bloggedy blog: the personal weblog of a music lover and aging punk wannabe

:: Friday, November 01, 2002 ::

Connecting the dots between Christianity and consumerism. Fellow bloggers Tim Bednar and Wade Hodges both share some thoughts about the corporate world's influence on Christianity -- or, should I say, consumer products and services purchased by Christians.

First, Bednar. He posts about the latest corporate schemes behind the Bible trade in Christian bookstores. He points out the crass corporate interests behind a new promotional effort to sell Bibles that is spearheaded by Zondervan Books (publisher of five of the top 10 Bibles purchased in the USA), which is no longer a true Christian publishing house, but merely a division of HarperCollins, which in turn is just a slender sliver of the huge media pie owned by A. Rupert Murdoch, an empire which in recent years has given us such wonders of wholesome entertainment as "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?" (TV) and "Freddy Got Fingered" (movies). Bednar lists a few others, with links. "We need to never forget to connect the dots while browsing the 'The Total Bible Solution' section at the Christian bookstore," Bednar writes. "I just think that people need to understand that even our Bibles are big, profitable business. I also want people to understand that the Zondervan web site buried its tie to HarperCollins and does not even mention that HarperCollins is owed by News Corporation. There is a reason for this. If most Christians connected these dots, it would impact the bottom line." You need to read this!

Looking at a different aspect of the Christian consumer industry, Hodges posts a snippet and a link to a recent news about Chevrolet's teaming up with Michael W. Smith, Third Day and Max Lucado as a sponsor for a series of Christian concerts. From Steve Betz, a Chevy spokesperson: "It's important that we get the message out there with regards to Chevrolet and how we're so family oriented and have great values." I wonder why Chevy never sponsored Audio Adrenaline during the band's "Some Kind of Zombie" tour. It would have made sense, as one of the songs from "Zombie" was all about a popular Chevy product of days gone by.

:: Andrew 15:15 + ::
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