This morning the most searched term on Google was “John 3:16.” A sudden worldwide interest in the Bible, Jesus, and God’s love perhaps? Not exactly. Last night’s college football championship game saw missionary kid/quarterback Tim Tebow with the biblical reference written on his eye black.

My colleague at Leadership Journal, Brian Lowery, has written a great piece about the story at Out of Ur. Here’s a bit:

Isn’t it awfully telling that people actually had to look up John 3:16 on Google to know what it says? Before you think I’m an idiot, let me be clear that I know America is biblically illiterate. But have we reached a new low? It used to be that you could bank on people knowing at least a few biblical texts, and John 3:16 was one of them. It has, after all, been broadcast at pretty much every professional game long before Tebow smeared it on his face-often on poster boards, and usually by a guy wearing a rainbow wig. People saw it and thought, Yeah, yeah, yeah. ‘For God so loved the world.’ I get it. Now, was that a first down? But last night a good part of America saw the text and thought, What the heck does that mean?

Brian’s post got me thinking about the rather odd places we see John 3:16 popping up. Of course there is RainbowMan–famous for his appearances as sporting events holding a John 3:16 posterboard. (Brian makes mention of him in the Out of Ur post.)

But there are other interesting, and odd, placements of John 3:16 in our culture. Friends in California probably know that In-n-Out Burger prints the verse on the bottom of their soft drink cups.

One I just learned about comes from the clothing store Forever 21. Their yellow shopping bags have John 3:16 printed on the bottom as well.

In both the case of In-n-Out Burger and Forever 21, the owners are Christians seeking to use their fast food and fast fashion to share the good news.

A few questions come to mind:

1. Does this sort of biblical “product placement” really inspire non-Christians to crack open a Bible and explore the teachings of Christ? Or is the subtle branding intended to make Christians feel better about shopping at Christian-owned businesses?

2. In a culture of ever-increasing Biblical ignorance, is printing “John 3:16″ meaningless? The fact that it was the most searched Google term today, as Lowery indicates, means most Americans may not have even know it was a reference from the Bible–let alone what it says.

3. Is the day coming, given our pluralistic society, when we will see “Koran 3:31″ under cups, shopping bags, and painted on the naked chests of overweight sports fans? Somehow I doubt it. Muslims generally revere their scriptures too much to trivialize them in such a manner. (BTW, if you don’t know what Koran 3:31 says, try Google.)