Webbing Out: The Repent Sinner Wants Us To Accept Christ
By Shane Birley on July 23, 2004 - 10:16am
You may have seen them around town. Stickers on poles or pieces of paper laying on the ground with a simple message:
REPENT SINNER.
I have seen these messages for years. When I moved to Vancouver in 2001, my first few weeks were spent in Vancouver's West End. I remember walking around the downtown area and seeing the message everywhere. I recall thinking it must be "some homeless crazy with very little to do". I sneered that "some littering nutjob" must be putting these stickers up to have an excuse to litter. But, three and a bit years later, I am still seeing the repent stickers and I am still talking about it.
ACCEPT CHRIST.
The handwriting is almost the same but there is a newer message with a different tone. This leaflet is located just half a block down my street. I thought about picking it up and bringing it home, but it was fresh. (It hadn't been there earlier in the day.) It is almost a pleading rather than an order. Has the "homeless wacko" found some reason to mellow? Has this unstable person speading these stickers and mini-posters found someone who has repented? What is supposed to happen once we repent? Is there a second stage?
People have been discussing the Repent Sinner messages for a long time. Yet, lately, I am hearing about Repent Sinner more often. I have heard of this individual (or individuals) portrayed as a "homeless crazy" or someone with few friends and a bunch of crossed wiring. It has been reported that it is an "old man with a white beard carrying a blue case" or a lost "Jamacian lady" who hangs around the old Woodward's building. What is so interesting about this individual?
In May 2004, the Burnaby Art Gallery held a show featuring found "recycled art". One of the art pieces included a Repent Sinner sticker. Burnaby NOW described the art piece in April of 2004:
Another piece takes on litter, with an artistic interpretation of blackberries flanked by panels full of garbage collected along the SkyTrain route - chocolate bar wrappers, event tickets and even a handwritten sign bearing the ominous message 'Repent Sinner.'
In the last two months, local Vancouver weblogs and postings on Urban Vancouver have been talking about the Repent Sinner. Darren Broadfoot made reference to the messages on his site in June and Ross Laird has an entry on Urban Vancouver giving his thoughts. And, as I discovered earlier this year, there is even a search for this elusive paper-poster. To top it off, in December of 2003, this mysterious culture jammer even had coverage in the Vancouver Sun.
Yet, with all of the descriptions and the assumptions that the Repent Sinner is some wacko, no one knows who this person is. I am beginning to think the Repent Sinner is a whole lot smarter than we all think. This poster-person has been able to create a message, put it out into the Vancouver mainstream, and remain anonymous. It is the dream of any ad agency executive. It is simple idea with inexpensive execution and is secretly brilliant. I am forced to admit it. I believe Repent Sinner is a brilliant marketer. With my education and experience, I never thought that something as simple as dropping some paper on the ground would create a following.
So, what tactic does the Repent Sinner use? How is he able to get people in Vancouver interested? It is quite simple and it is known as the "art of memetics". Here is what the Wikipedia says about the memes:
A meme (rhymes with"dream") is a unit of information that replicates from brains or retention systems, such as books, to other brains or retention systems. In more specific terms, a meme is a self-propagating unit of cultural evolution, analogous to the gene (the unit of genetics). The term was coined by Richard Dawkins in his controversial book The Selfish Gene. The concept predates the coining of the term, however; for example, William S. Burroughs asserted that "Language is a virus". Memes can represent parts of ideas, languages, tunes, designs, skills, moral and esthetic values and anything else that is commonly learned and passed on to others as a unit. The study of evolutionary models of information transfer is called memetics.
So, I am sure there will be a few agencies out there who will start looking for this "wacko" and give him a corner office. I think the individual deserves it. But, with a message that urges people to repent, it is possible the individual would not accept and would go on postering. This form of culture jamming is also something that should continue. The stickers have people talking and, I am convinced, thinking.
But, there is something about the Repent Sinner that I find interesting. Looking back at the last three years, I see my prejudice. I see my middle-class judgements. I am sure there are no middle-class people spreading these stickers. No "sane person" or "person with a job" would spread such a message. I mean, after all, aren't we people, the ones with jobs and careers, more intelligent than a "crazy" person? Isn't our ability to make money superior? I am sure only a homeless person would do such a thing.
I might be a little harsh but that is all I have heard since I moved here. The Repent Sinner, who now wants us to Accept Christ, is just some nutjob who wanders the streets speading a message that has worked its way into our minds and guilted us into seeking him or her - or them - out. It is an old story. Like Bigfoot or Atlantis, people will seek Repent Sinner. Some might look for the curiosity, or some might look because they think Repent Sinner has some great answer about life.
Either way, we may never find out who the Repent Sinner is. I think it would be better if it remained a mystery.
- Ross Laird is just plain cool and his website is at http://www.rosslaird.info
- Darren Barefoot rocks out and can be found at http://www.darrenbarefoot.com
- The Burnaby Art Gallery story from Burnaby NOW is located on the Burnaby NOW website.
And finally...
- You can find more information about the "Hunt for Repent Sinner" at The Hunt for Repent Sinner.
