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A Brand New Jesus

I recently went to an exhibition on brands and the role they play in our lives. Entitled "Brand New," it’s showing at one of the galleries in London for a few months. As you walk into the exhibition, you enter a field of brands. It’s like a field of poppies; but instead of flowers on stalks, each one has a photograph of a different brand. The overall impression is incredible—a sea of images, nearly all instantly recognizable, the iconography of capitalism. As I glanced around, the big players were there: Nike, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Gap, Starbucks, Microsoft. Also present were several personalities who are now a kind of brand unto themselves: James Bond, Michael Jordan, Richard Branson. Then, to my surprise, I noticed, tucked in amongst the images, what looked to be an ancient icon of Jesus Christ on the cross. There he was, unmistakably present in the midst of all this stuff.

Was this a good or a bad thing? Was Jesus being compromised by being treated as a brand, albeit a very successful one? Or was this the most profound statement of Jesus’ incarnation into a consumer society? How does Jesus relate to popular culture? By extension, how should and how do we as Christians relate to it?

Western society used to be defined by production; now, it is defined by consumption. You used to be what you made or what you did, but now, you are what you buy. "I shop therefore I am." As James Twitchell puts it, "Commercialism is the water we are all swimming in, the air we breathe, our sunlight and shade."¹ Western society is organized around stuff. In particular, we construct our identity by what we consume, the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, the car we drive. We consume objects in an attempt to ingest meaning. If we don’t like ourselves, we can always buy a different brand. We position ourselves in relation to others by our tastes, either gathering together with others with similar tastes or making distinctions because we don’t like the stuff others do. Brands are central to this whole process. We choose particular brands often because of the myths associated with them—being cool, sophisticated, rebellious, sporty, sexy.

As youth ministers, it’s easy to see this at work in the lives of young people. And it brings with it some pretty big challenges in terms of discipleship. In my experience, the response of many adult Christians to this is to think how terrible it is that young people are being manipulated by the MTVs and Hollywoods of this world. By implication, the stuff of popular culture (and therefore the world of young people) tends to be viewed very negatively. And the pressure is on youth ministers to protect young people from it.

There are several problems with this. The first is that it fails to recognize that we adult Christians are also living our lives the same way. We are playing the same game! The only difference is that we are making different consumer choices—different music, TV programs, clothes, cars, etc. But we still use these things to construct identity and to associate with people of similar tastes. While it’s true that this is sometimes done by purchasing Christian products, it’s still just stuff. Stuff that is usually mass-produced, marketed, branded and sold just like everything else. The chances are that others in our church have similar patterns of consumption. But there is nothing inherently wrong in any of this. I’m just amazed at the lack of honesty about it.

Secondly, this view doesn’t take into account the ways in which young people actually weave popular culture into their lives to create meaning. It assumes young people are gullible and easily manipulated. In contrast, recent work in cultural studies suggests that audiences often consume in ways very different to what producers intend. I think young people in particular are creative consumers, creating new meanings out of things and subverting those intended by the cultural producers.

The third problem is that this negative attitude toward popular culture undermines mission amongst young people (and indeed many adults) almost before it has begun. The emphasis in mission studies today is on contextualization, incarnational mission, and planting indigenous churches. Following the example of Christ, missionaries are called to indwell the culture of the people they are trying to reach and then to communicate the gospel in the language, signs, symbols, and very soil of that culture. This new emphasis is partly a response to the mistakes of the past when many missionaries ignored issues of culture. Those being reached with the gospel were expected to "Westernize" in order to become Christian. The contemporary church’s disdain for popular culture suggests that while valuable lessons have been learned from mission overseas, we are failing to apply them at our own doorstep.

I don’t for a minute wish to suggest that we should uncritically embrace consumerism. Clearly, there are very real problems with a materialistic culture. There simply isn’t enough stuff to satisfy everyone’s desires without the planet teetering over the edge. Not everyone can afford what’s in the shops, so there’s an increase in poverty and crime. Consumption is usually focused around "me" and perpetuates a selfish approach to life. And ultimately goods don’t live up to their promises. You can switch brands and still not know who you are. You can have a life full of things and still feel empty. It’s also clear that many materialistic values run counter to those expressed by Jesus in the "beatitudes," his manifesto for an upside-down kingdom.

However, it’s time to stop pretending that we (adults) live outside of it judging others (young people) who live inside of it. It’s "the water we are all swimming in" and it’s time we admitted it. It’s time to stop railing against popular culture. By all means, rail against consumerism; but don’t just pick on what young people are into.

I freely admit that I have an agenda here. I love popular culture—not indiscriminately, but I do genuinely enjoy and feel at home in it. Furthermore, I find that God is often present in it. Over recent months, God has spoken to me through movies such as Dogma, American Beauty, and The Matrix. I have heard God’s whisper in a book by Salman Rushdie. At a Radiohead concert, I was moved to tears as the audience sang in unison, "God loves his children." I’ve found myself praying by lighting virtual candles on the Internet. And I have listened again and again to the lyrics of "Grace" by U2, which contains the most beautiful and profound lyrics I have heard in a long time. Admittedly, my take on these things may have sometimes been different from that which was intended. But from my perspective, Jesus is alive and well in popular culture at a time when people are filled with a deep spiritual hunger.

So, what about Jesus among the brands? I often think that many Christians believe Jesus shouldn’t be there at all. Or if he is, he should be pointing a judgmental finger at the brands or standing at the entrance to stop people from being tainted and leading them to a separate field with safe (Christian) versions of the brands. But I for one am glad Jesus is there among the brands. My theological inspiration for youth ministry and missions is the incarnation. Christ "became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood" (John 1:14 as translated in The Message). In Jesus’ case, "the neighborhood" was a rural, agricultural society in first century Palestine. He immersed himself in that culture; he used the language, signs, and symbols of the day to communicate the Gospel of an upside down kingdom; he undermined the idols of his day. Jesus calls us to do likewise in the consumer culture at the start of the 21st century. What better picture to convey this truth than this old icon? Christ on the cross sitting in the midst of a field of brands, not condemning them but beckoning us to take the risk of joining him.

¹Twitchell, James B., 1999, "Lead Us Into Temptation: The Triumph of American Materialism," Columbia University Press: New York.

Jonny Baker is the director of Youth for Christ in London. He's been involved in youth ministry for 11 years, and he's just completed an M.A. in youth ministry exploring the interface between worship, mission, and popular culture.