Christian Bookstores

Bookstores are some of my favorite places on earth. I love to rifle through shelves, looking for bargains on exceptional works of literature. Nevertheless, certain stores depress me, particularly those that sell poorly written books--what I have come to call twaddle. This evening, my family and I stepped into a Christian bookstore. Every time I enter one of these bastions of warm, fuzzy religious feelings, I come away depressed. Why? Because I can't help believing that these stores represent Christ inaccurately to the world. I recently had an intense and fascinating discussion of this issue with several dear friends, and wanted to take the time to summarize my perspective here.

As Christians, we are commanded to be salt and light in the world--to represent God and His love and truth as accurately as is in our power. And I believe that representing Christ intellectually is a part of that. Philippians 4:8 tells us, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." How difficult it is for anything to live up to this criterion! I think it's important to note that the phrase "think about" has been translated "dwell on" or "keep thinking on." It's impossible to think about the perfect every moment of every day, because the world and the people we are to serve and love aren't perfect. Nevertheless, we are clearly called to strive for excellence, and that includes intellectual excellence. After all, we are to love God with all our mind as well as all of our heart and strength.
So the question is, do Christian bookstores help us or hinder us from loving God with all our minds. Do they encourage us to pursue excellence? I believe that many times (obviously, there are exceptions), they do not. This is fairly evident when you consider the products that Christian bookstores advertise the most: popular movies and dime novels with morals tacked on at the end. Sometimes, these books are valuable resources for Christians. Unfortunately, it seems like just as often, they are wastes of time and hype. Lets take a look at a few of the products that I saw last time I walked into my local Christian bookstore: Sarah Palin's new book, diet manuals, a Bible with Thomas Kinkade illustrations (I never found it that warm and fuzzy). The movie section was far larger than the shelves on apologetics, and the thick theology books were back with the dog collars and choir robes (seriously, there were dog collars). Some of the movies in the teen's section had little or nothing to do with the Christian faith.
Now the obvious excuse for this is that the bookstore tries to minister to the Christian community and our culture where they are at, instead of being unapproachable. This is a very important contention, and I'd like to take time to look at both halves seperately.
First, the Christian community: you may be asking yourself, "Who is this girl to judge brothers and sisters in Christ who might be benefited by a Christian diet manual, or by one of the fifty million Christian romance novels for sale at the local store?" Let me say right now that I'm as imperfect as anyone else, and I recognize the value of intellectually accessible Christian entertainment. But if all we fill our time with is entertainment, we're missing our calling. Essentially, what I'm saying is let's not settle for anything. Everyone is at a different level intellectually--we're not all called to be PhDs. All of us are called to stretch ourselves--to strive towards God's best for us. When I was eleven or twelve, I loved to read mindless horse novels. I did not love to read classics. Much to my chagrin, my parents started forcing me to read classics and limiting the number of horse novels I could read. I kicked and screamed through the process, but it worked. I'm no heavyweight intellectual or philosopher, but I can tell you that I haven't read a mindless horse novel in six years, and I don't miss them--I don't even find them entertaining any more. The point is, I don't care how brilliant you are or stupid you feel, we are all called to grow. So yes, buy Love Comes Softly, if that is what gives you pleasure. But spend some time reading Mere Christianity too. And if C.S. Lewis is easy, then try St Augustine. Christian book stores should support that growth--not douse it by desperately trying to sell the mediocre. I know this is a problem of supply and demand, and I'll get to that later.
Next, the idea that Christian bookstores and mediocre Christian products can minister to the culture as a whole. I concede that God can use bad books and unoriginal songs to save people. The salvation is a beautiful miracle. The bad books and unoriginal songs are still failures, because they don't represent Christ well. Ask a non-Christian what they think of Christian bookstores. Odds are that if they have ever been in one, they don't have much good to say. Why should they, when they walk in and see citchy ceramic figurines and Dance Praise--you know, the CCM version of DDR? Christian bookstores don't minister to the non-Christian community.
However, the real issue is the products themselves--the ones that end up in libraries and in Barnes and Noble and might be picked up by an unsuspecting atheist--or that one song that sounds exactly like a secular band, but has a great message. Maybe the work isn't of admirable quality, but it does its job, right? It could make a big difference in someone's life. My response to this is very simple: we can do better.
