“1.4 million lack power amidst relentless heat,” or so go the headlines these days.

Here in Atlanta over the past weekend, the heat index was upwards of 110 degrees.  It was so hot that simply stepping out to get the mail felt like walking through a sauna, and the local pool offered free, unlimited, weekend passes.

Which only partially explains the following church sign on yesterday’s route through the nearby countryside only 30 miles south of Atlanta, a trek I make every other week as an itinerant chaplain to visit a few of my clients: “Hell is hotter,” the sign read.

Hell is hotter than “Hotlanta” in July.   

I would reckon that hell can also be here in Atlanta in July, one observation the sign fails to mention- but it still gets high marks for creativity.

So, what do you think?  Are “heaven” and “hell” reserved for some distant future, or, as Rob Bell would argue in Love Wins, can we experience them in the here and now?

For more funny church signs, check out Beliefnet’s series.