Jesus Saves but he Doesn’t Invest.
W. all respect to Mr Sinker, i think that while trying to point out a peice of xian kitsch, he missed the most important point–by just saying haha look at the incongrus matching of jesus and commerce he missed a v. good metnomy of larger christian themes. (kitsch is always more authentic and more real when it comes to the emotions of viewers, its power can only be disputed by those decadents with a good working sense of artifice and irony.)
In the linked painting below, is the encapsulation of health and wealth theology that has been washing over the evangelical world of late. Disregarding completely the basic anti capital message of Christs gospel (late 19th/20th century word, i cant find a Roman equivlent)…it reflects two ideas, that god wants you to be happy in the only way middle class suburban (esp. female–i know the print is aimed at men, but women buy them in much larger numbers) North Americans know how, ie money and god requires no hard work no hard work, no 40 days in the desert, no isolation or prayer or fasting or satan for this money. The other idea being that god is everywhere, that everything you do is xian–this doesnt mean molding your life to be a proper servant, it means basically make sure that you can drop and pop culture, from secular to religous.
Look at the 9.2m copies that the Prayer of Jabez sold–a buddyjesus version of think and grow rich (that had to go all the way back to Jeremiah to find something that vaguely talked about new wealth), or how Bush conflates suppy slide economics w. the life of a born again (trickle down baptism) or a recent coloumn in LifeBeat, a magazine for xian teens (i have a subscription if anyone wants to borrow copies)–which gave permission for a young teen to work on sundays, cause every day is sabbath if you have jesus in your heart.
Jesus would never appear in a board room, he didnt like those who made money very much, and the dialouge that surrounds this is actually not only dangerous but a lie. By making quick and ironic jokes dilutes the power of this movement with out the thinking of the implications of it.
This disappoints.