Creepy PJs
Toph headsed up me to this link here which sold ARMOR OF GOD PJs ™
The site claims that God told him or her to make and sell PJs on the internet just like Granny made them put on whilst reading Ephesians 6 so that they wouldn’t be scared when they went to bed.
Ephesians is a bit hazy in the memory banks so I looked the verses up:
The book is on the whole pro status quo ala Song of the South; kids, do what you are told, wives do what you are told, slaves do what you are told, masters and men be good to your wives and other slaves because God is the boss. Also, no cussing, dirty jokes, or general hanky panky. Now on to the actual verses in question:
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
I see a problem here. Verse 10 tells us to be tough. Ok. 11, watch out for the devil. Zoiks. 12 says, you aren’t up against man, but powers that be, earthly and supernatural, and that the world is on the whole evil. Red flag, but I’ll come back to that.
The rest of the verses employ weak metaphors that sum up to simply: be stubborn and dogmatic against all differing influences.
And it is exactly this part that is symbolized by the pjs. The message is not that you don’t need to be afraid of the dark because God is watching your back, but that you shouldn’t listen to anybody but us. You need a flak vest of righteousness, a bunker of faith, a rocket launcher of spirit, jackboots of the doctrine of peace. Nice threads, though. I would have loved to have been allowed to go to bed with a shield pillow and a helmet nightcap. But where does the sofa fortress fit in?
So, as far as the PJs go, the connection to the scripture is really no more than an empty, convenient gimmick to sell fun pajamas to homeschooler kids. But does this message not tell us really anything more than to not listen to anything that we don’t tell you?
Coming back to verse 12: I read that the world is on the whole evil, and it is the established powers and the demons that control them are what we are up against. This may have well been fine for Paul when he wrote this in a Roman jail almost two millenia past, but to what end does this belief serve us today? Sadly, there are too many who are content to believe that there truly exists an anti-christian agendum backed by a shadow establishment which in turn is backed by an imaginary evil deity called Satan or the like.
Yet this scripture seems to ignore itself, failing at once to realize that the flesh and blood level is really the only one we need to worry about, and at the same time be the only one that it can possibly appeal to.