Selling Jesus

How did Jesus become a product up for sale?
What do you think he’d say about it?
Aaron White asks some difficult questions of Christian ‘culture’.

Jesus on the radio, Jesus on a late night show
Jesus in a dream, looking all serene
Jesus on a steeple, Jesus in the Gallup poll,
Jesus has his very own brand of rock and roll
Watched him on the silver screen
Bought the action figurine
But Jesus is the only name that makes you flinch.

Lyrics from The Real Jesus, by Downhere
2006 release Wide Eyed and Mystified
Centricity Records

T

here has been a revival going on in recent years, nay, decades, that very few people have been talking about. The salvation numbers are pretty amazing and they have been growing steadily for years. You would have thought we’d have heard of this mass turning to Jesus in some of our churches, but it all seems to be happening under the radar. A lot of stuff has become ‘Christian’.

It’s true. Hundreds of thousands of CDs, certain movies, millions of books, hats and t-shirts, and even breathmints, have started getting ‘saved’. You can find all of these converts in special stores. Happily, these stores have also become ‘Christian’, so they will be joining us for our eternal reward in heaven.

I’m being facetious, of course. But the fact remains that the word “Christian”, formerly used as a noun to describe someone who was a follower of Christ, is now also used as an adjective to describe products sold to Christians as part of a certain sub-culture. So we have a ‘Christian’ music industry, ‘Christian’ publishing, ‘Christian’ clothes manufacturers, ‘Christian’ bumper stickers, and even ‘Christian’ awards shows.

Why do they do this? Well, as author Spider Robinson likes to say, whenever a question begins with, “Why do they…?” the answer is almost always: “Money.”

And there is big money to be had in ‘Christian’ merchandising. Hollywood is starting to catch on to this. In the movie industry they are calling it “Passion Bucks”, meaning money that Christians will certainly shell out for any film that seems wholesome or overtly religious. The Nativity Story, a film dramatizing the events of the Christmas story came to movie theatres last December – despite Hollywood’s skepticism about Biblical movies pre-The Passion of the Christ.

But it isn’t all about money. There is another force, perhaps even stronger than money, which drives a whole sub-culture to create “safe” and “sacred” imitations of popular culture.

Fear.

Rock and rap and movies and videogames and clothing and heathen breathmints are so pervasive and persuasive to even Christian youth that a barrier was needed, a bastion of Christian alternatives to serve as a wall against the corrupting influence of non-WWJD bracelets and the Teletubbies.

The culture around us is clearly evil, and so the best response is to get into our cultural bunkers, hope we can get off this stinking planet and in to heaven as quickly as possible and wait for the nuclear winter to wipe everything else out.

I’m obviously taking this to extremes here. There is nothing wrong, and a lot that is right, with musicians wanting to express their devotion to God through the music they compose. But the labeling of things as “Christian” and “secular” is a little worrying. Who is making the decisions on what music, or art, or writing is showing the right kind of devotion to God? And why are “Christian artists” so buttonholed that their music is almost exclusively consumed by Christian kids? One sure way of killing an artist’s popularity in the regular market place is to identify them as a Christian musician.

A couple of generations of Western Christian kids have grown up being taught that the culture around them is dangerous, out to get them, and so attractive that safe Christian alternatives need to be developed. (This, by the way, is practically the perfect recipe for getting Christian kids maniacally interested in the forbidden music, movies, books, etc…). We have convinced ourselves that we need to be afraid of the world.

The reality is actually the exact opposite. We are called as Christians to engage with our world, and to be dangerous within it. When Jesus told Peter that the gates of Hell would not prevail against the Church, he was not suggesting that these gates were going to get up and attack us. He was saying that the gates, which don’t move, could not stand against the assault of Christians on the front door. This is a picture of the Church being actively involved in the world, fighting for what is right, scaring the bad things away. This is Paul becoming all things to all people so he could win some for the Kingdom; this is the disciples taking the message of Jesus to the ends of the earth; this is The Salvation Army, being crazy and scandalous and attractive and stealing good tunes and getting the front page in the morning paper for its antics.

Let’s not be afraid anymore. We don’t want to work for a harvest of “Christian” action figures or diamond pendants or baseball caps. We want lives transformed by the life and message of Jesus Christ to bring salvation to the earth, to feed the hungry and clothe the poor and to see God’s will done here today on this planet as it is in heaven. And, just maybe, we have to actually step out into the world to achieve that.

Writer: Aaron White is a gifted communicator, both speaking and writing, who, with his wife Cherie and a team of zealots, helps lead 614 Vancouver. Aaron focuses on incarnational children’s initiatives that are transforming the lives of many. Author of Futurize, Revolution, and A Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Kingdom, Aaron teaches courses and coordinates children’s and youth brigades at The War College. This article appears courtesy of ALOVE.

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