What Happens To Christmas When...
What happens to Christmas when some Evangelicals get together and decide to make a "Chrisitan" MTV? WMT. I'm not sure what it stands for and I can't find their website, but they've got a tv station (satillite probably). I was just at a local coffee shop in my local hometown of Arteisa, NM. It's a "Christian coffee shop" where it looks like they have some local music from time to time. A great atmosphere really, I never thought our little cow-town would have something that hip. It's where I'll be spending a lot of my time on vacation. The only drawback was this Evangelical knock-off of TRL called WMT playing on a small tv in the corner.Now TRL is anoying enough by itself so other than its popularity I don't know why any self respecting Christian would want to immitate it. And if you were going to immitate TRL three days before Christmas you might want to drop the "holiday shopping segment" where you give mad props to the new XBOX 360 and tell all the cool Christian kids that they "must have it." That might be a great time where you could devote your time to actually getting around to talking about something Christian... like what Advent means.
Our hip Christian VeeJay also pimped a 7-day trial of a walk with God that you could order and just see if your life didn't get better... in just 7 days! He then went on to talk about how much he was looking forward to Christmas, that time when "tons of presents flow out of goodness towards... ME!" There might have been an asterisk somewhere on this show that "the reason for the season is Jesus," but if you weren't brain-dead you could tell that the message of this "Christian" knock-off of TRL was the exact same of the actual TRL: Christmas is about you, about gratifying all your warped materialistic desires and meeting the warped materilistic desires of your friends and families.
What if Catholics had a Christian Music Video station? Do you think they'd be talking about the RADICAL XBOX 360 and how lame you are if you don't get one? Or do you think they might talk about Advent being a season of waiting, patience and repenting for the coming of the Lord. Well the problem is that Jesus doesn't push records as quickly as totally awesome tubular rockin' buddy Jesus... that kid can sell records... and XBOXes.
Trouble is, that Jesus wasn't born in the manger, he was born on Madison Avenue and he serves his corporate father and the "almighty" dollar, not the Heavenly Father.
Labels: Life
posted by Charlie at 10:36 PM
8 Comments:
Wow. Charlie, you rock my face off. It is funny how confused we are about what is truly Christian. We have a couple of little stores like that here in Phoenix, and I know several (many) Christians who would have walked into the store in your town and been put off by the decorum of the store (because it looks too much like other places that are controlled by the worst of our culture), and they might have been put off by the look of the tv show, but would not have noticed the true problem.
Thanks for noticing.
Peace,
Wil
Yikes, that disheartening. Also, I long for the days when people will wake up and stop thinking that there is a "war" on everything, including Christmas.
Peace and love,
eric
Charlie,
Is your problem with the existence of a Christian music television channel or with the show telling people to buy XBox 360s? I am sure you know what a powerful influence movies and music can have on people, and I am sure you see why that makes them good tools for educating people in the values and ideas behind what it means to be Christian. Why not have a Christian music video channel?
Many Christians I know have XBoxes and iPods and big-screen TVs. If Christians are going to participate so gladly in consumer culture then why do you fault Christian media for recommending products they might also enjoy? Christian buying is okay, but Christian marketing and selling is not?
It seems your negative feelings about TRL (and perhaps the music or the VJs) makes your perspective on their message biased. No doubt there is a large element of commercialism associated with the show, but every show not on public television has paid sponsors and advertisers that require a bow to the dollar. However, TRL and many of these shows give traditional holiday wishes within their very content. "Happy holidays," "have a good time with friends and family," "enjoy some good food and fun" are benign enough holiday messages that don't conflict with what many Christians do or say about Christmas. There is room for both. Instead, maybe the churches should do a better job educating people about Advent, rather than WMT.
Also, why do you imply that the Roman Catholic Church would be any different? Has it not participated in its own forms of unorthodox ministry or parishioner entertainment?
And Mr. Lee, please explain what you mean by "I long for the days when people will wake up and stop thinking that there is a 'war' on everything, including Christmas."
