Today, classmates Bre Tosti and Emilee Sutherland gave a presentation on “Merchandising Jesus Products,” a topic introduced by Diane M. Badzinski in Understanding Evangelical Media. In their presentation, they asked the question of whether or not Jesus products were effective in evangelizing and what we think of such Jesus products.
Honestly, I am not sure where exactly I stand on the issue of supporting this so-called “Jesus Junk.” I think that wearing t-shirts expressing your faith can sometimes be a good thing by opening up conversation with non-believers and seizing the opportunity to share the gospel with them. On the other hand, I feel that Jesus action figures (which I have seen being sold in stores such as Wal-Mart) and Jesus soap that “washes away your sins” are just blasphemous.
What I found really interesting from the text was how Badzinski explains that Evangelicals are simply just “imitating market trends as a means of making the gospel culturally relevant for those outside the tribe” (183). That is such a true statement, and furthermore, why aren’t Christians the leaders for market trends? If our goal is to share the gospel with as many people as possible, why are we settling for boring, “been there, done that” copycats of popular merchandise, that in reality, probably isn’t even reaching the secular world in an effective manner. I hate to admit it, but my reaction to some of the “Jesus Junk” out there is probably very similar to that of a nonbeliever — looking at it as some kind of sick joke.
Emilee and Bre opened their presentation with a very interesting Youtube video, showing two men: one, displaying his religion literally on his sleeve; the other, just plainly expressing his faith without all of the showy “holy paraphernalia”. I really liked how that video pointed out the extremes that some people go to just to express what they believe, when sometimes; subtlety can make a bigger statement.
Hearing about all this Jesus merchandise, I had to check it out myself. After seeing many t-shirts and other various products on www.misspoppy.com and www.zazzle.com, I was disturbed to realize that I found most of them incredibly corny (my personal favorite were the “Nunchucks” on Miss Poppy) and also somewhat blasphemous. It makes me sad to know that there are people out there who try to merchandise Jesus and sell him like they’re selling cooking utensils on QVC. What’s worse is that there are actually people out there buying the stuff.
I don’t think we need to manufacture a “Christian” everything. I think what makes Christianity so different and special from other religions is the fact that we don’t need all of those tangible things, such as holy water and rosaries, to prove we are religious. For me, Christianity is about a relationship, and like any relationship in my life, it is personal. Of course I share my faith with people, but sometimes I feel that the advertisement of what I believe can often take away from the intimacy of the relationship.
2 comments:
I agree, some Christian products are very corny. We as Christians should set the fashion trend.
Looking for another option out there, I created a Christian clothing company that shares the good news in a non abrasive but bold way. Our name is Legacy Movement. You should definitly check out some of our stuff: www.thelegacymovement.com
Many people love our "love never fails" shirt and they can't believe the number of people who approached them asked them about the shirt and the message. Praise God!
I was raised a Catholic, and all of the products were one of the main reasons that I shyed away from following the faith as an adult. It is too bad to see some of the mocking products out there, but the best we can do is ignore them I suppose.
Post a Comment