Cracking the whip

I recently stumbled upon Phil Cooke’s blog and read his post about Jesus Junk which describes some of the rubbish that is sold to the devoted followers of some TV evangelists. Annointing oil, prayer cloths, miracle water and so much more is sold at exhorbitant prices to people believing that their purchase will somehow bring them closer to God. Phil asks how it got to this stage.

How did we come to this? How has the historic Christian faith that defeated the Roman empire, changed nations, and transformed the Western world disintegrated to cheap trinkets and religious trash? We can always criticize the TV evangelists who pitch this stuff (and we should), but the fact is, there’s an even bigger culprit – us.

The truth is, we’ve created a generation of Christians looking for a magic bullet. That’s why people travel thousands of miles from conference to conference just to “get a word,” find “fresh oil,” “get the glory,” or “catch their blessing.” The truth is, they’re looking for the easy way out.

Phil followed up that post with Jesus Junk Continues, a look at the Christian Bookseller’s Convention in Denver this year. It’s frightening stuff. The latest product is a ‘Christian perfume’. No, seriously. There are ‘Christian dolls’, ‘Christian golf balls’ and a whole lot more on sale.

Is it any wonder that people have become cynical about the Christian faith? If this is what people understand Christianity to be I don’t blame them for rejecting it.

Have these people never read about what Jesus did in John 2? It was time for the annual Passover celebration, and Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; and he saw money changers behind their counters. Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and oxen, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Don’t turn my Father’s house into a marketplace!”

Maybe it’s time to start cracking the whip and driving these people out of the temple again.

Apparently the ‘Christian perfume’ is a way to share your faith. Do I hear you ask how? Virtuous Woman perfume comes packaged with a passage from Proverbs. But what makes the floral fragrance distinctly Christian, Hobbs said, is that it’s supposed to be a tool for evangelism. ” It should be enticing enough to provoke questions: ‘What’s that you’re wearing?’ ” Hobbs said. “Then you take that opportunity to speak of your faith. They’ve opened the door, and now they’re going to get it.”

I would have thought that quietly displaying those things that should be the natural outworking of faith, such as honesty, gentleness, compassion, a concern for social justice and the like would be a better starting point to talk about what you believe. Do an unexpected kind deed for a stranger and they’re more likely to ask you why you’ve helped them. I’d rather do something that demonstrates what I believe and that becomes a sweet fragrance before God than rely on a man made fragrance to allow me to explain a theoretical position.

Jesus isn’t about trinkets and fads, he’s about restoration and reconciliation. His desire isn’t to provide us with the latest god gimmicks, he wants to provide deep healing that reaches to our very core. He doesn’t want us to devise new ways to exploit the diseases of consumerism and materialism that have trapped so many, he wants us to help others break free from the things that bind them and help them to become the people we were designed to be.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

Technorati Tags: Jesus Junk – Christianity – Faith

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