On Christian Industry

OK, think back to first grade. It's November and you're playing an Indian in a short play commemmorating Thanksgiving. Opposite you, most likely, are boys with buckles on their hats and girls with bonnets. These are hardy Christians. They've escaped persecution in their own land and have made the voyage prepared to work hard and go to church. These are the Puritans. Oh, we know all about them. Tough, hardy stock willing to work 20 hours a day to provide for their families and honor their god. That's cool. They're working to honor a biblical commandment to be industrious (this commandment, by the way, doesn't actually exist in the Bible, but let's not split hairs).

Now let's fast forward 400 years. Christians are working just as hard. They remain industrious. This industry, however, might surprise you. Did you know you can buy hundreds of Christian fiction and non-fiction titles at your local Christian bookstore? (Full disclosure: I actually worked in a Christian bookstore for two years when I was a young teenager.) Also at this bookstore you'll find exactly the Bible you're looking for. There are literally thousands of options. First, there are the translations (the actual text, of course, is the definition of public domain - to actually make some money, publishers have copyrighted their own translations).
You've got your KJV, your NIV, your RSV, your ASV, your Darby, your LB, your NEB, your NEV - oh, you get the idea. Next you have your bindings: soft or hard? Leather or cardboard? With or without a cover? Does your cover have a notepad? A pen and highlighter holder? Maybe it's a Precious Moments Bible (their figurines have been a Christian bookstore staple since the mid 1980s). Once again, you get the idea.

OK, we've got books to read. How about some music? Brother-in-Christ, you're in luck. We happen to have literally hundreds of thousands of titles for you. There's the "inspirational" market. These are recordings of songs you might sing at your local evangelical church. As a matter of fact, many of these recordings are tied to multi-media packages sold to churches to aid in weekly praise and worship. For only $125 your church group gets the rights, the music, the lyric sheets, and the PowerPoint slides for all twenty songs on this recording. Yep, you heard me right. If you attend a modern, evangelical church that has dropped hymns in favor of praise choruses, they're dropping a dime every time they sing "Our God is an Awesome God" (to SONY, incidentally - yep, SONY makes a killing every Sunday!). There's the "adult/contemporary" market. This healthy market (think hundreds of millions annually) serves the soccer moms, the dads who can't quite get away with being hip, and the church secretaries who would be advised to keep their hair up. Then, there's the "youth/rock/alternative/hip-hop/rap" market. We've now moved into the realm of billions of dollars a year. This is an industry that rivals many secular industries. Recordings, concerts, T-shirts, move tie-ins, radio rotation, you name it, they're selling it. And don't be mislead. These aren't acts that are playing the local Hyatt (or in this case, the local Our Mother of Grace). They're playing stadiums - really! Some have even crossed over (Amy Grant, Jars of Clay).

OK, what about movies? Well, although there has been a Christian movie industry for over thirty years, now, it wasn't really until the last couple of years that it had a stride to hit. Some heavy hitters have been the Left Behind series (starring a still-24-years-old-looking Kirk Cameron), The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe (this one was thinly veiled; although distributed by Disney, it was produced by Walden Media, a shill for the Christian industry for the last decade), and, of course, the behemoth that was The Passion of the Christ. Bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars, the Christian movie industry is becoming a heavy hitter.

There's more. Toys ("Armor of God" pajamas - complete with plastic, two-edged sword), TV (Pax network), clothing, furniture, etc. So, what's my beef here? What's the problem with all this? It's disingenuous; it's a market; it's no more holy than porn or plastic surgery. Many people aren't aware (including MANY Christians) that their money is not going to some worthy cause. It's actually going to SONY, Paramount, Vivendi, Columbia, and Disney (the Family Channel? Oy!). That $20 you spent for little Jimmy to have a cross-shaped nightlight? It just went to KaBee Toys. When your church sponsored mass-viewings of The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe? Yeah ... Disney (you remember Disney, don't you? Your Southern Baptist brethren have been boycotting them for twenty years over decency issues).

I have no problem with Christians and their churches succeeding and thriving. That's wonderful, well, at least it's fair and unobjectionable. But, just because there's a cross on the record label's logo doesn't mean that your money is supporting local Christian charities. At least in the secular world, there's no misunderstanding. We know who is getting our money and we're fine with that. Christians' money is going to the same place, they just don't know it. Christians are, by and large, buying a bill of Good Books.