Commercial Christianity

A walk down the aisle of a Christian bookstore reveals Bobblehead figurines of Catholic priests, socks embroidered with the words “As I follow you, Lord,” and Scripture candy — “reaching the world one piece at a time.”

The store sells jewelry, greeting cards and T-shirts with spiritual versions of secular trademarks.

The music bins are full of Christian-themed compact discs — telegenic performers smiling on the covers — offering praise and worship in every style from bluegrass to heavy metal, from rap to reggae to salsa.

Such merchandise is typical of the “Jesus junk” that clutters too much of contemporary Christian culture, say some believers who contend that this commercialized “holy hardware” results from the church’s desire to sell “pop-culture lite.”

“Much Christian culture is just a subculture that doesn’t question the assumptions of the majority culture, it just takes them in a different direction,” said Roberto Rivera, a senior fellow at the Wilberforce Forum who has written extensively for Christian publications.

“The ticky-tacky stuff comes from people who haven’t decided if they want to engage the culture — fully contributing something — or [whether] they wish to withdraw,” he said. “It is neither really Christian or postmodern pagan. It is an attempt to have both.”

Donna Hughes, a religion columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, doubts the existence of a contemporary Christian culture.

“It’s different if you’re a Christian person and you’re functioning and interacting with contemporary culture, then that is the reality for you,” Ms. Hughes said. “I really shy away from things that are marketed as quote-unquote ‘Christian’ because I think that often means ‘safe for Christians’ and that it’s also a marketing tool.”

Commercialized Christianity, say some Christian scholars, reflects an internal culture that speaks in obscure jargon and endlessly debates topics of little interest to outsiders — and of little relevance to salvation.

Apart from the enduring Christian tradition that inspired such writers as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, the modern church has produced what Mr. Rivera calls a “sanitized” version of mainstream culture with its own music industry, its own TV programming, its own publishers and celebrities.

Evangelical Christianity’s separation from the rest of America grew steadily during the 20th century, said Mr. Rivera, as liberals and modernists took over mainline Protestant denominations, and conservatives began walking out. Conflict over Darwin’s theories of evolution — highlighted by the 1922 Scopes “monkey trial” in Tennessee — only widened the breach between Bible believers and the culture at large.

“Christians said, ‘To heck with it. We will sort of form parallel institutions and basically withdraw,’” Mr. Rivera said.

The debate over the relationship between the church and the surrounding culture was explored in the 1950s by theologian Richard Niebuhr, who discerned three schools of thought:

• Christ of the culture — since Jesus engaged the culture of his age, Christians should, too.

cChrist against the culture — Christians must isolate themselves from popular culture in order to remain holy.

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