I recently began to notice just how many commercial trucks have a statement in large letters on the back professing the Christian religion. It is a lot, at least on the roads and highways where I live, driving around like mobile bulletin boards.

And this has me wondering.

Is it a requirement to be a Christian in order to drive a truck? Is it a requirement of the trucking company that the driver profess their faith on the back of the vehicle?

What if a driver is Hindu? Do they also have to profess their faith on the back of the truck (something I have not yet seen)? Or is it only Christians who must do it? Or are only Christians hired by trucking companies? Would that not be employment discrimination on the basis of religion?

What if the driver is Muslim? I have not seen “Allahu Akbar!” on the back of a large commercial vehicle, but can you imagine?

Assuming that these Christian trucks are out there driving around in good faith (pun intended), what message does it really send? That the truck driver thinks it’s very important that the drivers around them know what their religion is?

That being a Christian makes commercial truck driving a better experience?

That if the drivers in the other cars are not Christians–if they are perhaps Jewish, or Muslim, or Hindu, or Buddhist–then they are wasting their lives with their faith traditions and being something other than a Christian?

That if you become a Christian, you too can drive a truck?

Do all people in the trades feel the need to announce their religion to all and sundry? Or is it only truck drivers? Is this taught in a school somewhere?

Do truck drivers–or trades people in general–assume that everyone around them agrees with their statements of Christianity? Isn’t that presumptuous?

If that’s not the case, that instead the drivers of these trucks are giving testimony to their beliefs in order to convert others to their religion, how effective is that? How can anyone know, since the only people seeing these statements are those zooming past in their cars? Do they think that by doing so they’re earning credit in Heaven? Are they really? Did Jesus tell them to do this?

Maybe there is some important connection between being a Christian and the ability to drive a truck? If so, who drives the trucks in Japan (about 90 percent Shinto)? Or Israel (about 75 percent Jewish)? Or Saudi Arabia (nearly 100 percent Muslim)?

The fact that these truck drivers are taking the time and effort to decorate their trucks with what I assume to be a Christian witness raises far more questions than answers. I guess that they feel what they are doing is a good thing, but they are operating from a closed, insulated, poorly informed place. Thus, it is highly likely that this time and effort is wasted. Additionally, it is likely that they are doing more to insult those around them than they are to gather in the lost.

Something to keep in mind the next time they wash their trucks.