Over the past couple of years, you’ve probably seen the “In this House We Believe” yard signs around town.  They come in various forms but generally read something like this:

Turns out, these signs are outright blasphemous (yes, in the religious sense).  At least that’s how Vice President Vance has described them.  

Apparently, it has to do with the second part of the first line: “We believe.”  Somehow those two words are an affront to the Nicene Creed.  After calling the signs “hideous”, Vance—who is Roman Catholic–went on to say: 

They are “like such a disgusting butchering of the Nicene Creed…How many of the rituals, institutions, and practices of Catholicism show up in the modern world completely divorced from the God part and the grace part of it…  When you realize it, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, people still have this desire to profess–to do it very publicly, and even to do it in this kind of cadence that you see in the Nicene Creed.  And, of course, they do it in this very politically motivated way.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I would never have connected those dots.  I have a hard time reading those signs as anti-Catholic and I’m pretty sure that if you ask the person who put one on their lawn if that’s their intent, they would be appalled at the idea.  

For those who don’t know, the Nicene Creed is recited as part of the Sunday Catholic Mass.  It is a statement of faith agreed upon in 325 at the Council of Nicaea and begins with “I believe…”.  It is a beautiful, ancient summary of Christian belief and is shaped around the Trinity.  While we in the UCC rarely use it today, it is still part of our denominational Book of Worship.

To be clear, these yard signs are not an attack on our faith; Catholic or otherwise.  I’m real sure of that.  Actually, to be completely honest, I think the language on those signs would fit nicely into a Christian statement of faith.

More importantly, why are we talking about yard signs?  In the face of war, AI worries, poverty, the climate crisis and all the rest; we’re talking about yard signs?  Maybe it means they’re being noticed more than we think.  Maybe it means they’re having an effect.  

But, really, leaders who regularly recite the Nicene Creed should have their eye on the values of the Christ who is proclaimed in that creed; values that, ironically enough, are as easy to figure out as reading a lawn sign.