I recently spotted this car at our local Costco.

“Whoa!” I said, “Four Jesus fish on one car.  I’ve never seen that before.”

“One for everyone in the family?” Bryn postulated.

“If Jesus is all-powerful, shouldn’t one be enough to protect the whole car?”

Let’s discuss.

First, a history lesson for those who, like me, have only a loose understanding of the fish symbolism.  The Jesus fish is officially known as an Ichthys, or ΙΧΘΥΣ, the Greek word for “fish.”  The word is also an acrostic:

  • I – iota – Iēsous – Greek for “Jesus”
  • X – chi – Christos – Greek for “anointed”
  • Θ – theta – Theos – Greek for “God”
  • Y – upsilon – yios – Greek for “son”
  • Σ – sigma – sōtēr – Greek for “savior”

Beyond that, there are plenty of fish stories in the Bible so it seemed like a good fit.  The modern Jesus fish traces its origins to a remarkable guerrilla marketing effort from some Australian college students during the Vietnam War.  Today, the Jesus fish is a pervasive symbol of Christianity and a popular car-decoration, letting the world know the driver is Christian.

But typically one fish is enough to cover the whole car.  Our friends at Costco weren’t taking any chances though; they want everyone to know that the driver’s spouse and 2 kids are also Christian.  Since Jesus, being all-knowing, presumably already knows the family believes, the fish only serve the purpose of alerting other drivers.  On the road and in life, is it important and/or necessary to advertise your beliefs?  Or is it an insecurity?

Or do the parents believe the 4 Jesus fish will serve as a supernatural forcefield and protect the car and family on the road?  I think the makers and sellers of Jesus fish should propagate this belief to sell more fish.  It’s a small investment in safety, and better safe than sorry right?  And it appears to be a 5 or possibly 7-passenger car.  What about the non-family-members who might be riding along?  They could probably benefit from some Jesus protection too.

I think all this adds up to a huge business opportunity for the Jesus fish companies.  I mean why sell just one?  It’s the easiest upsell ever: Don’t you want everyone else in the car to go to heaven too?  They could literally triple or quadruple their business overnight if they could convince customers to abide by the 1-Jesus fish per passenger rule instead of the prevalent 1-Jesus fish per car rule.

Personally, I’m a fan of the Flying Spaghetti Monster car emblem.

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