October 18th


A recent car for a particular brand of automobiles has caught my attention. The add shows four of the brand’s cars along with their highway mileage rating, and compares them with a single competitor’s similar products mileage rating, which are slightly higher. Then they ask the question how it is that their rival can claim to have the best average mileage consumption. In effect, they are politely calling the other brand a bunch of liars by implying, but not directly stating, that the made claim by the other guys is false.

I am truly amazed at the gall of those folks, because this is clearly an apples and orange comparison. In other words, the advertisement is leading the buyer down the garden path. The trick comes in using the example of four very specific cars, and picking only the highway gas consumption rating for those vehicles that are better than their competitors, and then implying that if it’s true for those cars, then their rival’s claim for a better overall gas consumption rating must be false.

It would be as if you sold larger tastier fruit than I did, except maybe for your apples. My apples taste better than yours, but my bananas, oranges grapes and peaches all are bigger and tastier than what you have to offer. Clearly, it would be false advertising for you to claim that all of your fruit tastes better than mine based solely on your better apples, but that’s exactly what this car builder is doing. They are only giving you enough information to make themselves look good, and then using that tiny bit of knowledge to make their competitors look bad.

As people of faith, we sometimes play a bit of a comparison game with other religions and even within our faith system. We dole out a bit of negative information about how another faith system works, and then use that to make our own beliefs sound better. That’s not very helpful, and when you think about it, not even necessary. What God offers humanity in terms of love and support, in the way He takes care of all our needs, and all that we are offered through Jesus is all we need to share with others to make our beliefs look wonderful. That’s how wonderful our Christian faith system is.

It’s so wonderful, in fact, that we don’t need to badmouth other people’s beliefs. If we obey God’s teachings, share His blessings and follow Jesus faithfully, we don’t have to compare ourselves to anyone in order to gain converts. Our actions will speak louder than words, our words will themselves transform lives, and our lives will be the best advertisement imaginable. At least that’s the way I see it.