It’s Scarier than We Even Imagined
My friend singer-songwriter Andy Osenga pointed me to What Would Jesus Do, an article from GQ magazine in 2002. The author spent seven days living in the Christian subculture–the “Ark” as he calls it; Christendome as I call it. For seven days he watched only Christian TV, shopped only in Christian Family Life stores, listened only to Christian music, watched Christian movies, and even went on a Christian diet. His observations are both funny and profoundly disturbing.
I withdrew from Christendome a long time ago. I haven’t been to a Family Positive Life Christian Store type place in years. I don’t buy CCM albums (well, OK, Caedmons Call, but only because I’m friends with those guys). I’ve never read a Left Behind novel (beyond the first chapter of one that left me convulsing on the floor from writing so bad I wished I’d written it as brillian satire). But I still thought I had a pretty good idea of just how bad “Ark culture” is.
I didn’t. It’s worse. it’s scary worse. Bad enough that I’d half consider endorsing a friend of the Internet Monk’s decision to no longer call himself “Christian,” though he remains one.
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March 1st, 2006 at 8:31 am
I have been collecting items fro the past eight years that I have dubbed “Christian-Crap.” Every month I go to our Christian bookstore and make the entire slaes staff very awkward when I ask for “disturbing examples of horrible Christian merchandise.” They don’t ask to help me anymore. I now have a box of, well, crap. I am a pastor– and many times I can’t stand to be associated with the church and with Christians. However, I always have to remind myself that the Church is God’s vehicle for redemption– whether I like it or not. In the words of Scotty Smith, “The Church is a whore, but it is the bride of Christ and don’t you dare desert her.”
(I wonder if I should post pics of some of the very worst examples)
March 1st, 2006 at 11:40 am
Mr. Pink,
There are several sites around the ‘net that post collections of ‘Jesus Junk.’ My current favorite is purgatorio, which also has a regular feature of bizarre Christian record album covers from the past (some of which I actually remember).
My friend Skip Burzamato, formerly director of the Center for Christian Study in Charlottesville, had a collection probably similar to yours on a shelf in his office.