Water into Wine

      I was driving late at night from Albright to the Lehigh Valley Airport  in Allentown to pick up a Nationals Representative for my sorority. On the way home right by the airport when our of our trip was almost done we went up a incline onto a hill. Out of the corner of my eye I saw this billboard on my right. This billboard obviously had a religious connotation to it. The faucet has water that gradually turns into wine. It refers to the Biblical story of Jesus turning water into wine, which appears in the Book of John Chapter 2. Jesus turning water into wine is one of Jesus’ many miracles. This image is placed by the words “Got Faith?”, it is obviously playing on the older  “Got Milk” ads. This Billboard is trying to show the power of prayer and miracles. If you pray hard enough water can be turned into wine.

      Emile Durkheim believed that all religious things fit into a binary of sacred or profane. The sacred consists of items from a transcendental world like anointings and consecrations. The profane are everyday items. The church is sacred but the home and workplace are profane. This billboard does not fit the binary is neither sacred nor profane. It is an everyday thing. Billboards are commonplace, you can see a handful just walking down the street. It is not something you would use in a ritual, which would be sacred. All those reasons lead us to believe that this billboard is profane but this billboard is talking about a miracle. A miracle of Jesus turning water into wine. That is sacred. Miracles are not everyday they are more like a ritual which is sacred.  But things do not always fit into a binary. The world isn't black and white so Durkheim's theory can only go so far. Is this sacred or is it profane? It depends on how you look at it. It is a billboard so it is not in a church or performing a miracle but it is talking about a miracle and indirectly saying if you have faith a miracle can happen. This is a blurry line sometimes we cannot fit religious objects into this strict binary. 

Out of the four categories of material religion I think a billboard fits under art and landscapes. Billboards are modern pieces of art strategically placed to get a point across. Billboards are put into landscape. They build upon the landscapes behind the billboard. This can also play into commercialism. This billboard isn't trying to evangelize the viewer. It simply just asks "got faith"? The artist of this billboard is trying to get a point across that if we have faith then miracles will happen, maybe our water would turn into wine. I personally think these billboards and other commercialized religion objects like this one  down play religion and make it less important.