Jesus junk, once again
Wednesday July 26, 2006
Via TMatt comes this L.A. Times story about the Christian Booksellers Association's annual convention. The CBA is well-known for being a Mecca for what some uncharitably call "Jesus junk." I don't know about other Christians, but I can't stand seeing...
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Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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I'll vote the latter, too.
But, in fairness, I think that people display this sort of thing for the same reason that I like to wear T-shirts with names of baseball players that I like-- it's something I'm interested in, and something that I don't mind other people defining me by. It doesn't bother me if my wearing a Craig Hansen jersey doesn't inspire those around me to become Sox fans.
Ideally, of course, religion is something more important to share even than being a Sox fan; but for many people, religion is like Sox fandom-- it gives you a shared experience, something to define yourself by, something outside yourself to care about.>
I agree. I get the feeling sometimes, if Christ walked thru the CBA's floor exhibits, there might be another cleansing of the Temple, so to speak.Sometimes the tendency of this culture to turn everything toward the shallowness of the marketplace, can get rather wearisome. "hurry, hurry, step right up, get your Jesus Jewelry, how bout you Mr...., only $19.99!" Yuch....>
Always reminds me of the words of Hank Hill regarding Christian rock: "You're not making Jesus better, you're making rock n' roll worse." The cross isn't a brand, or a genre, or a hobby.>
This sort of complaint would not ring so very hollow if you would address a recent book review by your good friend, Caleb Stegall.
In suggesting quite clearly and absurdly that people can hardly find Christ in the suburbs, Caleb trivializes Christianity. He trivializes its power to reach people and transform them, and he trivializes its Founder and our Lord to a being who -- though he could reach poor beggars and rich tax collectors alike, adulterers and centurions alike -- simply cannot reach Joe Six-Pack simply because Joe lives in the suburbs.
Ultimately he reduces Christianity to yet another weapon to be used in advancing his real religion of agrarianism.
Have you nothing to say about that, Rod?>
Yeah Rod, have you nothing to say? As long as we are indicting you for other people's book review related thought crimes, have you nothing to say about my review of Dispatches From the Muckdog Gazette, or Whitaker Chamber's review of Atlas Shrugged or Dwight Macdonald's review of the modern language Bible?
Your continued silence will force Bubba and myself to come up with even more absurd non sequitors to litter your comment threads.>
I for one don't have a problem with a Christian T-shirt or something like that as such. My problem is that it's all so bad. If these were nice shirts that put forward in a clear and pleasing fashion the message, I'd not be bothered.
Here's one example of what I mean. A shirt that Frederica Matthewes-Green records her husband as once owning (I've never seen one in real life) has the words "have a Nicene day" on the front, and the Creed on the back.
Also, I must admit that, when I finish converting to Roman Catholicism sometime next year, I do want a shirt that says "Tiber Swim Team: Class of 2007." :) But that's just me being silly.>
Clark, are you completely ignorant of the fact that Rod featured Stegall in his book in the chapter on religion, portraying him as a crunchy Protestant? That Rod apparently decided to feature Stegall's rambling manifesto in a Sunday edition of the Dallas Morning News?
Let's grant that the question's relationship to this particular post is strained: do you think that a rational person would seriously suggest that suburbanites can't find Christ?
Are you not the least bit curious whether Rod has an opinion on this?
Rod's gone out of his way to point to Caleb Stegall as A Guy To Whom We Should Listen. If Stegall asserted that the moon was made of tissue paper, or that time is cubic, that says something about Rod's choice in voices of wit and wisdom.
Same here: Caleb Stegall's no Gene Ray, but he seems to use anything handy -- even Christianity -- to promote the false god of agrarianism. That says a lot about him, and it does by extension say a good bit about Rod.
Unless, of course, Rod Dreher actually address all this.>
Bubba, Bubba... dude, I think you need to lighten up a little. This cyberstalking is getting a little obsessive.
Seriously. From the casual observer's perspective, it's looking a little bit weird.>
On a slightly different tangent: I'm not very big on the Jesus junk myself--just when I think I can't be appalled any more, I see something even worse (e.g. a glow-in-the-dark plastic Mary holy water bottle). Having said that, I'd like to make the following points/questions:
1. In the last analysis, it comes down to sincerity and belief, not taste. God makes the sun shine on the tacky and the tasteful both, and many tacky will be entering the Kingdom of Heaven ahead of those with impeccable taste.
2. On the other hand, given its prevalence, such stuff must be meeting people's spiritual needs on some level. What does that say about our culture?
3. I've seen plenty of Jesus junk in Catholic stores (see above mentioned holy water bottle), but anecdotally speaking, and based on my admittedly limited experience, it seems to me that Jesus junk is more prevalent among Protestants than Catholics or Orthodox. I've long wondered if the long-standing sacramental spirituality of these latter two, which affirms the material world and thus has created a great tradition of religious art has to some extent immunized them from the worst excesses. Many Protestants still have a suspicion against the fine arts in a religious context (a neighbor of mine once expressed reservations about the crucifix I wore as a "graven image"), and perhaps this discomfort favors the extremely abstract (for liberals) or extremely sentimental (for conservatives). In either case, bad art.
In this context, it might be useful to mention Father Andrew Greeley's sociological findings that Catholics patronize movies, plays, art exhibits, and other fine arts at significantly higher rates than their Protestant neighbors. Also, note Frank Schaeffer's classic, Sham Pearls for Real Swine, written while he was still a Protestant.
