Not the Real Thing

 

Free over the air television in the United States is advertiser supported.

During the United States NCAA National Basketball Tournament (we call it “March Madness”), the television viewership numbers are enormous. As a result, companies pay large sums of money to run 30 second commercials for their products during the broadcasts. The link below is one of the commercials: for AT&T, American Telephone and Telegraph.

At every game during the tournament, vendors gather to sell memorabilia relating to the participating college teams: hats, caps, shirts, jerseys, sweatsuits, flags, banners, magazines, figurines, toys, and other doodads. Doodads, that is a good slang word meaning little ephemeral items that your children will insist that they must have but which they will discard, break, or lose as soon as they get home. In the South, we also call them doohickeys or whatchamacallits. Merriam-Webster https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/doodad defines doodad as “an often small article whose common name is unknown or forgotten: gadget.”

In the commercial in the link below, the vendor is obviously trying to avoid the cost of paying royalty licensing fees to the universities. He is selling counterfeit items. His main problem is that his counterfeits are glaringly obvious. The university names are spelled incorrectly, or the colors on the items are not the colors associated with the university. His counterfeits include: Unsee instead of UNC (The University of North Carolina), Gonzaza instead of Gonzaga University, Markett instead of Marquette University, Oregano instead of The University of Oregon, and Dook instead of Duke University.   

Not all counterfeits are as obvious as these and, sadly, they also occur in spiritual matters. There are spiritual counterfeits which have arisen from well-intentioned ignorance and stupidity, or from peculiar mis-readings of the biblical texts, or from secular concerns being forced into the scriptural interpretation (eisegesis).

            Eisegesis is reading a pre-held belief or agenda into the scriptural text rather than determining doctrine from the text outwards (exegesis). Theologically orthodox and conservative theologians reject this since it imposes ideas on the scriptures, rather than seeking to understand their original meaning. Eisegesis is usually well-intentioned.

            There are also more sinister counterfeits, sometimes resulting in enormous profits for the perpetrators. Some want to tap in to the eager Christian market without any actual personal input, no real study, no real discipline, no real cost to themselves. This is a form of the sin of simony. The results can be very doctrinally suspect and doctrine does matter.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usN32eMIc6k

            or, https://www.ispot.tv/ad/TGQy/at-and-t-inc-march-madness-jersey

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What They Think of Us: Using an Image of Jesus in Secular Advertising

Some people see nothing wrong with using the image of Jesus in a commercial advertisement.  This politically charged image concerns the often close ties between the United States and Brazil.  The ties at times have been so close that they are “in bed together.”

This is an advertisement image for an airline.  Apparently, the airline has stated that the advertisement is a fake.

Strip for Jesus

A Birmingham, Alabama (USA) church has performed a very "in your face" act directed at a men's striptease club.  The Rock Church placed an advertising billboard directly over the billboard for the Palace Gentleman's Club.  The church message seems to have greatly reduced attendance at the strip club.  I personally see nothing wrong with this.

The world seems to think that it is acceptable for men to objectify and visually and mentally rape women.  The church billboard presents the Christian male alternative, a very manly, holy, and powerful Christianity.

This link contains explicit material about "striptease."  View it at your own discretion.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation Advertisement

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) placed a $26.690 full-page advertisement in the 1 June 2012 edition of the USA Today newspaper.  The advertisement calls for Catholics to “join those of us who put humanity above dogma.”  The issue which has stirred up the FFRF is the Catholic Church’s opposition to being forced to pay for contraception, sterilization, and abortion coverage in its employee insurance plans.  The FFRF calls this “irrational opposition,” and “incense-fogged ritual.”

I believe that there is a hidden, hate-based agenda.  What the FFRF seems to be really calling for is for Catholics to abandon Christianity, not just the Catholic Church.  And their 18,000 members are willing to spend $26,000 to further their agenda.

Read about this here and here.   

Marketing Ministries

Marketing Ministries  is a full service Christian advertising agency which targets churches, Christian ministries, and businesses as customers.  They offer graphic design (logos, signs, posters, banners, etc), web design and support, audio and video production, print services (brochures and catalogs), advertising services, social media strategies, and business consulting.

Teddy Bear Valentines

There were at least fourteen Christian martyrs named Valentine.  Any or all of them would be dismayed at some of the more crass things which have developed around the holiday named St. Valentine’s Day.

An example is the television commercial posted below.  It is considered by many to be quite cute and witty.  To a Christian eye it is full of phallic symbols, sexually suggestive poses, and a not so subtle pushing of the giant teddy bear’s groin towards a woman. The spoken text is just as suggestive.  The main impression of commenters on You Tube is that it is insulting to women.

