Alliance Christian Fellowship & Porn Gimmicks

Mindy at the Devout Life is blogging again, and she has come out swinging. She has recently highlighted a gimmick by the Alliance Christian Fellowship Protestant Church in Eagle River, Alaska. They apparently have a big billboard up at the exit to Eagle River that looks like this:

Now, I don't have a problem with them having this "weekend." In fact, I applaud them, as does Mindy. What I do take issue with is the childish and tacky promotional effort they have implemented for its advertisement. It comes in the form of a silly billboard for all to see. 

Mindy takes a much more intellectual approach to her dissaproval, I take a much more, well, Joe-approach. My thoughts: "C'mon really?" We get it... shock us, shock us, with your scandalous topic. But don't do it with an ambiguous billboard that looks like that. Honestly, this is the fruits of Protestantism - they fight the culture with culture. It is sort of like fighting drugs with drugs. It might work some of the time, but you usually end up getting the person off of an illegal drug and on to a legal one. Here you are removing one cultural problem: porn, and filling the hole with another: a heretical church belief. 

I agree, the sign is tacky and they shouldn't have it up, but who am I to say that right? I am sure the Pastor there, would say something clever and edgy. Maybe he would say, "you're right, we shouldn't have to have a sign about that porn - but that's exactly why we have it." I almost feel foolish posting about it, because we are giving them exactly what they want - publicity. In fact, I almost see it analogous to the Palin thing... but for one small thing. They are claiming that this is in the name of Christianity. They have no advice on their website about how to talk about what "PORN" is to kids that can read, but don't know what it is. Again, I have no problem with the concept of this "Series." I have a problem with a public sign that looks the way that it does.

It is a gimmick, and something that I have learned is this: Religion and Gimmicks are never a good thing. Politics, products, and anything else - Gimmicks are fine. Do we really want to trick people into the truth? Nope. I dont think we do. But this is exactly what  it is... it is marketing God. I have never been to ACF, but I bet it is very modern. 

I can't believe I have typed as much as I have, and I applaud Mindy for taking this on. I on the other hand simply see this as a gimmick and like I said religious gimmicks don't work. (Update) I shouldn't say they don't work. Clearly it is "working" by getting people to notice this. What it isn't doing is drawing folks into the Sacred of what God is. But then again, Protestantism is exactly that. It is the attempt to make God relevant and modern so that people can make Him applicable to their lives, rather than making their lives relevant and applicable TO HIM.

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