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December 9, 2005
This Sermon Brought To You By Narnia
(Filed under: Philosophy)The much-hyped Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opens in theaters today and for every bit of Narnia marketing you come across it seems you'll also find a corresponding article in the media.
The CT Weblog offers some broad coverage and specifically explores the question, did Disney pay for your sermon? Sermon Central is offering a Narnia sermon contest where you can win a trip to London and $1,000 cash. They're not outright bribing pastors to mention Narnia in a sermon since pastors only need to submit a transcript or outline and it is just a random drawing.
But it is a very small step away from simply handing Pastor Joe a check in exchange for mentioning Faith-Based Movie X in his sermon. It's like those oh-so-sublte Sears placements in Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
And that doesn't make me feel good. Though it could be a solution to the perpetual church problem of the budgeted and actual income lines never matching up.
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at December 9, 2005 12:22 PM
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Comments
I wouldn't be so quick to judge the whole Sears thing...from what I understand, they give a ton of free stuff for the families on the show. Free advertising and a shameless plug now and then isn't much to pay for tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise, is it?
I'm with you on the sermons, though...at what point would a pastor be prostituting himself by forming a sermon around a potential payment rather than around the leading of the Holy Spirit?
Posted by: anthonyjohn at December 9, 2005 3:28 PM
here's my prediction for the team that takes home the grand prize.
http://www.prestonwood.org/sites/document.asp?did=1090
Posted by: patrick at December 9, 2005 9:45 PM
And if you put yourself in the shoes of the Narnia/Disney marketers it is a pretty smart move. Get as many Christians talking about it as possible and you suddenly open up a door to more sales. Almost a "seeding the marketplace" concept.
I dont' know if I agree with the ethics of the whole using the church to market a commercial product. But, then again, perhaps we can reverse the concept and learn a bit from this. What would it take to get the secular world to start purposely mentioning churches in their advertising?
Good discussion topics here... hmmmm.
Posted by: s. zeilenga at December 12, 2005 6:50 AM
But wasn't Christianity itself designed to be mass-marketed? After all, it's not based on any one culture's indigenous belief system...it's more of a franchise, based on a standard format...the McDonald's of religions.
I think it sucks that Christians are using classic fantasy literature to sell their tired dogma, but if that's what it takes to pay for a truly beautiful screen portrayal of Narnia, then the end justifies the means.
Posted by: Milton Crow at December 20, 2005 11:56 AM
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