Here is a stinging (but welcome) critique I read earlier today while browsing around on Jeff Patterson's blog. I had to post it here because it is the best I have read on the subject. Jeff points us to a commentary by Jared Wilson on the subject of the Christian marketplace and the consumerism of the Christian population that drives it; biting words which helpfully point us to the root of the problem and not toward some sort of superficial solution (or justification!). Wilson's words:

I have long held that the problem of the Christian marketplace is a pulpit problem. By this I mean that if we want to be serious about encouraging greater discernment and quality in the Christian’s consumption of art (and further, if we want to gradually squelch the Christian’s ravenous consumerism), we have to begin nurturing this difference on the pastoral and ecclesiological levels.

This is not the problem of the Christian marketplace. The market sells based on demonstrative needs. As I said before, I don’t think the problem of the existence of the Christian marketplace is all that dire or even all that important. The real problem — the one both dire and important — is that Christian consumerism is basically as deep as the shallowest end of mainstream consumerism. And that is not the fault of Testamints or 'God’s Gym' T-shirts or WWJD bracelets, let alone Mercy Me or Michael W. Smith. It is the fault of a gospel-deficient Church and a discipleship culture that has been trained to be both in and of the world.

Be sure to read Wilson's post in its entirety for the greater context to what is posted here.

Labels: Christianity, consumerism, discipleship, gospel