God – The Ultimate Consumer Product
We have turned God into just another consumer product.
Or at least that was Peter Rollins’ critique at McFadden’s last night, and I think that in many cases he is quite right.
Instead of providing an alternative to consumerism, the church has too often baptized it in religious language and resold it to the masses under a pious guise.
Churches become malls (sometimes in form as well as function, replete with stores full of religious trinkets that allow us to reinforce our religious identity through our purchases).
Clergy become salespeople endlessly pushing religion as a product in an effort to grow their congregations and their bottom line.
Leadership books teach pastors the latest tactics from the corporate world.
And the Gospel is reduced to a individualistic transaction where I have a need and getting Jesus/speaking in tongues/daily quiet time will fulfill whatever felt needs their market research has told them I have.
Ultimately, we end up turning God into an idol.
We make a false image of God, one that fits comfortably with our culture’s deeper ideologies.
That the God of Abraham, Jeremiah, and Jesus does not in fact comfortably fit with our attempts to tame Him and use the divine to legitimate our consumerism (or militant nationalism) should be obvious enough as we read the text of Scripture. But challenging the cultural liturgy, especially when it serves us so well, simply will not do. So we plug our ears, raise our voices, and drown out the discordant notes.
How we drown out the contradiction will be the subject of the last few posts in this series – as we turn from war and consumerism to a culture (and church) that numbs itself with its addiction to entertainment.
The thought just occurred to me that in our effort to sell God as a product, we also sell the idea that this stuff is all easy. I struggle with praying enough and reading the Bible enough. I struggle with talking about Jesus enough to my 3 year old. I struggle to give grace and mercy to everyone. In my struggles, I often feel alone. I feel like I am the only one to struggle and everyone else has it right. Everyone else has it easy because they bought the product, took it home, and use it perfectly. When in fact this Christian walk isn’t a product to use, but a life to live. And in life we struggle and we mess up. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we do it right. It isn’t like buying a product to use. It’s a life to live. Thanks.
What are your feelings about working in a Christian bookstore, listing products about God online to be consumed by the masses? Are you furthering the kingdom by your efforts or being a cog in a well-intentioned, but misguided cultural machine?
Author’s Note: I work with Mason in the same bookstore and am responsible for marketing these same products.
Good question Josh!
I’d say that first off, there are plenty of books that served as important formative events at times in my own journey, that looking back now I would have much to critique about. So keeping that in mind it’s a bit easier for me to extend some grace and benefit of the doubt towards authors and readers, and the ways God may choose to use those books in their particular stories.
Also, part of it is a matter of the heart. Buying books about God/faith/theology/etc. because we genuinely desire to learn and grow (even through books I might find misguided) is a very different phenomenon than the all-to-easy tendency to buy those sorts of books so that we can reinforce a narrative that we are the sort of people who care about such things, whether we read them or not.
Is this something you’ve had to wrestle with as well? If so I’d be interested to hear what conclusions you’ve come to.