Lets talk about this issue of working within a genre, because I think here we come to the heart of what I want to say. I have no problem with Christian artists working within a particular genre, as long as they can do excellent work within that genre. I'm not trying to assert the superiority of particular genres over others. I don't have a problem with Contemporary Christian Music--artists like Casting Crowns or Sara Groves put their best effort into creating powerful music that glorifies God, and I love that. If someone is a gifted rock musician, I wouldn't tell them not to play rock. Instead, they should play the very best rock music that they can. My problem with "Christian" romance novels is not the fact that they are romance novels. Rather, I object to the fact that the label "Christian" justifies the existence of mediocre romance novels. In essence, I wish the Christian community would be more concerned with promoting works that are excellent both in their content and their form than it is with the moral tacked on at the end. I don't think that people should only read books written before 1903, and I have no problem with comedies.
My desire comes down to this: that if a Christian bookstore wants to promote edifying romance novels, it will promote the best edifying romance novels. Instead of selling Janette Oake's (random example) books because she professes to be a Christian, sell them because (or if) they are excellent stories. If people want mystery novels, sell the best ones--why is Dorothy L. Sayers nowhere on the shelves of my local Christian bookshop? Because she doesn't stick a Bible verse in her dedication page? If we're going to sell dieting books in a Christian bookstore, sell quality diet books--if there are such things! I'm not asking for intellectually pretentious wares. Great books can be easy and fun to read. What I envision is the Christian community pursuing the best in every genre, so that we give people who want to be entertained clean entertainment, but we also give them a product that glorifies God by its very existence, because it is excellent and true and noble and praiseworthy.
As a side note, I would ask the question, should Christian bookstores only sell the work of people who profess to be Christian, or should they sell any work that reflects Biblical truth?
So, how do we effect any change on this issue? Obviously, Christian bookstores are only a symptom of the state of the Christian community. We have become followers. During the Renaissance and Reformation, Christians led the culture because individuals sought with all their might to glorify God by pursuing truth and excellence. Christian musicians--men like Johann Sebastien Bach--composed songs of never-before-seen beauty and complexity for the glory of God alone (Bach wrote that on all of his music). Their work defined the trends in music. Intellectuals like Sir Isaac Newton pursued science so that they could better understand the mind of their Creator--this pursuit earned Newton the title, "the Father of Modern Science." These believers developed their talents because they wished to achieve excellence and thereby glorify their Lord. And Christianity shaped the culture. Today, we've lost that.
To achieve that level of influence and intellectual integrity requires change both on the supply and the demand side of the "Christian industry" (I wish I could think of a better term). Essentially, the Christian community as a whole needs to commit itself to serving God by pursuing excellence in every area of our lives, and this includes our entertainment. Christian bookstores do not create the problem--they hold a mirror up to it. Because we individually do not pursue the true, pure, lovely, right, noble, praiseworthy, and excellent, the bookstores that serve us are havens of mediocrity. When we as consumers, and we as artists, and we as workers in every other vocation--because ultimately this applies to the calling on all of our lives, not just those of us involved in the arts and humanities--choose to stretch ourselves and seek excellence to the best of our ability wherever we are at, we will see change. When we seek the glory of our Creator in work and entertainment, in our very thinking, God will transform our community and people around us will be changed in ways none of us can imagine right now.
So what are we left with? Well, two things. First, you're probably thinking, "Sarah, you're very well-meaning, but that's absolutely impossible to achieve, and you're being too hard on people." Well, in all honesty, what I envision is utterly idealistic. And perhaps impossible to achieve. But our God is the God of the impossible, isn't He? When it comes down to it, I don't care how difficult that is--and I know it's difficult. Oftentimes, my flesh doesn't want to pursue the best God has. But my soul wants to--my spirit finds joy in the fact that our God is a God of excellence--that we can glorify Him with our minds and serve Him with our intellects. I want to live for that. And how much more beautiful would it be if the body of Christ sought that in unity?
Secondly, God summarized all of this better than I ever could, of course. His Word says it very simply: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." -Colossians 3:23