By the way, I'm not saying there aren't tacky Catholics or Orthodox--just making an observation!>
I'm sure there are people brought to Christ by the tackiest things imaginable. If people can find God on rush-hour trains, in death camps, in enervated small towns and giant corporation offices, somebody's found him in a St. Edmund Campion bobblehead doll. (I don't think such a thing actually exists, just grabbing a random idea for tastelessness).
I understand being repelled by the really bad stuff - there was a guy in college who had a fair amount of it and it was hard not to make a few jaundiced contrasts between his Jesus paraphernalia and his treatment of his girlfriends - but if someone is "driven away" by it I do believe they need to take a look at the state of their own faith; in my case, at least, I found that mine was fairly weak to start with and I was using the kitschy crap as an excuse to take it less seriously, not that I was being really seriously shaken by it and it alone. The beam in my own eye, and all that. So while I doubt I'll ever own a glow-in-the-dark Mary or what have you, I'm not excessively outraged about their existence. The consciences of the sellers are between them and God, but if it does something for the buyers, I'm not going to sneeze at it.>
I do find it apalling and confusing that Christians seem to have the worst taste of anyone. Shouldn't we have the most beautiful songs, sculptures, paintings, buildings because they serve a higher purpose? God is a Creator and it would seem to me that His people would be like Him.>
That's certainly the traditional Catholic and Orthodox approach to religious art and music. See the Renaissance, Baroque period, etc. But it seems as if every few centuries, the iconoclast movement bursts out again.
There's also a notion that I have encountered again and again, especially in church choirs, which idolizes mediocrity, because (the argument goes) the pursuit of excellence (in art, music, etc.) is elitist and excludes those who are, through no fault of their own, handicapped by lack of talent. After all (they say), God only cares that you are trying your best and doesn't really care whether or not you are any good.
This is the argument usually made whenever anyone suggests that so-and-so, who has been singing in the church choir for years, be politely invited to retire because she (and it's almost always a she) isn't any good and is throwing off everyone else.
Yes, I realize that God is happy if you are trying your best. But I think that people need to discern, prayerfully, where their talents truly lie, and be willing to admit that, perhaps, they don't have the talent they think they do. I think that perhaps the pendulum will always swing between "let's try to pursue excellence in order to glorify God" and "let's give everyone a chance to try and do their best, even if they aren't really any good".
It can be a touchy situation, and I don't have any easy answers.>
That's why I don't sing in church. Or ever, really. I can do a lot of things to serve the church, but carrying a tune is not one of them. I believe that liturgical worship should be about making something beautiful for God. My contribution toward that is keeping silent (but singing in my heart).>
Like several of you, I find "Jesus Junk" tiring at best and offensive, border-line heretical at worst. It's a discussion I have with my students at a Christian university every once-and-a-while. The interesting thing is to hear some of them talk about first becoming interested in Christianity because of the things or it helping shield them identity-wise in high school. Others, of course, hate the stuff with a passion.
I do wonder what criteria we should use to distinguish Christian art or sacramentals (rosaries, holy water, saint medallions, etc.) from Jesus junk: Must the Mary have artificial day-glow to be junk? Or can it just be a really tacky, 19th-century Victorian Mary with fat-rolls Jesus on her hip? (I confess I've prayed before some really bad stained-glass Jesuses in my time. . . .)
What are some of the signs that we point to to help distinguish the two? Any thoughts?>
If Christians with terrible taste can be forgiven for it, then perhaps those of us who laugh or gag at that taste should also forgive ourselves for doing so.
Personally, I hate "contemporary Christian music" which I think is the most unmusical and inane garbage I've heard. Yet, when I visit the churches that several relatives go to, I have to sing it, and I try to do so without rolling my eyes or looking bored.
Perhaps we just need to be a bit civil, polite and tolerant about the things we feel are in bad taste, unless we believe them to be truly blasphemous or abominable.>
Alicia: "Personally, I hate "contemporary Christian music" which I think is the most unmusical and inane garbage I've heard."
Absolutely. At judgment day, Jesus will be held to account for polluting the world with tacky, tuneless, witless music.
It's like Christopher Caldwell said about the Vagina Monologues-- it's the Turner Diaries for urban women. That is, because it hits your (non-art-based) biases, you willfully blind yourself to the fact that, as art, it sucks.
Alicia: "Perhaps we just need to be a bit civil, polite and tolerant about the things we feel are in bad taste, unless we believe them to be truly blasphemous or abominable."
Oh. Um, yeah, that's also a good point.>
Did any of you, including Rod Dreher, actually go to CBA in Denver? It may be a Mecca for "Jesus Junk," but it is also about books. Publishers share their new books--which include the Bible commentaries, etc.
I did go to CBA in Denver, and I admit to having mixed feelings about it. Nearly half of the show floor was taken up by "trinket booths."
But you know what, I just don't buy any of it. It's called voting with my pocket book. Why get all tied up in knots when I can just refuse to buy it? It's the same way I show my opinion on thousands of other items available for purchase in our country--from pornography to generic peanut butter.
For what it's worth.>
Tom. I agree completely about "The Vagina Monologues.">
Oh, yeah, it's Buddy Jesus.>
Even though I'm a Christian, I'm also a recreational music enthusiast and I've gotta admit it. "Christian rock" is somewhat of a joke. I have heard some songs that were exceptions, but sadly, they're few and far between. I would describe it as drawing your version of a favorite pizza on a big piece of corrugated cardboard then taking a sample bite of the same. It just isn't what it appears to be. I'll fess up. This Christian still loves some good ole' head-bangin' metal music once in awhile.>
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