Selling Right

the selling of Jesus is not a new concept within the church. During the medieval times the church sold any number of trinkets, coins, icons, and pieces of jewelry in order to obtain money for their projects and to give the purchaser a sense of forgiveness and/or a guarantee of heaven.

the Commodification Of Christ really took off during the modern era and reached its feverish pitch in the western culture when capitalism became the purveying philosophy in the market place and the church.
Foundationalism (as was mentioned in my January 12 blog) lent itself to the concept that if you were absolutely right then no one else could also be right. So if you were absolutely right you needed to get that information out into the public as soon as possible and make sure that everyone else who was wrong understood the right way, your way. Within the modern era those who belived themself to be right began to speak around the country at conventions, tent meetings, weeklong seminars, and anywhere else that they could find an audience who could possibly be swayed into now believing the right way.
Because speaking took so much time out of someone's life soon the concepts of books and study guides began to take hold. The publishing world was infiltrated with many wonderful Christian authors who could write a 13 week Sunday school series that would help set everyone in the church on the right path.
Writing books lead way to infiltrating the academic world and ultimately the development of schools, institutes, colleges, and universities that could raise up a generation of people that would know the right way.Teachers in these institutions desperate for opportunity and publishers desperate for money combined to make more authors , and more books and study guides were developed. Professors not only had to teach their classes, but had to write books and get out on the road to speak on weekends at large-scale conventions around the country so that they could sell more books so more people could know the right way.Conventions were soon run by the publishing world and if you did'nt have a new book(with a new right way) then you did'nt speak.
Foundationalism and capitalism within the Christian Church soon became a driving force within the creation of churches themselves. Pastors had to find a "issue" that they could inspire their people to rally behind. This "issue" would separate them (the right Christians) from the others (the wrong Christians) that of course lived in the same town or city. This process could be repeated multiple times and Christians could separate and divide while hanging on to the banner of being right, reading the right authors, and going to the right church.

I believe this concept is being corrected or fought against by the emerging generation.

So many Christian colleges that were built on the concept of the right way to believe are desperate to find an audience in this new culture.
So many churches and were built around the right "issues" are losing the younger generation and are desperate to win them back.
So many publishers are desperate to find an audience in our printing Christian books around subjects and topics that barely mentioned the Bible or Christ so that no one is offended because being right isn't making any money.
So many of those who bought into foundationalism and capitalism and "the commodification of Christ" are railing against the postmodern culture, they are trying to help the postmodern world see the error of their ways, they want the postmodern world to see the "right" way and join their group so that once again they can rule the world.

It's okay, they will get over it, but it will take a while.
Speak the truth in love, understand and communicate, grow, and enjoy the journey.