I was checking out some online promotional material from different organizations related to the association of churches to which I belong (www.fgbc.org). Apparently the theme for our fellowship this year is "iGo." Clever, eh? I'm certain no one has ever thought of making a Christian knock-off based on the catchy, somewhat trendy, but oh-so-tired Apple brand. I guess "Got Evangelism?" was a bit too cliché.We also just had our annual youth conference "Momentum." The theme was caring for the poor, the title? You guessed it, "iCare."
Enough already.
I am soooooo sick of Christians regurgitating the creativity of others in hopes of finding some sort of cultural relevance. Do we not have creativity of our own? Can we not muster the ingenuity and wit to come up with our own marketing brands? Must everything be a half-baked, Christian parody of pop culture? We see "Dance, Dance Revolution," like it, consume it, throw in a little Jesus and spew out "Dance Praise." Show us a little Harry Potter, and we'll give you "Jesus Potter" or some other swill. It's pathetic.
So to all of you Christian creativity pirates out there, do us all a favor and stop your brand-plundering. It cheapens the message and makes us all look like hacks.
10 comments:
Good thoughts bro...I totally agree. No longer are the Christian copycats regulated to music and literature, it is everywhere.
While I am surprised to hear about the FGBC and Momentum incidences, I guess it can be argued that young people relate better to pop culture copying. The question is SHOULD they relate more.
But hey, if you can't be em...join em. I am going to form a new British band called "Godplay". Pe0ple could put our songs on small device called a GodPod or write about us on the social networking site Godbook.
This has been going on since when I first walked into a christian bookstore in the 80s.
I guess the fish on the back of the car is different, except when they cut you off.
Scott, you make so many good points. Copy cat business such as this is not really surprising, but it does demonstrate a lack of creativity, or maybe just laziness. And as I've pointed out on forums before, it tends to dilute the message. If you have a really good message that is valid and truly applies to people's lives, then there should be no need for such copy cat tactics.
-SB
Hola Scott
Soy Susan W. and you know I really don't care about these matters, I just want to know how you are...it's been centuries!!!
Thanks for finding me SWL.
Thank you Scott!!
From another FGBC-er living in exile...
Kork,
Weird that you would stumble across my blog...I had lunch with Mark Norris last week and he mentioned you, nice to cyber-meet you.
Okay, now that’s too cool…
I really miss him, and I am now going to have to give him a call! It’s been way too long. Thanks for the prompt, and I am enjoying your blog. Perhaps we could talk some time, off line.
Good cyber-meeting you also. Looking forward to when we perhaps, personally meet.
Peace to you,
Kork
Scott,
I completely concur. All the "Christian" T-shirts I see on campus are eye-roll inducing. Example: the branding for Mountain Dew is mutated into [Jesus] DiedforYou. Soft drinks = remdemptive love? Kill me now.
What worse is that "christian" media has become parodies of parodies. It's bad when music for worship experiences become a style. I think what bothers me most about all this is that instead of being involved in society and create with people outside of the christian circles, we parody our culture and our own mock groups that are disengaged with culture.
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