Christ® Brand Religion: Now with More Hate Flavor!

Coming soon to Syracuse, NY: The Marketing of The Christ

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the Greater Syracuse Christian Film Festival. There will be more than 80 free showings of Christian films through May 11th, and after each film, hosts will proselytize to the audience and invite them to commit to Christ.

Now, frankly, I don't have a huge problem with that, per se. I hate that it is called a Christian film festival instead of what it is; that is, an Evangelical Christian film festival, but if the Evangelicals want to get together to watch movies, I'm fine with that. So what makes this so gross? The marketing.

Tom Saab, founder and director of Christian Film Festivals of America:

"It's like pulling teeth to get a nonbeliever to come to a crusade. Free of charge to see a good movie; it's easy."

Wow. It's not about attracting people through discussion and ideas. Trick 'em with freebies! Nice.

Barbara Nicolosi, director of Act One, a company that trains aspiring Christian filmmakers:

"Over the last five years, it's suddenly become OK to embrace movies [like 'Lord of the Rings' and 'The Chronicles of Narnia']... Christian films like 'Left Behind' and 'Omega Code,' they get off track by making a subculture product that only has relevance for folks in the choir. It's not what cinema should be used for."

Evidently, the cinema should be used for clever advertising and subliminal manipulation. I have no problem with Christian-themed movies... my problem is that there is a company for training people how to properly shoot and market their Christian films to maximize subliminal impact. That's absolutely insidious. Christianity, in it's pure, nonfanatical form, is a beautiful religion that doesn't need manipulative marketing.

Branding is for coffee and diapers, not spirituality. Evangelical Christianity is becoming the religious arm of Capitalism, the irony of which should be lost on no one. Take this stunning example: a summary quip on one of the films being shown at the festival.

Treasures in Heaven: Animated film featuring the story of Zacchaeus from the Gospel of Luke. Zacchaeus had become rich by taking more taxes from people than the law allowed. He met Jesus and turned his life around.

What horseshit! Nothing in the Gospel of Luke indicates that Zacchaeus was skimming off the top. Tax collectors were seen as villains because they took money from fellow Jews as employees of the Roman Empire, not because they were thieves. They were wealthy because Rome paid them well, as the job carried with it a guarantee of being ostracized by the community. Zacchaeus does say that he will return fourfold any money he might have gained through false accusation, but also gives half of his possesions to the poor. The moral of the story of Zacchaeus is not that over-taxation is wrong, but that the accumulation of personal wealth is shallow and ultimately unfulfilling. Jesus Christ never came out against taxes... he told his apostles to 'render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.' He did command them to forfeit all their worldly possessions to follow him, however, and that it is impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Director Tom Saab is quoted as saying that the churches involved are all 'evangelical Bible-believing churches.' Evidently, that means only when it's convenient to their selfish, materialistic beliefs. When it's not, they just change it around to mean what they want it to mean.

Without a doubt, the most nausea-inducing excerpt from the Post-Standard piece is the following:

All are welcome at the festival, he said. People who respond to the altar call - which Saab calls an invitation to Christ - will be matched with evangelical churches.
"We're not going to send people who give themselves to Christ to a liberal Protestant church that OKs abortion and accepts homosexuality," he said.

Amazing that this Christian event revolves around topics Christ himself never spoke of, isn't it? Even in promoting a Film Festival marketed as a gift to the community, they can't quite manage to keep the hatred under wraps. They're not just marketing a spirituality, but as evidenced in Mr. Saab's own confession of motivation, they are recruiting to a political cause, and worse yet, a political cause that espouses hatred of others. This Film Festival isn't just meant as a way to bring people to Christ, it's a way to carefully herd people into the most narrow-minded, spiritually numbing, prideful version of Christianity before they actually find out what Christ actually taught. True Christian evangelism seeks only to introduce people to belief in Christ and his teachings, as laid out in the Gospel. Fanatical evangelical Christians, however, see that as a secondary goal, What is their primary goal? I don't suppose Tom Saab might have spelled it out for us, right?

[Saab] said that the churches that helped publicize the festival, are providing volunteers or making donations are all "evangelical Bible-believing churches." He defines that as "any church that puts the word of God as the ultimate authority and all manmade doctrines and regulations come second to God's holy word."

That, my friends, is a call for theocracy. In order to be involved in the festival, churches had to agree. Little wonder then that, according to the paper, their request for a list of donors and contributing churches was refused.