Let’s be clear.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Teddy Bears, even giant ones.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with trying to impress your girlfriend or wife.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the current St. Valentine’s Day, a day dedicated to celebrating romance.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with marital sexuality.  It is a gift from God.

What is offensive about this commercial is its leering, manipulative attitude.  Instead of romance, it is promoting a “game” where you win by getting what you want. 

(Some videos will not play properly when you click on the triangle.  Instead,  click on the title line in the picture and the video will begin .  When the video is completed, close the You Tube pop-up window to return to this blog.)

AshleyMadison.com

"Life is short.  Have an affair."  That is the motto of the online dating service, AshleyMadison.com.

In the 15 December - 22 December, 2011 issue of Birmingham Weekly, a local community weekly newspaper, there is a half-page advertisement for AshleyMadison.com which says "The average escort will have sex with 7 men today ... the average woman will have sex with seven men in her lifetime.  92% of our men hook-up with real, c lean women within 24 hours.  Join now for a free trial."

This website is targeted at married men and is a direct assault on marriage and monogamy.  It advocates "casual encounters."  There is also a side website for "married men looking for something hot and discreet with other men."

Ashley Madison is not an actual person, but is a name coined from two common female personal names.  The site is entirely commercial.  The site claims over 10,000,000 members with about 700,000 unique vistors per month.

It was unusual to see the advertisement in the local newspaper since many magazines, newspapers, television networks, etc. refuse to accept the company's controversial advertising.

Read tomorrow's post about a Christian alternative to this vile company.

Seventy-Seven Years As a Church Organist!

After seventy-seven years of faithful service, Lillian Bubsby Greene is retiring as the pianist for the St. Louis Missionary Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama (USA).  She started at the age of twelve.

She calls her special musical ability a gift from God.  "I can hear it, I can play it.  I don't have to have music. ... If I know the song, the Lord just puts it in me."

The St. Louis Church was built in 1872.

Because the link goes to a commercial site, there is a brief advertisement before the video about Mrs. Greene begins.

"...the Devil will get you!"

Just north of Prattville, Alabama (USA) on Interstate Highway 65 is a roadside billboard on which there is painted a gleefully leering red-skinned devil with a pitchfork. On the billboard, is the inscription in bright red, “Go to Church or the Devil will get you!” 

There he stands, with a long pointed tail and little horns on his head.  Just like the little devil who stood on Little Lulu’s shoulder in the classic cartoon, A Bout with a Trout (1947). A little white-robed angel with a halo stood on her other shoulder as Lulu struggled with whether to be good or to skip school and go fishing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqzEWzorf5A

I used to pass by this sign without any serious thought, but, this last weekend, it really bothered me.  I know that the people who put up the sign were well-meaning and devoted Christians and I share their concern.  The primary and overriding task of the Church is evangelism. (Matthew 28:19)

There are several things I see as troubling about the billboard.

1.                     The devil on the sign is cartoonish and stereotypical.  Non-believers will laugh at the supposedly “stupid” Christians rather than be frightened by the Devil whose existence they deny. 

2.                     If we are serious about challenging the world’s evil system and wish to draw others to Christ, we must present arguments which are intellectually unchallengeable, not trite and stereotypical ones which will be dismissed as silly by unbelievers.

3.                     As presented, the message seems to state that        

church attendance will save someone.  Then why does every honest pastor know that, among the people in their churches, some, perhaps many, are totally lost? “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matthew 7:23 (The full passage is Matthew 7:15-28)

4.                     The billboard's message implies that an action, church attendance, is important in our salvation.  We are told not to forsake assembling ourselves together (Hebrews 10:25) but we are also told that observance of the law and assembling on a particular day will not save us; we are saved by our relationship with Jesus Christ.  (Galatians 2:16, Romans 14:4-8.)  There is nothing which we can do to save ourselves, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast.”  Ephesians 2:8-9

The person(s) who placed the devil billboard on the side of the highway had only the best intentions and, if only one person was moved by the billboard to accept Jesus as Lord, there was rejoicing in Heaven (Luke 15:10).  We must, however, be careful about the unintentional messages we are sending by our statements and actions to be sure that the received message is the biblical one we intended to send.

Go Ahead! Poke Me!

The other day I saw a rather corpulent young man wearing a tee shirt bearing the image of the Pillsbury Doughboy and the slogan, "Go Ahead!  Poke Me!"  The Doughboy is an advertising icon for the Pillsbury Company, a company which sells pastries, rolls, bread, etc.  In commercials featuring him, a finger pokes him in his round belly and he giggles.

That's not what the young man I saw had in mind.  From the scowl on his face it was obvious that he was daring someone, anyone, to say something about his size.   He looked as if he were carrying around a cloud of hostility, a  pervasive dark attitude, simmering belligerence.

