In general, I do not lose a lot, if any, sleep over problems in our world. I am intimately aware with the futility of such worries. I generally accept our sad state of affairs as being mostly unchangeable by me.

However, somethings do upset me. When I see Christianity being morphed daily into something it isn’t, I get upset. When I see it being disfigured by people who don’t realize they are disfiguring it, I get upset.

And when the forefront of the Christian movement seems wholly on board with such desiccation, I get upset. And most dangerously, when I see the fanfare of people who should know better, the excitement they get when they say “”Now Jesus will be popular again!”", I get really upset.

Welcome to 2007. Christianity is a product and we are the salesmen.

And just like every product, we have to repackage it. No one will buy last year’s cellphone. Likewise, no one will convert to last year’s Jesus.

Think back a little. Think about the headlines and trends relevant (or irrelevant?)  to Christianity, and you’ll see the problem the way I do. Yes, I have examples.

WWJD, the question that never was answered.

I can’t think of a more harmful and hypocritical movement in Christian culture than the WWJD movement. What Would Jesus Do? To this day, no one knows the answer to this question. At least, they wouldn’t by looking to the people who wore (and wear) such paraphenlia.

I remember that many well intentioned people at the time thought it was a serious move towards Christ-like behavior in our culture. “”How can they sin with such a poignant, rhetorical question on their wrist or around their neck?”"

A key component to WWJD was missing from the 90’s movement, however. The original concept by Charles M. Sheldon’s book In His Steps was far from rhetorical…it was crucial. The characters in In His Steps asked the question as a way of life. Before any action was taken, the question “”What would Jesus do?”" was not only posed, but answered and followed regardless of consequences.

Very different.

Christian T-shirts, just another part of taking up your cross.

“”Effel get your camera, the world is advertising Christ…and they are soooo clever!”"

One of the most nauseating trends in my lifetime is that of the obscene amount of “”Christian”" paraphenalia available to today’s youngsters. Each shirt has a “”hip”" way of sharing the gospel. Because, as we all know, the heart of Jesus’ teachings lies somewhere close to…copyright infringement.

• Calvin Klein becomes “”Christ Is King”" through the magic of photoshop.
• C.I.A. becomes “”Christ Is Alive!”"
• A DaVinci Code logo turns into “”Divine God”", which is stupid besides being deliciously circular.
• Fear Factor becomes “”Faith Factor”"
• Ad infinitum.
• Ad nauseum.

What exactly is accomplished by these shirts? Well, embarassment for one. Let’s face it, while kids are still walking around with these stupid “”testimonies”", we as a Christian body whose churches and ministers overwhelmingly support such rubbish look ridiculous. Christ looks ridiculous.

Someone make it stop, please!

Purpose Driven Branding, collect all our playsets and accessories.

Another movement of the last few years that warmed the hearts of evangelical cultural observers was the shockingly successful Rick Warren book Purpose Driven Life.

Now I have no personal problem with Rick Warren. I think he has handled his fame with fairly consistent humility. I think the book is decent. Or, was decent. Decent before it became wildly popular. Soon, everything from day planners to calnendars to tshirts to coffe mugs, and yes, even socks had the purpose driven logo on it. The purpose driven franchise took over. Another good Christian concept had its soul raped by consumerism.

Another Christian movement got media attention, but probably more books and sun visors were sold than people convicted of their need of a savior. Thank you, America. Thank you, corporate Christianity.

(Writing about this crap is making me re-live it. I’m getting mad. But the show must go on!)

Left Behind, an excersise in misssing the point.

Left Behind is another ridiculously popular Christian cultural movement that swept the nation in the 90’s and continues to this day.

I don’t have a problem with books that illustrate some of the more obscure and prophetical parts of scripture. I mean, I think it is dangerous to be more specific than the Bible is. And I think that most evangelicals accept the pre-Tribulation, pre-Millenial return of Christ because it is what they’ve always been taught–and let’s face it, it’s the one that works out best for us in the end and I suspect our support of it is at times less theological than psychological.

