This story from the denverpost.com has me conflicted. In Sip your way to salvation with Spiritual Water?, we learn that a pair of Florida entrepreneurs have started selling bottled water with a picture of Jesus (and St. Michael and mother Mary) and a prayer on the bottle. There are a number of varieties, including "power" and "strength", and each sells for $2.00 per bottle.
"Church is on Sundays, but people need something to help them through the week," says Taieb, 33 and CEO of the company. "The whole idea is for people to feel better and to know God is with them," he says.
I'm not sure that's the whole idea. I'm sure that money is a part of the idea somewhere. And, in fact, my first thought was that money was, itself, the whole idea, particularly when I read the quote from one of the distributors, "You drink it, and you just feel like you are in church." That seems a bit much to me, particularly when we already have so many things that people substitute for church life these days. You can only get so much instruction and fellowship from a plastic bottle.
Yet here is a product that wears its faith on its label. If someone looks at the picture and reads the prayer and feels closer to the Holy Spirit then who am I to question that? In America we are so constantly distracted by the worldly that having a few bottles with the image of the Christ on them cannot be that bad, right? I honestly don't know. Using the image of Jesus to sell more and more products seems a taboo that once broken (it may already have been broken) may have far reaching implications. Are there products you wouldn't slap a picture of Jesus and a prayer on if you thought it would make you a buck? I am conflicted.
"Church is on Sundays, but people need something to help them through the week," says Taieb, 33 and CEO of the company. "The whole idea is for people to feel better and to know God is with them," he says.
I'm not sure that's the whole idea. I'm sure that money is a part of the idea somewhere. And, in fact, my first thought was that money was, itself, the whole idea, particularly when I read the quote from one of the distributors, "You drink it, and you just feel like you are in church." That seems a bit much to me, particularly when we already have so many things that people substitute for church life these days. You can only get so much instruction and fellowship from a plastic bottle.
Yet here is a product that wears its faith on its label. If someone looks at the picture and reads the prayer and feels closer to the Holy Spirit then who am I to question that? In America we are so constantly distracted by the worldly that having a few bottles with the image of the Christ on them cannot be that bad, right? I honestly don't know. Using the image of Jesus to sell more and more products seems a taboo that once broken (it may already have been broken) may have far reaching implications. Are there products you wouldn't slap a picture of Jesus and a prayer on if you thought it would make you a buck? I am conflicted.
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