The Bible doesn't deny the emotion of anger, Jesus became angry; His anger was Holy and justified.  The Bible does have something to say about unreasoning generalized bile and about true ill-wishing directed at another person.

"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." Matthew 5:21-22.


.................................................................
Concerning "Raca ," the word means "empty head," something like "idiot" or "stupid."

Apologetics

"I apologize."  We often say this when we realize that we have committed an offense, hurt someone's feelings, or sometimes, we say it, more sorry for being caught than for what we did.  This is a modern usage but it has little to do with the ancient meaning of the word.  The connection is that both senses of the word carry the idea of offering a defense,


"Apology" comes from the Greek word απολογία, ("speaking in defense").  The root words are "logos" ("λόγος"; "word," "reason") and "apo" (απο) a prefix which carries the idea of "separation from" and "of the place where something originates."  So, apologetics means reasoning from the origins of an idea.  Aπολογία was a legal term. The prosecution delivered the kategoria (κατηγορία), and the defendant replied with an apologia (απολογία), a formal legal response to a charge.  The intent was to reply to and to refute the charges.  The modern discipline of Christian Apologetics comes from this background.  Other religions also have their apologists .

There are multitudes of books available in the field of Christian Apologetics.  Two of my personal favorites are Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis, and Simply Christian. Why Christianity Makes Sense, by N.T. Wright.  Both men exhibit intellects of the first order. Bishop Wright comes across like a beloved pastor, or like your grandfather.  Lewis was an academic (he occupied the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University) and he might have come across to others as a little bit cranky.  Personally, I think he's hilarious with his ultra-dry British humor.  I'll talk about both of these books at a later time.


A modern apologetics group, The Fixed Point Foundation, attempted to place an advertisement during the recent National Football League Super Bowl but were rejected because the advertisement was "offensive."  This is just the sort of charge which Christian Apologetics attempts to refute.
  

Super Bowl Advertisement Rejected for "Religious Content"

Watch this You Tube clip.  An Alabama based group,  Fixed-Point,org, attempted to place this as a national advertisement during the recent broadcast of Super Bowl XLV.  They intend to try again to place the advertisement in 2012. As it now stands, they may have to to as they did this year and place the piece with local television stations.  This year the ad appeared in Alabama and Washington, DC.

The advertisement is not asking you to buy anything or to send any money to the organization.  The Fox Television Network rejected the advertisement as "offensive" because of its "religious content."  Obviously, the network feared that non-Christians might take offense at the simple, non-threatening presentation. We truly live in a wimpy, whiney world!

In truth, this borders on censorship of thought and free expression.  Sexual innuendos and vulgarities are permissible in television broadcasts, but anything of a religious nature is rejected.  The attitude is that religion is outdated, old-fashioned, divisive, offensive, closed-minded, and any number of other negative stereotypes.

By rejecting this advertisement, Fox placed it among a list of other advertisements which have been rejected, some very deservingly.


Below is a message from Fixed-Point,org, filmed at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama.

Book Comment: Stuff Christians Like

Stuff Christians Like, by advertising copywriter Jonathan Acuff, is an inside job. It really should be titled Stuff That Makes Christians Laugh. You will chuckle, and occasionally guffaw, at every page.

The book, presented as a collection of short one or two page essays is genuinely hilarious. Each essay starts out silly, then you realize a touch of sarcasm has shown up, and then you feel the knife blade slip between your ribs when you realize that he's talking about you.

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An update: ALL MONETIZATIONS AND ADVERTISEMENTS HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THIS BLOG.

Posted 22 March 2010: Several days ago I received an e-mail from a young woman who said she had checked out my blog and had clicked on all my advertisements. What she was wanting was for me to go to her blog and click on her ads. She is one of the bloggers desperately wanting to make money from their blogs. These people would click on ads for Osama bin Laden Cola.

The way the ad clicks work is that any blog which carries ads receives something like one-tenth of one cent per click while Google Adsense also receives revenue from the click and from selling the ad. There are hundreds of thousands of individual blogs so a few clicks on a few thousand blogs adds up to revenue for Google.

I consider my blog to be a ministry to other Christians and interested non-believers and hope to eventually grow my readership up to a much larger level than it currently has received. I harbor no delusions of making any money from it. I allow the ads to be displayed because I can't afford to fund a website on my own. If I can help Google/Blogger to give it to me for free, I'm fine with the ads.

So far the advertisements have followed the promised guidelines. Ad products are chosen based on key words which the Google computers detect in the text of the posts. This has, for the most part, worked well as long as I am careful. Once I made a post about chastity and the next day an advertisement for chastity belts came up! The modern use for chastity belts is primarily in the Goth subculture and in "alternative se_uality." (The _ is so I don't trigger an unwanted ad with this post!)

If you do find one of the advertisements interesting, feel free to click on it. As far as I know they are all legitimate.