I digress.

The point is, when Left Behind became popular, corporate Christians and those who share their unbridled enthusiasm saw an opportunity. “”Finally, God will be popular and millions will come to Christ.”"

Besides the fact that I think it is fundamentally flawed to approach evangelism from an end times perspective, it is also fundamentally flawed to try to make God popular. But with this in mind, Left Behind went from a popular book series to a whole product line. This reached its comical potential with Left Behind: The Movie. Tim LaHaye wanted it to be big. He wanted a box-office smash with special effects Spielberg would be proud of. What he got was what every Christian movie gets, a cheesy B-movie starring Kirk Cameron.

Sadly, the movement continues. They made a sequel (which was even worse than the first). And recently, they released a–you guessed it–video game. They call it “”Left Behind: Tribulation Force”".

*sigh*

The video game dramatizes the awkward circumstances of belivers post-Rapture. All intentions aside, when prayer becomes a game feature, spirituality has a point system, and evangelism is an objective to winning a game it’s safe to say we really don’t understand what we’re doing.

The makers of the video game are hoping that this will encourage discussion and interest in Christianity among teens.

I refuse to explain why this is silly.

Mel Gibson, because being a hero has a beginning and an end.

I’m not here to criticize The Passion. I’m not even here to criticize Mel Gibson. I like Mel Gibson. I’m here to criticise some poor decisions made on the part of Christians when they choose people to represent us.

When Mel Gibson put his hollywood muscle behind The Passion, Mel Gibson as a person dissapeared and Mel Gibson as a angel of light descended from heaven. Mel Gibson became the man we as Christians offered up as our example of a true super Christian. He was “”the one”" sent to turn the world on its head with a box office hit.

Unfortunately, the interview proccess for the job only required stardom. No other factors were taken into consideration. This requirement being well fulffilled Mel Gibson was clumsily thrust into the lime light by the body of Christ as someone we apparently wanted to represent Christians and Christ.

What am I saying? I’m saying we got carried away. People raved about Mel Gibson. People talked about how wonderful he was. And to me at the time, I couldn’t help but wonder how many of these new fans had ever even seen one of his movies. I think what was more important at the time was that a hollywood star, and a big one at that, was for Jesus.

That was all that mattered, because our Christian cultural mind told us that this might be the key to winning the world for Christ.

Unfortunately, our angel of light also was pulled over driving drunk and saying things that involved the F-word and the Jewish race. See why we should be more careful?

I can’t help but think that all of our Mel Gibson praise worked. So when he fall, so did Christ in the world’s eyes. Go read some headlines from the scandal this summer. They remember Mel Gibson the super Christian. Even if we’ve forgotten.

Bah. I could go on. I’m tired of this.

Let me summarize, Christians have let Western Culture and the “”American Dream”" poison the gospel. We’ve reorganized into corporate structures that mimick Wall Street. We’ve become hyper concerned about numbers and growth structures. We’ve hired marketing teams to “”reach the world for Christ”". We’ve paradoxically taken the world’s idols and tried to stamp “”Jesus”" on them and sell them in Lifeway bookstores. We’ve robbed and pilfered Christianity.

And I’m sick of it.

We are Christians today not because Jesus was ever popular…he never was and never will be. We are Christians precisely because He wasn’t popular. And He promised us that we would be persecuted and hated for His sake also.

Likewise, Paul didn’t win the world for Christ by hosting concerts at the Roman colloseum. He did it by being willing to take the fall. And everytime he was left for dead, he praised God that he was able to be pesecuted for His sake.

Christianity is about love. Not culture wars. Not branding. Not product development life cycles.

But, as I write this, most churches in America are selling Christ like some would sell a new car. A brand, new Christianity 2007 LTD. Lots of accessories, but no heart. I bet I could make a good Chrysler logo rip off for that. That’ll preach.

*sigh*

I’ve said enough.