Money: Wonderland, or a Trip to a Christian Bookstore

I walked into a Christian bookstore this week, something I haven't done in almost two years. This store was one I had never seen before, and I wanted to go in and check it out, to see if my opinion of such places is still valid.

The place was rather large. Immediately as I walked in I saw a life-sized plaster Nativity setting, with a blond-haired, blue-eyed Joseph and Mary staring raptly down at a blond-haired, blue-eyed baby Jesus lying in the manger. Just to the left, against the wall, was something unexpected – a display of locally produced canned salmon and preserves, with a small flat-screen TV showing a lady discussing recipes. Had I not been on a mission, I might have gotten hungry. There were also plates, mugs, saucers, and so forth, all decorated in a style reminiscent of Thomas Kinkade, and all costing anywhere from around $10 to over $30 each.

As I continued moving to the left, I saw another plaster Nativity scene and a shelf of books and gifts marked, “Christmas Clearance.” Many of the books were heartstring-tugging “inspirational” stories with pictures of mild-faced middle-aged female authors on the backs and pictures of blond-haired, blue-eyed little boys and girls on their front covers, faces often showing expressions of rapt wonder. From perusing the back covers and dust jackets, it seemed that many of the stories had plots involving not-so-subtle “miraculous visitations.”

Moving on toward the adjacent wall, I saw a large number of paintings bearing the usual inspirational verses on them or carved into the picture frames (things like Psalm 46:10, but definitely not things like Mark 9:47-50), and then I ran into yet another life-sized plaster sculpture. This one showed yet another blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus , this time as an adult with a mild face, and several children, all blond-haired and blue-eyed, surrounding Him. One of the boys was on His knee.

By this time I was near the back wall of the store. On the back wall was a display of pastoral helps. A couple of books stood out to me, each dealing with the youth culture and how, since many of us have become adults, we have forgotten completely how youth think – thus the need for these books to show us how to have an effective youth ministry. Right next to the ministry books was a display of various worship accessories, including things needed to celebrate Catholic Mass. On the same shelves were bottles of anointing oil – with a 5 ounce (?) bottle to be had for as little as $30.00! Of course, if you couldn't afford the large size, you could always get a 1 ounce bottle for $8.00. (I am guessing at the sizes, since I didn't read them when I was looking at the bottles. All I know was that that was a lot of dough to spend for such a small amount of oil.)

All that kitsch was fascinating, but I had gone into the store to look at the books, so I turned my attention to more of the books. There was a large selection of “inspirational” novels, one of which dealt with a young boy (blond haired and blue eyed on the front cover) who wanted to play football, and the reluctant mentor who befriended him and his mom. This theme of people coming together by Divinely ordained romantic coincidence was prominent in several of the inspirational novels. As far as authors go, there were the usual suspects, such as Janette Oke and Jan Karon, but there were surprises as well, such as Jerry B. Jenkins of Left Behind fame, who with his wife, authored a novel in this group.

I had spent a bit too much time in the inspirational section, so I moved on to the conspiracy/end times section. There were several books talking about the threat of Islamic jihad and how Iran is supposedly infiltrating the United States with sleeper cells who are about to perpetrate a “nuclear 9/11” attack on America. One author's dust jacket even went so far as to say that the United States must attack Iran in 2008, or else there will be dire consequences. Also, there was the conspiracy/end times fiction, with novels from Lahaye & Jenkins, and from Oliver North.

I moved on to the "Christian Living"/devotional section, and found a few books on finance, breaking free from bondage, how to harness the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit in your life so that you can experience miracles and healing, and so forth. These were authored by some “usual suspects” such as Beth Moore, but there were authors I had never heard of, including the author of one finance book that caught my eye. It had perhaps 200 pages, but it was written in what looked like 16 point type, and it was sprinkled with heartwarming anecdotes which backed the author's assertion that if you just followed his plan, you too could be financially independent and have (lots of) money in the bank. One of the anecdotes said something about how a couple was now debt-free and had a BMW too! Icing on the cake! And there was a book about winning principles to apply in life, written by a coach for some pro football team whose name I never did get.

I wound up in the biographical section, where of course there were the usual books paying tribute to C.S. Lewis. There were also books showcasing the faith of President George W. Bush, and of Condoleeza Rice. There was a short autobiography by Amy Grant, and there were a couple of books containing inspirational stories about God's protection of our troops.

Speaking of troops (and of music as well), somewhere back while I was near the NYMEX light sweet anointing oil selling for $$$ a barrel, I became aware of a song playing over the store speakers. The song was about a father saying goodbye to his ten-year-old son, because the father was going off to fight in a war - “that's what soldiers do” was the refrain, or something like it. The song exhorted the son to trust in Jesus, and that if the father didn't make it back, they would still all meet in Heaven some day. The song was part of an album made by a duo – Monk and Neagle – of whom I had never heard until just then. The song pulled my interest in another direction, and as the store was now closing, I made a hasty dash over to the Christian music section to take a quick look. There I found that the largest genre of Christian music is the “praise and worship” variety. There was also standard CCM – hip-hop, metal or pop, depending on your tastes; but none of these categories seemed to be more than a third of the size of the praise & worship category.

Having an interest in things related to Narnia, I last looked at the Narnia section of the store. It is relatively bare now. To be sure, there are all the seven books actually authored by C.S. Lewis. But there were relatively few of the knockoffs which came out after the “Lion, Witch & Wardrobe” movie – books written by people who never came within a country mile of C.S. Lewis, books with titles like “Peter's Quest,” “Susan's Journey” or “Finding Aslan,” books whose copyrights (and authors too, probably) are all owned by Disney or Harper Collins. I know I'm getting the titles wrong, but they are close enough. I was assured by the store staff that more of those books would be coming out in the next few months.

And with that I had to leave. I had stayed fifteen or twenty minutes past closing time, and to their credit, the store staff was too nice to just bluntly throw me out. Rather, they found me at ten minutes past closing and informed me that “...the store is uh, supposed to close at seven, but there's no rush...”

This store, and thousands of stores just like it, are at the center of contemporary American Christian culture – they define that culture, and are defined by it. Stores like this store, and the merchandise therein, set the tone for much of evangelical thought. Stores like this, and the corporations who stock their shelves, define the current evangelical worldview. But the corporations are largely secular. And many of the writers and musicians write and sing because they or their corporate sponsors want something – money or political power. Therefore, the stuff merchandised in Christian bookstores is determined largely by the same market forces that drive the merchandising of every other aspect of life in modern America. I will discuss this in more depth in my next post.