Not ok: Slapping Jesus Christ’s name on something in order to turn a profit.
The fake rose petals strewn across the tablecloth gave Milton Hobbs’ booth a romantic aura. He stacked crystal-cut perfume flasks in a pyramid and set out pink candles tied with ribbon. The effect was almost sexy — at least compared with the other booths at the International Christian Retail Show.
Hobbs liked it. He needed a striking display to call attention to his most unusual product.
“Christian perfume,” he said. “It’s a really, really new genre. We’re the first!”
Virtuous Woman perfume comes packaged with a passage from Proverbs. But what makes the floral fragrance distinctly Christian, Hobbs said, is that it’s supposed to be a tool for evangelism.
“It should be enticing enough to provoke questions: ‘What’s that you’re wearing?’ ” Hobbs said. “Then you take that opportunity to speak of your faith. They’ve opened the door, and now they’re going to get it.”
And here I thought that women weren’t supposed to tempt men. I guess if you can use temptation as a trick to bring them to Christ, it’s ok.
Just how using Christ in order to thicken your wallet must be ok, too. Or, hey, forgoing all that crap about modesty and advertising the old-fashioned way:
The retail show offered Christians plenty of ways to provoke such discussions.
Skintight scoop-neck T-shirts for teenage girls bore slogans that practically begged those not in the know to ask questions. “Wood & nails — a powerful partnership,” one read. On another: “Life without you is not an option.”
And yet the religious right tried to defund the National Endowment of the Arts over Piss Christ. I wonder how they feel about the complete commodification of their religion? Oh, right, they like the fact that it pays their bills.
I think, just maybe, this is the point that Andres Serrano was trying to make.