Using Sin to attract Sinners
Seems like all I talk about is lust now, but here I go again. I recently saw this art on the CMS Flickr Pool, and had some strong reactions towards it. To me the church has been going down the path of using sin, or images of sin to attract sinners. I myself do not like this trend, but want to open this up for discussion. Now to be very clear I do not want this to be a bashing session on every other church. I would like to know other ways that we can address these issues, porn, sex, money, ect. without glorifying them in art. Or reasons why you feel this is the right approach.
Here are some examples:
XXX Church goes to porn conventions to pass out bibles. They go straight to the source and love the sinner without glorifying the sin.
LifeChurch.tv did satan’s Sex Ed. They used video, billboards and print to hit the issue in a comical yet effective way.
Mars Hill Seattle had their Ask Anything series that allowed members to text in questions on sex and get biblical answers.
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I read your comment on the CMS Flickr site, but I don’t know if I fully understand your point, and I’d love to hear more on your thoughts. Are you implying that using the word ‘porn’ with the color pink is going to automatically correlate to a lusting temptation for people who struggle with the addiction? Isn’t that the same as XXXchurch using the “XXX” as well as their slogan “#1 Christian Porn Site” (I believe much of there graphics have included the same or similar shade of pink too).
Is this an issue of how it these adverts are subconsciously triggering thoughts in peoples heads, or is this about an “appearance of evil” philosophy?
I would argue that your comment on the CMS FLickr site about glorifying God is in the right spirit, but there would some who have seen some of your productions (of which I am all a big fan of) and say that your less than traditional imagery will only cause divisiveness and more conflict rather than unity of the spirit, ultimately not glorifying God, but being shock value agenda pieces.
Good post with lots of potential for great dialogue. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
XXX church is different for me. They are not doing mass mailers to families. To me it seems they are a resource to churches and for people dealing with this addiction.
I guess what I was getting at is: can the art lead to sin? Now the color pink is not sinful, but creating a mailer to match the look of a porn site might lead to that temptation. If a reader has struggled with pornography in the past, or a child was to get the mail it might trigger lustful thoughts. I myself am struggling with how to handle these topics in the right way. How can we get to the heart of the issue without either making light of it, or using the sin as bait. I do not see that example in the bible. Now I am not putting down the designer or the church. Like I said I DO NOT want this to be about who is more holy, just a discussion.
I also think shock value does have a place in Christianity. Christ used it all the time, but always to point to a better understanding of our own sin, and a better understanding of God. Now I did not see the back of the mailer, or a description of how it was to be used, so I am in the dark on that. My only reaction was on the cover art. I have emailed the designer to get more detail on how it was used.
I really want hear what people think about this topic, so chime in.
Here are a couple problems I see. First of all, it just comes off as a cheap attempt to get my attention…like the guy running for ASB president who would begin his speech with “Sex! (pause) Now that I’ve got your attention…” I feel that a church has really lost something when it has to resort to sophomoric marketing approaches to talk about issues that have real impact in people’s lives.
Secondly, the church that uses this approach gives me no confidence that they’re going to be able to talk about this topic in a knowledgeable, meaningful or even mature way. “America’s Dirty Little Secret” happens to destroy countless lives, families and churches. Lose the euphemism and give it a more meaningful title (i.e. what God says about sex). It lacks “pop” but at least the topic and the terms of the discussion are both on the table.
This brings up some good discussion and I think we need to look at our motives first. Are we trying to be edgy just for the sake of generating press? Are we using sex as some cheap marketing ploy in the same way a shoe company uses a sexy model to sell shoes?
I really don’t think the Porn Sunday or LifeChurch.tv’s “Satan’s Sex Ed” does that. I think they address some very real issues head on. Sure, they market it creatively but I don’t think they exploit sexuality in doing so.
There is definitely a danger in trying to play copycat and hoping to generate cheap “buzz.” We need to first and foremost examine our motives and follow God’s leading.
Brad Ruggles
http://www.bradruggles.com
I like shock value and buzz and all that good stuff, but I think we underestimate people sometimes when we design marketing pieces that copy a controversial style.
I was a pretty aggressive atheist for eight years, and this kind of stuff usually put a bad taste in my mouth. People that get these kinds of mailers (or see the billboards or microsites or whatever) know what the Church thinks about porn. They know, if they go to “Porn Sunday,” exactly what they’re going to hear.
Which raises the question about whether or not the Church even needs to invite outsiders to Porn Sunday. The idea is to confront sin in the Church, right? We don’t invite people out for a special Sunday to hear about how their other additions or bondages are destructive - why porn? Is it just to make controversial marketing pieces and prove to the world that we’re not Ned Flanders?
Hi guys, I am the Communications Director for Grace Community Church, one of many churches using culturally familiar art for marketing purposes and the specific church that used the above campaign.
A panel of campus pastors, counselors, plus varied staff (men & women alike) at Grace decided to teach on the negative effects of pornography. After much research we came to realize that porn was much more pervasive than we knew.
Assumptions can easily be made that we do not teach on other bondages (we do, we just held a conference on Shame) or that we used cheap graphical buzz to attract attention. But what matters most is life change in Jesus Christ. Many men & some women signed up for our program to counsel through freedom from a dirty little secret. And many admitted an addiction through response cards at this Sunday service and requested prayer.
To back up our efforts, the University of Texas at Tyler’s Psych dept chair was interviewed by our ABC affiliate and was thrilled that we broached a subject usually swept under the rug. Even the local religion editor praised our efforts to expose sin while showing people the path to freedom. This project in the dead center of the Bible belt was well received by a super conservative press and we where not protested at all.
Since art is soo subjective, we had many arguments among our own staff on how to visually communicate this issue. Many in our church where even offended. Talking about sacred cows and hidden sin usually offends. And sometimes using aggressive means to capture an audience can offend (think Jesus eating with drunks and prostitutes).
My own family was even split on this issue. My wife didn’t like our approach to this subject because of what it might provoke in young children.
This project was a doozie. But to quote Paul, “nevertheless, the Gospel is preached.”
While we prayed and struggled whether or not to do this (all our lady staff counselors and lady ministry heads said go for it) the end result was a city aware that porn is destructive and freedom can be obtained through Jesus Christ.
Isn’t that what this is all about?
Awesome, Thank you so much for responding George. I think every church needs to preach about porn, because it’s a HUGE issue. Here at the Plow, we’re trying to figure out how to do it in the best and most God honoring way. Inevitably there will be 100+ churches that borrow/steal the series you’re doing.
We want to boil out the good parts of ideas and designs we see, and figure out as a group how to make them better. You responding and showing your heart in it is great. THANKS GEORGE.
George,
Thanks for commenting. It is a very hard topic to hit, and I would like to thank your church for hitting it head on. I guess I am one of the people that is split on this issue, but I can see that your heart was right in it. I need to check my own heart and make sure I do not design only for shock, but always for God’s glory. I pray that God uses you and your church to help free men and women from pornography through His grace.
Thanks again for checking this out. I will try not to pick on you for at least a month.
OK, now to the other issue at hand. How can we address porn, money, alcohol abuse, homosexuality, racism and other controversial topics in other ways. Lets get creative here.