"Buy
one today! Make Jesus Happy!" The McPassion movie exaggerates (we
hope) the absurdity of this sales pitch, but Swartzwelder has provided
a useful reality check.
Eucharist-shaped fries, a plastic chalice of grape soda, and a paper crown
of thorns are just several of the ingredients in The McPassion,
served up by director Benjamin Herschleder and writer Rik Swarzwelder.
Unstintingly streamed on a website during this past season of Lent, the
four-minute satire has been called irreverent and sacrilegious. Nevertheless,
its creators claim that this was a deliberate tactic: “I want people
to wince,” said Swartzwelder. “I wince when the girl says
that dipping the body of Christ in ketchup is fun.”1 At the same
time, he also wants the Christian community to reconsider the hype surrounding
Mel Gibson’s celebrated 2004 movie The Passion of the Christ,
and the way in which the more recent Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe was marketed to Sunday schools around the country. The official
website showcases a wide range of Passion merchandise, from nail-shaped
pendants to a tear bottle capped with a deep ruby crystal. Without contesting
the artistic or spiritual value of The Passion of the Christ,
Swartzwelder raises an important issue: can commercialism ever be compatible
with Christianity?
Controversy surrounding the promotion of Christian products was reignited
last Christmas, when Disney-sponsored marketing of Narnia allegedly
included a sermon contest offering $1000 in prize money and a free trip
for 2 to London.2 Similarly, Swartzwelder claims that in several churches
he visited, “the pastor or priest was declaring from the pulpit
that it was our ‘Christian duty’ or ‘moral obligation’
to buy a ticket when The Passion of the Christ was released.”3
Whether or not this phenomenon was widespread at the release of The
Passion of the Christ, it is crucial to distinguish between encouraging
a congregation to view the movie and manipulating churchgoers’
religious sentiment by tapping into their guilt to purchase a product.
It is certainly acceptable for a speaker to recommend to the congregation
a film that he has seen, just as he would recommend a book or Bible
study materials; however, monetary incentives to mention any product
– explicitly Christian or otherwise – in a sermon should
be discouraged by discerning pastors and congregations. Paid advertising
is for billboards, not for congregational worship.
The dangers of commercialised advertising for the church as a body
could potentially be subtler than those for the individual. In seeking
to use movies such as The Passion of the Christ as effective
evangelical tools, Christians face the danger of allowing consumerist
culture to infiltrate churches and youth groups through excessive marketing.
The debate surrounding commercialised Christian products may even extend
to explicitly Christian material, such as the burgeoning music industry,
devotional literature and Bible study materials. A single book can become
a phenomenon: the best-selling Purpose-Driven Life study by Rick Warren
has expanded to offer board books for toddlers and a Duo-Tone “Life
Journal.”
But isn’t it a laudable goal to reach out to the wider audience
of moviegoers with a movie such as Narnia which embodies Christian values?
The problem with seeking to “market” the Christian worldview
as one would market a crash diet or a self-help strategy is that the
gospel worldview is not, and has never been, superficially acceptable
to the world. Movies that promote the gospel are a welcome antidote
in a materialistic culture, but the temptation in relying too heavily
on these as evangelical tools is to simplify the Christian message,
which is too contentious and uncompromising to be contained in any movie.
The Jesus of the New Testament demands a loyalty far more radical even
than that demanded by Aslan in the movie shot on Lord of the Rings-style
sweeping grasslands. Christians seeking to use tools such as the Narnia
series or the Passion movie responsibly might remember that Christ once
said: “No one can serve two masters. … You cannot serve
both God and Money” (Matt. 6:24).
“Buy one today! Make Jesus happy!” The McPassion
movie exaggerates (we hope) the absurdity of this sales pitch, but before
the marketing of faith-related products progresses further in that direction,
Swartzwelder has provided a useful reality check. This debate is just
one aspect of the centuries-old struggle to be Christians “in”
the world but not “of” it. There can be no place for faith
in any culture that idolises money or materialism. A consumer-friendly
Christian culture might have its dangers; a consumerist Christian culture
would be an oxymoron.
1 Terry Mattingly, “Should plugs for faith-friendly films end
short of pulpit?” Scripps Howard News Service, 15 March 2006.
http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=RELIGION-FAITH-03-15-06
2 David O’Reilly, “Hyping ‘Narnia’ to Christians,”
The Philadelphia Inquirer, 4 December 2005. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/religion/13324125.htm
3 Rik Swartzwelder. http://www.themcpassion.com
Chenxin Jiang ‘09 is from Hong Kong. She has not chosen a major.