"Selling God"

On Thursday, I watched a documentary titled "Selling God." (The trailer can be view here.) It was an attempt to look at the "marketing" of religion and Christianity in particular.

Without a doubt it was heavily skewed against Christianity or a belief in any god, but I still thought that there were a few things to glean from an outside view of the faith. The most significant statement the documentary made was how Christianity has been marketed over the past two millennia. It stated that Christianity took the best from "Marketing 101" by:

1) Creating a need - In this case Original Sin, man is in need of a savior.
2) Providing a solution - Christ
3) Offering rewards and consequences - Heaven and Hell
4) Creating urgency - The Apocalypse

I have been a believer most of my life, and if I'm honest, this is a true but still highly flawed view of my faith. The documentary was full of misquotes and scripture taken out of context, but it also had long clips of many influential leaders of the modern evangelical movement merely reinforcing the principles outlined above. They had statistics from those leaders on how much it costs to "save a soul" in actual dollars and cents (i.e. how much did it cost to rent out a stadium, provide for the speakers/bands, rent equipment, etc divided by how many came forward for the altar call at the end).

I know that Christianity is so much more than this. Any mature believer knows that following Christ is not as simple as simply saying a prayer, but somehow over the years our American distinctive of systems and efficiency has watered down the gospel to those on the outside. We are seen as people who believe in owning guns and being against gay marriage.

It seems to me that Christ was about something different than setting political or even moral agendas. When he began his ministry he said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come." Many times the gospels record how he was filled with compassion for his people, how he moved miraculously in supernatural power, and how his harshest words were directed at the religious leaders.

I guess I just really want my life to reflect Christ's, and that can't be summed up in a 30 minute sermon or in a bumper sticker. How does the way we live our lives reflect Christ and the things that he stood for? Offering others a chance to encounter Him has to be more about living close to God and trusting in his transforming power than it does about running a positive PR campaign for Jesus.