Guest-hosting the “Albert Mohler Program” today, I interviewed Alan Wolfe of Boston College about the shape of contemporary Christian retailing. Wolfe, an unbeliever, told me he finds the kind of “stuff” he sees at venues such as the International Christian Retail show to be indicative of an anemic American evangelical subculture.
Wolfe said in no certain terms that he does not want Christians to “witness” to him about the gospel, but, nonetheless, he sees in Christian T-shirts, breath-mints, and boy bands the reality that Christians don’t want to witness to him anyway. Wolfe said that he cannot imagine an unbeliever coming to faith through, say, a Christian bumper-sticker on the car in front of him. Buying the stuff gives Christians an easy conscience that they are carrying the Great Commission without ever having to verbally and relationally engage their unbelieving neighbors.
I suspect he’s right. The Los Angeles Times report from the Christian Retail expo is depressing. The makers of a “new genre” of “Christian perfume” rolled out their product, with the promise that it can be an effective evangelistic tool.
“It should be enticing enough to provoke questions: ‘What’s that you’re wearing?'” the marketer said. “Then you take that opportunity to speak of your faith. They’ve opened the door, and now they’re going to get it.”
Going to get what? A migraine headache? An allergic reaction? Or the gospel of salvation?
Mentioned in the Times piece also are Christian golf balls with John 3:16 on them, so that, even if you lose it in a sand trap, well, “lose a golf ball, share the gospel.” Also for sale are Christian sandals that leave footprints that leave the message “Follow Jesus” in the sand behind them.
Whatever the “evangelistic” selling point of these products, I think the real reason they make money is an American Christianity seeking to form a common community, a common culture. Unfortunately, instead of finding this in churches, with one Lord, one faith, one baptism, we find it the same way the culture around us does: by buying stuff with the same logos.
And, sadly, that’s “logo-s” with a small “l” rather than Logos with a capital “L.”
