I'm leading a breakout session at my church's small group leader conference today. "Leading" is a loose term, because my main function will be to press play and watch the brilliant Donald Miller speak on "non-commerical thoughts on Christianity" with the attendees.
Worst-case scenario, of course, would be that I would have quell a riot. After all, no self-respecting (and often self-righteous) Christian would consider herself a perpetuator of the commercialism of Jesus Christ. And yet, Miller says, that's exactly what we've done, what we do, and what we will continue to do if we don't think carefully about the language we use and the promises we make (not that Scripture makes) if only our non-believing friends would change their minds.
Miller, in essence, says we use the language of our free market economy to translate the Gospel. Commercials, print ads, whatever are based on the process of making the viewer or reader NEED the item being advertised. To do this, the ads convince them that all they need in life is this item, and everything will be better. Perfect, even.
Come on, you say. I'm smarter than that! I don't fall for the promises of advertising! Nobody's that dumb!
Then why do companies spend millions of dollars to send you that message? Someone is believing it!
How many times have well-meaning Christians make glib remarks to the effect of "no Jesus, no life; know Jesus, know life"? That's translating the Gospel through the language of economics. In other words, your life is downright pathetic without this product and if you just purchase it, your life will be complete. If you just accept Jesus in your life, you will have ultimate fulfillment.
Let's be honest. Is that true?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment