Current mood:	Sardonic
Current music:	Jars of Clay

Christ-Mart
Whee, Doggies. It's been a while since I've done one of these.
Lots of ups and downs between there and here, too.
So, what should I rant about today? I know.

CHRISTIANS:
CANTO I

You know, I never really thought I'd ever say this, but sometimes, I'm ashamed to call myself a Christian. Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly sound in what I believe in and have no problem telling other people about it. The problem isn't Christ, it's the other people who call themselves Christians.
What are these people thinking?

This whole thing was brought about by my visiting a local store called CPO (Christian Publisher Outlet). I mean, the name alone is fraught with laughable presumptions: Christians are into big business (money, money, money), Christians are big-time publishers (Apparently, there's a need for everything BUT the Bible), and Christians are super thrifty so they need an outlet (Hmmm...whatever happened to the poor). And I shouldn't be pointing fingers, but, hey, I'm pointing them at myself, too.

My biggest question is: When did Christians become so dang commercialized?

Christian T-Shirts
Christian Music
Christian Bumper Stickers (Jesus, save us)
Christian Mints
Christian Comic Books (Preserve us)
Christian Toilet Paper
Holy Roller Engine Oil

I buy into it, too. Rather than going to WAL-MART and giving them my money, I buy a Christian CD or two at the Christian store. They really do have a good argument for themselves: If you're going to buy it anyway, why not give your money to God's people? If you've got to wear clothes, why not wear clothes that advertise you're a Christian? If you're going to chew a mint...

And then my brain kicks in. If money is the root of all evil, do we really want to make ourselves more evil? If these things are going to be changing people's lives left and right, shouldn't they be giving them away? Why not give the bum lying in the ditch one of your "A Bread Crumb and Fish" shirts? Really.
And if a "Made in Taiwan" T-shirt is the best way of telling someone else what you believe in, give up now, please.

CHRISTIANS:
Canto II

Obviously, I wasn't too disgusted by my own realization of Christian Commercialism, because I finished my shopping. I always browse the shelves of Christian "Novels" (if you can call them that) for something original or at least thought-provoking. No Luck. Granted there are some Christian authors who are actually GOOD WRITERS and make you think (Frank Peretti), and let's not forget the late greats: Lewis, Tolkien, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky. But as for the Christian "Literature" market of today, it sucks. I found about ninety books that had some goosey-eyed heroine on the cover with some strong-jawed man looking perturbed in the background. What the crap is this? It's a Harlequin romance novel with all the graphic sex description taken out of it.

I've honestly given these Christian Novels a chance (not really the Romance ones. I can't stand to touch those), and I've had it.

Breakdown of Christian Books:

You have your Not-really-Romance novels, as I mentioned earlier.

There are these "action" stories that always take place in some exotic locale. Most of the characters in these are lucky to have one dimension to them. They're always fighting terrorists, and are A) Running from God or B) Such Unbelievably Strong Christians that they never doubt themselves or C) the Child of B. And in the end, all the terrorists get saved, the whole town gets saved, the dog gets saved. Sure, that would be great if it happened, but c'mon toss me some realism here.

There's this one series about Amish women that's so predictable that you can look at the cover and you can tell how it ends.

There are about 9,000 books where somebody clones Christ. Nevermind, that the other 8,999 books have the same premise, write another one.

And don't get me started on the "Left Behind" Series. *shudder*

What I'm saying is that Christians are either A) very stupid and enjoy reading this kind of crap or B) just reading it because it has a fish symbol by the publisher. I'm leaning toward B, and I think that's sad.

Hopefully, someone or something will come along to make Christians realize that their target audience shouldn't be themselves, it should be the people who aren't Christians. Take the money you would put into a fish symbol for your car, or a crappy Holy-quin Romance novel and give it to someone else who needs it more than you do. Isn't that what the whole thing's about anyway? I dunno.

And if Christian artists wrote something GOOD (which a few have), it might find its way out of their self-created, capitalistic box and affect someone who doesn't have a fish tattooed into their hand.

Notes:

A little googling on "Christians" brought up this image. Positive, isn't it?