Dear secret friend (emphasis on the secret),
My problem was not that there was a Christian music video channel, it was that they thought that the TRL model apparently is competely compatible with Christianity. You point out that music and television have a powerful influence (or at least have the potential to do so), so why not have a Chrisitan TRL... my answer is this: If all you try to do is immitate TRL and you have enough money to pull it off well, then the message you're sending is that there is no difference or that Christian media is just as trite and shallow as everything else... EXCEPT... it's "positive" and "clean." Well if the only influence we weild as Christians is that we can be just as shallow and obsessed with toys, but we do it NICER... then I'd just rather not send out that message at all. So I guess what I'm saying is that this tv channel was not educating people in the values of Christianity, because underneath it all Christmas was not about Jesus, it was about "getting stuff." Don't forget, the VeeJay said, and I quote, "I love Christmas because it's the one time of the year when presents flow out of goodness to... MEEEEE!" Is that educating people in the values of Christianity or is it reaffirming everything that Best Buy wants you to believe?
If the price for putting out a "Christian message" is that you must also put out competing messages (and never actually get around to putting out a Christian message anyway) then what's the point? Also, your statement that just because Christians participate in rampant consumerism (of which I know I'm guilty) I should condone manipulative marketing in so-called Christian media... well it's confusing! Do I want a new XBOX 360? Yes! Should I? No, I have an old XBOX and it works just fine (and I probably spend too much time on it anyway). Do I want a new video iPod? Yes! Should I? No! I got one last year and it will serve me perfectly for years to come, why on earth should I want every new gadget that comes along?! It would be nice if so-called Christian media encouraged my discipleship rather than tempting me to a shallower life.
As per my bias against TRL... yeah, I'm not afraid to say that show is... well blah, who cares.
All tv shows must "bow to the dollar"... well I just think that any show that's pretending to be Christian should not do that. The trouble is that these shows are funded the same way PBS is, mostly by donations not by commercials. So this "go buy an XBOX 360 right now!" bit was just random, not a commercial per se, although it could certianly have been product placement. But it seems like XBOX dooesn't even have to pay to do that kind of thing, enough people are happy enough to do it for them.
I agree that it is the Church's job, not "Christian tv" to educate people about Advent... but their approach to Christmas (shopping not advent) shows that they're less Christian than they were a marketing tool. But I'm a bit lost about your comment addressing the benign messages on TRL... where does a TRL VeeJay saying "Happy Holidays" fit into our discussion?
Why do I think the Catholic Church wouldn't make the same mistake? Because Catholics on the whole do a much better job of ordering their lives around the church calnedar rather than the secular one, because Catholics at least still know what a "vow of poverty" is and why any Christian would consider taking such a vow. Is the Catholic Church perfect? No, but in my experience they are far less suceptible to getting sucked into the void of "Christian" marketing that is really just the same old product with a Jesus bumper-sticker attached.
I really enjoyed the blog, Charlie. I'm also enjoying sitting her in my "Christian chair" eating my "Christian cookies" and wearing my "Christian T-Shirt". Oh Yeah, this is an awesome "Christian desktop" as well. I have an idea; We should create a Christian Fantasy Football league next year. Jesus can be our commissioner. It'll be absolutely no different than any other fantasy football leagues, with the exception of a really good commissioner, but it'll be branded with the word "Christian" in it. ROCK ON!
I'll give you a hint on who I am...My first name starts with 'Ch' and ends with 'd'. I am the son of your father's sister. I know these clues aren't much so let me know if you need any more of them, ok :-)
Chad, when it comes to blogging you sound like Kaz on a sugar high.
Haha! Charlie, your comment about "Kaz on a sugar high" sounds about right.
Chad! To answer your question concerning my following statement:
"I long for the days when people will wake up and stop thinking that there is a 'war' on everything, including Christmas."
In one way, this can be summed up in two words: Bill O'Reilly. However, he is no special 'boogey man' as he is just participating in the same thing that many do, which is the politics of fear, which is not love. Perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18). A culture that always defines itself by 'warring' and 'battling' is akin to somebody who, because they also approach every problem with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail to them. But taking any issue and making it a "war on [something]" sure makes good television ratings for news shows because you can create all these flashy graphics and explosions to get people's attention.
"Tonight at 11: an update on the war on the war on the war on peace, also known as 'WAR is PEACE'. We'll also show how George Orwell was right and tell you how to forget about that pesky author."
*boom!*
*fancy lights*
*grabs some more popcorn*
Peace,
Eric
good post charlie. i don't like madison ave. either. : P
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