GNDN Christians

I'm going to reveal even more of my inner nerd with this post. Do you know what the acronym "GNDN" means? I think this summary from memory-alpha.org explains it best.

In Star Trek: The Original Series, GNDN was an "in-joke" produced by the set designers of the series.

According to an interview with John Jefferies, one of the set designers, stated in the TOS Season 2 DVD special features:

"The plumbing and pipes in the Enterprise all had color codes and some form of nomenclature on it. That would be a series of letters and numbers and something that looked like you could tell what this pipe was on this side of the wall, as it came out of the wall. And GNDN with a number behind it and then a color code became very common throughout the Enterprise. GNDN means 'Goes nowhere, does nothing'."

This became a well-known enough prank that when the DS9 crew re-built some of the old Enterprise sets for the 30th anniversary tribute, "Trials and Tribble-ations", they made sure to include a GNDN pipe. (Check the labeling on the white pipe in the lower left corner of the photo.)

Told you this post would be nerdy.

The jist of the post is this. Ask yourself if you are a GNDN Christian. "What's a GNDN Christian?" you ask.

Just like in Star Trek, the GNDN plumbing looked really cool, and looked as if they were performing a real function. However, as with all things Hollywood, they were completely faux furnishings, meant to give the impression of functionalilty without actually performing any kind of service.

I think the correlation with Christians can be drawn pretty clearly. If we are more concerned about looking like we're following Christ rather than actually going somewhere and doing something in His name, we are a GNDN Christian.

Go somewhere. Do something.

"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" ~Micah 6:8 (ESV)

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