It always feels like Christmas when we get our new issue of Christianity Today magazine, but yesterday's was especially good.
The cover image is pretty clear and struck a chord with me, so I opened to this article, by the pastor who wrote the book Brand Jesus: Christianity in a Consumerist Age. In my opinion, this guy is right on the money (pardon the pun). A couple of quotes I found particularly, disturbingly, true:
"When it's just you and Jesus, you (the consumer) 'invite him' (the product) 'into your heart' (brand adoption) and 'get saved' (consumer gratification)."
"So, given this cultural setting, any salvation that needs a sophisticated sales pitch is a salvation that won't really do anything. It will make you holy the same way a new pair of Nikes makes you athletic—which is to say, not at all. It only changes your religious brand."
He goes on to list specific problems with a marketed Christianity. The crux of it is that, in a consumerist society, we do something for a brand by buying their product based on what the product can do for us. But it never does what it says it will do, and our entire society is based on becoming discontented enough to buy again. See where this is going to be a problem when we apply it to our faith? First, we do nothing for Jesus by following him, second He isn't there to try to get us to buy His product by offering to meet our every demand, and finally the fulfillment of following the Lord is eternal, not made to wear out so we buy it again.
So, what do you think? Is this a "when in Rome" situation, or do we need to set ourselves apart from our consumerist society?
3 comments:
Alyssa,
This was a great post. I've been lurking around your blog since you posted it on the forums. I've always been of the opinion, that when you truly accept salvation, you become a new creature in Christ.
Michelle (juliet1178)
I don't know about marketed Christianity, the principles of marketing are based on human nature, so there is truth in them, and truth is of God, but those principles can be twisted for good or bad.
The idea of marketing as it's currently used is to sell you something you don't want and don't need because of some sophistry that makes you think it'll bring happiness.
Only God brings happiness through following his ways, anything else is just empty marketing.
I have to agree - and that's after working for seven years effectively "marketing Jesus". We need to be less focused on filling the seats and more focused on effecting heart changes.
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