on my way to the health club today I was behind a car with the bumper sticker “No Jesus, no peace; know Jesus, know peace” It had two other bumper stickers as well: “JESUS is the answer” (Jesus was in way bigger letter than the rest) and “Bush/Cheney 2004″.
Comment by: David H
28Someone once told me there was an inverse correlation between religious bumper stickers and functioning brain cells. I couldn’t understand what he was talking about, but I had it printed on a bumper sticker.
Comment by: Helen
29LOL
Comment by: Steve
30After reading this article I cannot help but wonder if some 1st century pagans were as concerned about the Christians co-opting a fish as a symbol of the faith. Non-believers will always find something “fishy” about Christianity and the culture that surrounds it. Pardon the pun. LOL.
Comment by: Eliza
31Oi, and you should see what the Christians did with the Jewish Messiah, not to mention the Latin (Roman) cross!
;-)
OK, you can have the fish, messiah, and cross. But our sun is the source of all (non-geothermal) energy on earth, & the basis of life on earth. And other stars/suns, elsewhere in the universe (& now gone) provided the elements which make up the earth and everything in & on it. (Whether or not some entity we could call God designed it that way, or caused it to happen.) So, anyway, I’ll keep standing up for the sun as long as I’m kicking!
Comment by: The Reason
32In understanding scriptural language many common words represent a spiritual concept. Therefore when trying to understand this sensitive language many terms or phrases can not be taken literally. The “sun” is a light source that is essential to the existence of man. For example: heat, food, rest, time, travel, etc. The “son” in reference to Jesus Christ who is also referred to as Esa or Yoshua is interpreted as knowledge or enlightenment. Knowledge in spiritual terms is refered to as “Light” ultimately leading to understanding. Jesus Christ is also interpreted to be the Word of God. john 1:1-10
Comment by: Eliza
33Thanks for your comments, The Reason. I’m not sure I completely follow; are you pointing out the spiritual concepts behind the different terms, or are you tying sun to son to light to Word?
You refer to Esa or Yoshua as other names for Jesus…I’m not familiar with those. I’ve read/seen Yeshua and Yeshoshua (meaning Salvation, or God is Salvation) as Hebrew names. A google search turns up Esa, ‘Isa, or Eissa, as version of the name used by Arabs, or perhaps by Arab Christians. I haven’t turned up a meaning for Esa/etc.