I was in Celebrations awhile back, (which for those who are unaware a Christian merchandise store) and I'm all for the "Jesus Saves" t-shirt and what not.. but I haven't been in one of those stores very often and I glanced around it looking at all the hip-new Christian stuff.
The clothes, the books, the coffee mugs... sure Christianity is a lifestyle, but we reflect it in our actions, not by what we wear or drink out of. This type of merchandising isn't harmful, but I'm getting the impression that it's almost like wearing the hip new Christian stuff as a trend.
I was glancing at the books sections, and even though everything pointed to God, some books I worried about whether or not they actually provided the answers to certain questions or gave Christians a false hope.
Before we digress further into my thoughts of what I saw let me point out, I'm not trashing Christian merchandising. I'm just pondering that like most things in this world, we need to not keep our eyes open to everything we see, even if it has the tag of Jesus on it.
Glancing back in that book section I picked up a book called "How to become a man in 17 simple steps".... umm... ok... as I read the back, it mentioned it was a book to help the Christian man become a man after God's own heart in 17 simple steps... I wondered if really a book could simply do this, or whether or not it could just point guys in the right direction with these 17 steps. Seriously... some books just screamed self-help with a Jesus sticker put on the front and in the margins.
I don't know, maybe there isn't anything underneath the top-layer of Christian merchandising, maybe I'm just imagining that we need to be careful... but with all the money this generation is spending on Christian merchandising, could it possibly become an idol?
I'm not saying don't buy Christian merchandise.... but maybe I'm getting at spending a couple bucks on kids who need it as well. OH wait... here's an idea, buy children in Africa christian merchandise!.. mmm... nah... I think food and water is a better idea..
mmm... I'm at school and suppose to be working on an advanced program in web design, but I'm stuck, so I decided to ponder about my day yesterday...
-Brent Out
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2 comments:
in aus we have a number of christian bookstores, in adelaide there are 2 big stores in the city, and it is possible to make this stuff an idol, and spend heaps of money, it is very easy to go in and spend over 100 dollars easily, especially if you don't go in very often. How ever it is also a good to have a lot of christian resources in one shop, like the books and music, and i agree that some of the books may be little more then self help books with a Jesus sticker. How ever there are also a number of great books have some really awesome teaching in them, and they are easier to find in one of these shops.
Keep blogging, blessings
lisa
Good point Brent.
I think that we do need to be careful, because its agian about our heart, and how we expess ourself..
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