Are Christians Allowing Society to Turn Jesus into a Commodity?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW YORK (May 11, 2007) – Will the church remain faithful to Christ or allow a society consumed with consumerism to package their Savior like just another brand? That’s the concern expressed by Tyler Wigg Stevenson in his new book, Brand Jesus, from Seabury Books. Wigg Stevenson believes that American Christianity has been corrupted by the dominance of today’s rampant consumerism. He warns that certain forces — such as consumerism, the economy, and American politics — have become increasingly idolatrous and threaten the sacred boundaries between the church and the world.
      Wigg Stevenson states that the church’s largely uncritical adoption of society’s consumer mentality has allowed the morphing of the message of Christ into a mere brand name, but he offers hope as he outlines how Christians can live a life of faith with integrity despite current trends.
      “I hope (this book) can serve as a wake-up call for the American church,” writes Wigg Stevenson. “We have turned the lifelong activity of faith into the commodity of belief. And in the marketplaces of our churches, from the humble roadside stands to the gleaming “Christian lifestyle center” shopping malls, we hock our product: that best-selling, inexpensive, factory-made, lifestyle-enhancing, identity-defining, eternal-life-giving, easy-to-use, soul-stain remover – Brand Jesus.”
      He points to Paul’s letter to the Romans saying, “Perhaps … American Christians have misunderstood what Paul was writing about to the Romans. Perhaps our gospel isn’t the gospel at all. And if our good news about Jesus isn’t the real good news, then maybe we’ve got the wrong Jesus, too.”
      Brand Jesus issues a provocative challenge for Christians to read Paul’s letter to the Romans in light of current American society, stop to consider the issues, and to return to a faith of integrity.
      “The body of the American church has been seized by Brand Jesus, which seeks to kill us.” Wigg Stevenson challenges. “And this evil spirit will not be expelled by our continuing to do church business as usual. Our trusted methods, the old stand-bys – they will fail. It is business as usual that has opened us to such peril. No, this kind can come out only by prayer and fasting.”
      Tyler Wigg Stevenson, 29, is a preacher and writer who graduated from Swarthmore College and summa cum laude with his M.Div. from Yale Divinity School. He served in the chapel at Yale and as Associate Minister at Christian Tabernacle Baptist Church in Hamden, CT, where he was licensed and ordained. He later worked in London, England, as Study Assistant to the Rev. Dr. John Stott, former Chaplain to the Queen of England. Since 2001 he has served on the Board of Directors of the Global Security Institute, an organization he helped establish under the late U.S. Senator Alan Cranston. He currently lives with his wife in Nashville, where he preaches regularly.
       
ABOUT THE BOOK: Brand Jesus, By Tyler Wigg Stevenson
Pub Date: May 2007, Paperback, 176 pages, 6 x 9, $16.00, 978-1-59627-049-7
Toll-free U.S. 800-877-0012, online at www.churchpublishing.org or churchpublishing@cpg.org

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