Marketing companies love me. I tend to fall for most their hoopla. Spend 3 times as much to save 10%? I'm there. So of course, though I suspected some marketing strategy at work, I recently purchased the book Unchristian, by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, which came completely shrink wrapped at Borders. Why shrink wrap this book? It definitely got my attention.

Here's the blurb on the back: 

Christians are supposed to represent Christ to the world. But according to the latest report card, something has gone terribly wrong. Using descriptions like "hypocritical," "insensitive," and "judgmental," young Americans share an impression of Christians that's nothing short of . . . unChristian. 

Groundbreaking research into the perceptions of sixteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds reveals that Christians have taken several giant steps backward in one of their most important assignments. The surprising details of the study, commissioned by Fermi Project and conducted by The Barna Group, are presented with uncompromising honesty in unChristian.

Find out why these negative perceptions exist, learn how to reverse them in a Christlike manner, and discover practical examples of how Christians can positively contribute to culture.

They've also got an interesting video posted on YouTube:

I have to admit, I'm feeling pretty excited about this book. The blurb points out what we've been trying to say at Relief for quite a while: Christians are not representing Christ very well; as a group we've become too worried about checklists and judgment to love well, to forgive, to value each other.

I haven't opened the book yet, though, so I'm still a little skeptical. I'm hoping the book is what it is being billed as, but I did wonder, as I stood there thinking about whether I should buy a book I can't even open, if there is something they're hiding. Maybe it's a bit of a bait and switch happening. It's being marketed to a pissed off audience—are they baiting us with our anger and then feeding us more of the same didactic legalistic rhetoric for 9/10 of the book? Possibly. Or perhaps they think people would be intrigued enough to stand and read the statistics at the beginning, but afraid they might not read the articles that answer it, or worse, that they might not purchase the book. Maybe they are looking to give the impression that they are publishing something scandalous, wrapping the book in the way that men's magazines are sold in the 7-Eleven. Or maybe they just thought, if we shrink-wrap this book, people will be want to open it enough to buy it. According to Jeff Shinabarger, co-founder of the Fermi Project, the shrink wrap was a publisher mistake.  If so, perhaps it was God's strategy; as I've mentioned, it worked on me.

Despite my suspicion that I might be getting played, I have high hopes for the book. I'm looking forward to peeling back the shrink wrap. And I will, just as soon as I've mailed you Issue 4. Because, well, you're going to love Issue 4.  

What? Christians? Judgmental? 

Recently, I received a link to an article called "Women of Faith, Thomas Nelson, Westbow Publishers lower standards for Christian fiction." The article criticizes Reconstructing Natalie, by Laura Jensen Walker, because the author uses the phrased "pissed off" at one point to describe her character during a battle with breast cancer. She also uses the word "pissed." If you're dying to feel the judgement in full force, click here.  The following quotation sums it up: 

"What we were concerned about primarily was the use of gutter language to describe someone being angry. . . Should a non-believer, or even a young reader, pick up this book, would they be able to tell the difference between this and any other book published by the secular market?" 

I know it's a stretch to believe that a woman might feel this level of rage over, well, cancer. She must be a terrible sinner; let's all judge her… That is how people will know us as Christians right? By our sanitized language and by our judgement? This phrase would certainly stop an unbeliever from becoming a Christian, wouldn't it?

No.

Christ said that people should know we are Christians by our love for each other, not our perfect behavior. The goal of Christian publishing cannot be to avoid authentic pain and, instead, sanitize the reality of the situation in order to show "unbelievers and young people" how much better we are at handling, for example, cancer. It's my opinion that worrying about the little things, like people saying "pissed" or, gasp, cussing, is most often a successful strategy for avoiding our own sin or stroking our own pride. Passing out demerits on a legalistic checklist is certainly easier than facing up to our own lack of compassion, empathy, or value of others, or the fact that we want people to notice how different we are, how much better we are, rather than how much better Christ is. I don't know of any Bible stories in which Jesus skips over the reality in someone's heart in order to focus instead on how they express it. 

"This concerns me a great deal, that a major Christian publisher would be lowering their standards, from both literary and Christian standpoints, in order to sell a book."

Seriously, I just thought I'd include the line because it's so funny. Thomas Nelson's new marketing strategy: use the word "pissed"—I bet it's on the cover, too! "Buy our book! We lover "gutter" language!" Let's get real about what's happening here: Westbow simply allowed an author to write what the character would have said. Depicting reality: I think it's a step in the right direction, but they think it cancels out any good the book might have done for a reader. Interesting.

The book was chosen as the Women of Faith Book of the Year, though, so at least some of us have some sense. The website-o-judgement begs you to email Ami McConnell, an editor at Thomas Nelson, to tell her how upset you are about this "gutter language." I hope some of you will email her to tell her she's doing great. Let's send her some cyber pats on the back for getting real.