I feel I need to express an opinion here that has frustrated me for a number of years. Every now and then I walk past a Christian bookstore and I look through those windows and see the merchandising of Christ and the Christian faith. I see the shirts that say "Jesus" instead of "Reese's" or they take the acronym CSI and turn it into some witty Christian saying. I see the Narnia action figures, the Scripture mints, the faith chips (little poker chips with Christian quips), and it angers me for a number of reasons.
This annexing of every facet of life for us Christians only helps to further the chasm that exists between us and non-believers. It simply makes us more alien to them and them to us. We can't even eat a Snicker's any more because there isn't a Bible verse printed on the inside of the wrapper?! That's garbage. My aunt buys all kinds of "Christian" merchanidise, and I think she's of the opinion that this makes her faithful. She doesn't give to the poor, she doesn't evangelize, and she even throws stones at her own brothers and sisters. She's an incurable gossip. Paul commanded us not even to eat with immoral brothers (and sisters), not to avoid non-believers. We are supposed to harbor relationships with people who don't believe as we are, like Jesus did, not build little fortresses for ourselves replete with Jesus bobbleheads.
When we make shirts with Reese's, or Pepsi, or other logos on them that we have altered into some Christian statement it simply makes Christian's look like they don't have any original ideas, like Christians are the least creative people on Earth. Altering other companies' logos, contrary to popular belief, shows a lack of creativity, not an abundance of it, especially since it's been done a dozen times already. Non-believers want to see people that are genuine, not copycats. They want to see real people, people with faults, and weaknesses, and passionate emotions. They don't want to see this "my life is blessed, pie in the sky, Christianity, and I have no troubles on my heart". And by the way, wearing t-shirts that say "Jesus", or WWJD doesn't make you a good Christian.
Christian stores charge more for their merchandise than any stores I have ever been to, especially their CD's. I dont' know...maybe this is just more a consumer beef than a Christian one, but I definitely don't feel any fellowship with those people when I go in there.
Lastly, why do feel we that we need to commercialize Jesus? Jesus was never popular, He didn't need to be. Do we feel that this somehow makes us cooler? To have our own little club; our clique? Or maybe this is just a way to feel like we are telling the world about Jesus, without having to leave our comfort zone, and being able to feel a little better than someone else at the same time. And that's just what non-believers think when they see us wearing that junk (yes, junk): that we think we are better than them. Jesus was about preaching the Word of God, and forging relationships with people who needed Him. Maybe this last point is just me saying that I am uncomfortable with this idea of merchandising as a whole, but it does make me uncomfortable.
Why don't we start letting people know that we're not an alien race? Tell them that we're not better than them, but that we are people who sin and fall and are troubled, but that we have Jesus and that makes up for all of it. Let's stop hiding behind our t-shirts and Scripture mints and go out into the world with hearts for Christ instead of merchandise.
