I have been working at a Christian bookstore for a few months now and have had several thoughts. One, the Christian community tries to hard to copy the world. There is a card game called Redemption that is an imitation of Magic and other card games. There movies that are imitations of the comedies like Pineapple Express and action movies like The Bone Collector. There are books that imitate the popular series of Patterson and King. They all seem pale comparisons of these works though. I do not think we should be copying the works of the world, we should be producing our own art based on our own beliefs. When we try to imitate the world and fail the world just looks at us and laughs. These pale imitations tend to drive more people away and marginalize the Christian community rather than win people over to Christ, which should be the goal of all the work Christians produce. This is not to say all the movies and books that have been produced are poor. There are some high quality movies like One Night With the King, that tells the story of Esther. These movies and books are what needs to be continued to be produced.
Two, I am amazed at some of the products we sell. There are religious hand lotions, candies, pens, pencils, the list goes on. These items make me wonder if people are not just slapping Jesus’s name on an item just to sell it. Like the Steve Taylor song says, we have made Jesus a franchise in the food courts.
Three, Christian stores also hasten the isolation of the Christian community from the world. We have developed a completely separate culture. We need to engage the world. Challenge the pre-conceived notions the world has of Christians as being stuck up and holier than though. We are no better or worse than a non-Christian. Acting as if we are confirms the idea in peoples minds that we are hypocrites, which if we are acting like we are better then we are hypocrites.
Four, there are many good Christian music artists that are ignored by mainstream radio. I believe this is a direct result of the isolation the Christian community has cultivated.
I have met many good people through working at the store though. I have had some good conversations with customers ans staff. So, the experience has not been too bad. Also, I have rediscovered some old friends like Oswald Chambers and Third Day that I have not read or listened to in some time. I have also found some new things I like, but would have never heard otherwise, because I don’t go to bookstores often.
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