No, Jesus is Not my Easy Button
OK, I was walking through a local bookstore the other day, not a Christian bookstore, just a run-of-the-mill mainstream bookseller with two-floors and comfy chairs and I ran across a rack full of Christian kitsch. The small section was full of all the usual T-shirts, decals and mugs that make most pastors cringe. The small section seemed like a strange addition in the middle of the store. I wondered what people thought as they walked by this rack–did it give them inspiration, hope and clarity about the mission of Christ? Or, was it laughable, cliche and a poor reminder that there will always be a wave of “Christian” apparel that, though it tries to do something for the mission, in the end, it just falls flat. Like this:
No, Jesus is not my easy button, thank you.
It’s a reminder to me that we have this penchant to make things seem less confrontational, less costly and more convenient in church-world. (And, I know the passage where Jesus says His yoke is easy, but that is not this.)
Come to think of it, I’m waiting for the T-shirt that says, “Unless you hate your mother and father you can’t love me.” I’m thinking those would sell like hotcakes.
Dibs on the copyright.
Brian is a pastor and writer. He's married to Jenna. They have three boys, Noah, Sam and Ethan. His writing has been featured in RELEVANT, Burnside Writers Collective, The Washington Times, Arizona Republic, Dayton Daily News and others. He's also the Neue managing editor. 
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right in Brian, that’s the kind of stuff that drives me nuts - as my pastor put it, “Somethings are too holy to make jokes out of.” We can laugh, joke etc. etc. about lots of things, but Jesus should not be one of those things. IMHO.
If you make those shirts, I’ll get one hahaha
right on, not right in. wow, long day.
I like the shirt idea. But for juxtaposition purposes you should put a really happy, two-thumbs-up, best friend picture of Jesus on it, too!
Yes. Yes indeed. Genius abounds here.
First off, I grew up in the ‘christian subculture copy everything pop-culture does, just with a spiritual twist, and not as high quality’ era, and I agree that this stuff drives me nuts, but here’s my questions:
what does “counter-culture” mean to you and how, as leaders of the church, do we teach people to live lives that stand out for Jesus with out the terrible t-shirts (or music, or hats, or buttons, etc…)
thoughts?
Blake
love it
This is relevant to the conversation:
http://threehundredwords.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/what-we-wear-instead/
Yeah, I hate that shirt. It ranks up there with “Jesus is my homeboy”. Ahhhhh, Christian commercialism!!
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