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The Price Has Gone Up
By Robert Trapani The
first time they sold Him, it was for thirty pieces of silver.
But today if you merchandise Him properly, you can become a millionaire
overnight. It is quite possibly the
biggest fad and moneymaking operation to hit the American pocketbook in years:
selling Jesus. Big bucks can be
made in this brand new "Old Time Religion" business. Popular
Christianity! Is this an oxymoron?
If you read the newspapers or magazines, you should be able to identify
what I mean. Some days it seems
like everybody is getting "saved."
Read and find out who is the latest celebrity to throw his/her support to
Jesus. If you can wait a few weeks
or months, he/she may travel through your area of the country, and for a small
admission fee or "love offering," you can hear him/her acknowledge
that Jesus is right! This
is just the beginning. A gigantic
industry has sprung up in the wake of our current "born again" craze. The concert halls and auditoriums are full.
The record sales are going out of sight.
Bookstores now have large areas devoted primarily to this new wave of
Jesus stuff. Their racks are filled with this new gospel.
"Positive thinking" has been replaced with "positive
confession." There are books on Christian contemplation.
Transcendental Meditation has you groaning the sound "Ommm,"
but with the "Christian" version you say, "Looorrrd."
We can add to the list a good number of "How I made it big, Lost it
all, and Came to Jesus” books by countless ex-celebrities and have-beens. Is
all this phony? Perhaps not
completely, but most of what you see is marketed for one purpose alone: it will
make money. The music stores in our
area have had to redesign their album groupings.
No longer is the heading just "Religious," for that is
inadequate. Instead I discover
"Gospel," "Jesus Music," Religious Humor," and on and
on. I had difficulty understanding
the difference between "Jesus Music" and "Gospel," but there
is a difference. "Jesus
Music" sells more than "Gospel," which sells more than
"Religious." The
lyrics on many of these creations are unrecognizable.
My son once informed me that I would have to listen more carefully.
All I perceived was some caterwauling with loud guitars, bass, organs,
and drums, all electronically augmented. When
I did understand the lyrics, they sounded something like, "Jesus, yeah,
yeah, yeah, He’s OK with me!" The profound truth being proffered did not compensate for the
sheer pain to my ears. I left
hurriedly, satisfied with these gems of spiritual delight. On
another occasion I listened to saccharine sentimentalities that sounded like a
whimpering teenager declaring the laments of puppy love.
I finally realized that this was not about a high school love affair, but
was about Jesus. The words seemed
to be about a girl being passed over for an invitation to the high school prom.
In spite of her adolescent acne, a knight in shining armor comes for her:
Jesus is her boyfriend and date. In
John Bunyan’s classic book, Pilgrim’s Progress, he described a place
called Vanity Fair. In our time we
have developed an updated counterpart called a "Jesus Festival." Forget Six Flags, Disneyland, or Sea World.
This summer why not take in a festival? There
will be a dozen or so "name" performers in a carnival atmosphere. Pay your admission at the gate and go from booth to booth.
You can get your Jesus T-shirt or Jesus Jeans with identifying pocket
patches so you will not feel conspicuous—you will have to make your own
cut-offs. Before
you sit down to eat, you may want to get your souvenirs.
Of course, after the Jesus T-shirt or something that vividly declares
that you showed up at this event, you may feel the need to pick up some bumper
stickers or window decals. Maybe a
Jesus tie clip, or a dove-stamped wallet, some Holy Spirit stationary, or a
trash basket with a fish symbol, and, of course, everyone is wearing the WWJD
wristbands. Much
of this merchandise would have rotted away in some Taiwan plastic warehouse
waiting for orders from a tourist trap if "Niagara Falls" or
"Tijuana, Mexico" were stamped on each article.
But instead they printed some religious symbol or motif on these trinkets
to convert them into overpriced "Jesus junk."
(If that term offends you, be aware that this is what people in the
industry call it.) Once
you are seated, you can listen to a third-rate rock band, with scarcely changed
lyrics, melody, or life-style, serenade you with "He blew my mind when He
saved my soul" or "I got zapped by a Ghost" (Holy Ghost, that
is). How about the maudlin "My white knight"?
It sounds like something out of a Harlequin romance novel. If
you are fortunate, you may get to be entertained and titillated by a
comparatively new phenomenon in popular Christianity: "Jesus jokes."
A Christian comedian (another oxymoron?) will bring the crowd into
convulsive laughter. They make a
living doing this. Roar with them
as they tell of their conversion (what rascals they were) and the weirdos they
have met since becoming a Christian. Maybe
they will tell you silly things not to do when you are witnessing to sinners.
Of course, their stories will be replete with the dumb things they used
to do and how Jesus zapped, zonked, and zowied them.
For their conclusion they usually use some soberly delivered lines,
"All kidding aside, folks, Jesus is the best thing that’s ever happened
to me." Now that is the truth.
Checking their bank account would confirm this. Just
like Judas, these people are selling Him again, but the price has gone up:
admission prices, "I’ll fly away" propeller beanies, "One
Way" pointing finger T-shirts, How to Fast Without Pain paperback classics,
fishhook tie clasps, descending dove flashlights, and, of course, little cross
earrings or mustard seed neckwear. When
you add to that the tapes, books, air-freshener, embossed sunglasses, mugs,
ashtrays, and even some souvenir Bibles, you have seen the best of Jesus junk. The
theology is shallow. "We
don’t want to offend anyone." "We
don’t discuss doctrine; we just talk about love."
No offensive standards, disciplines, doctrines, conduct, ethics, or
morals will be dealt with since we are not against anything—we are for Jesus. If
you are upset at this, you may just be a Pharisee or a legalist, but certainly
not a loving person. If you resent
the bilking of spiritual babes and the dilution of the gospel, then you are
judged as prejudiced, bigoted, and narrow-minded.
The smell of pot may reek from the dressing room of the gospel rock
group; the "groupies" are eagerly awaiting to touch their new pop
heroes; but what kind of old fuddy are you to want to verify the extent of the
entertainer’s Christian commitment and lifestyle?
Character is not an issue. How
sad is it that this trash has entered into even our homes and churches.
It is not just our youth who have gotten caught in this web.
Garbage music with drug-culture sound is followed by eager,
honest-hearted Christians who hear that the "lead" singer or talent
said he "believed" in Jesus. We
need to know them that labor among us. The
Scripture admonishes us to "Believe not every spirit, but try
[examine] the spirits" (I John 4:1).
Realize that oftentimes the marketing of this material is just
profiteering by ungodly and unscrupulous syndicates who found that currently the
"Jesus" motif is selling. I
believe the Lord would be better seen in the world through us, not through a
dove on our lapel, or a Jesus T-shirt, or a fish-shaped bumper sticker.
The Lord should be seen through a life lived with constancy from day to
day—not just a how-to paperback with diluted directions for victory.
We are to be epistles read of men. Even though the price has gone up, I do not want to be part of the selling of Jesus. ninetyandnine.com © 2001 Robert Trapani ------ Robert Trapani pastors near Akron, Ohio.
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