WWSD

Have you seen these commercials or are they strictly regional? They are for some church or other, presby or some such flavor. I have seen two so far, the first stars a young man with long hair who says something to the effect of "so there's this all mighty being who created the universe and the stars and vortexes (not vorticies ut vortexes) and me and he she it knows everything about everything and everything we do every minute of our lives, and you actually want me to believe that he cares about a pion like me?"
(BTW I couldn't believe they were using Pascals' wager in a damn commercial!)

Then the guy does the psshhhhtt thing and walks his bike towards a door in the background while the words "what if its true" pop on the screen. A voice reads the words and some other such nonsense while your local presby church is plugged.

The other is of a balding middle aged man with a little lunch cooler who goes on about finding softbal games and spiritual support at church. He says at the end "and all this at church?" and gives a "whatever" look while turning towards the same door in the background.
"what if its true" pops up again etc etc...

Now I've seen the LDS commercials and some other such commercials touting the bible, but these are new and I'm beginning to wonder about church attendance.

Is it slipping? Even the Catholic churches round about my part of the universe have signs on thir lawns advertising the times of services. In fact, I recently found an add in the campus newspaper for the local catholic church which said "Sinners Welcome Here!"

So what's going on here?
Are people just not going to church because of some sort of apathy towards thier religion? I wonder if this is not just a case of "yeah I'm an xtian" though the person has never read the bible and has no real inclination to actively practice his/her religion.

Uh oh Jesus, you better do something!

Utnapishtim

I haven't seen any where I live. Maybe it is just a U.S. thing, assuming Hoth is in the States? All I get are the bloody Mormons telling me how to deal with family problems. Waste of air time.
These ads are probably just a christian reaction to what they see as a rise in atheist feeling in the population.

RyanS2

Well, I remember hearing that people would rather watch racing than go to church. I'd say that it's probably due to decreased church attendance, I think there's a gallup poll on atheists.org which shows that people are attending church less. I'd probably say that's also the reason why fundamentalists and "fire and brimstone" preaching is getting so popular now, because they have a greater ability to retain church membership than do more liberal churches. When's Jeffrey Lowder or Richard Carrier going to get air-time for a commercial? Then I'd be interested in watching.

sighhswolf

[QUOTE]Originally posted by WWSD:
<strong>Have you seen these commercials or are they strictly regional? They are for some church or other, presby or some such flavor. I have seen two so far, the first stars a young man with long hair who says something to the effect of "so there's this all mighty being who created the universe and the stars and vortexes (not vorticies ut vortexes) and me and he she it knows everything about everything and everything we do every minute of our lives, and you actually want me to believe that he cares about a pion like me?"
(BTW I couldn't believe they were using Pascals' wager in a damn commercial!)

Then the guy does the psshhhhtt thing and walks his bike towards a door in the background while the words "what if its true" pop on the screen. A voice reads the words and some other such nonsense while your local presby church is plugged.

The other is of a balding middle aged man with a little lunch cooler who goes on about finding softbal games and spiritual support at church. He says at the end "and all this at church?" and gives a "whatever" look while turning towards the same door in the background.
"what if its true" pops up again etc etc...

Now I've seen the LDS commercials and some other such commercials touting the bible, but these are new and I'm beginning to wonder about church attendance.

Is it slipping? Even the Catholic churches round about my part of the universe have signs on thir lawns advertising the times of services. In fact, I recently found an add in the campus newspaper for the local catholic church which said "Sinners Welcome Here!"

So what's going on here?
Are people just not going to church because of some sort of apathy towards thier religion? I wonder if this is not just a case of "yeah I'm an xtian" though the person has never read the bible and has no real inclination to actively practice his/her religion.

Uh oh Jesus, you better do something!</strong>[/QUOTE


WWSD,
I dont think that advertising campaign has anything to do with "faith" or with hawking
god.
We get so involved with the salvation messages that we sometimes forget that organized religion is "BIG BUSINESS" generating billions of dollars of revenue each year.
In that sense, the religious community is no different than Ford Motor company.
It has a product to sell, and it seeks to grab a
portion of your disposable income.
The more sales you make, the more cash you bring in. I am reminded of an interview that Mike Wallace did with Oral Roberts.
When questioned concerning the accumulation of wealth and the lavish building plans, and the "high" lifestyle he enjoyed through his ministry he plainly said I dont apologize for making money, I do it very well and I enjoy the fruits of my labor.
Besides god loves a good businessman.
And I am that.

Wolf

Wolf

Paradisedreams2

I agree with Wolf here. The organized church thing IS BIG business. Get it to "go away" by running for your life! lol! Using scare tatics to get your money but have no real message which is certainly NOT "good news" (as they have called it).

If you don't support it it will go away

I'm looking forward to that day

HelenM

The Christians I know in full-time ministry aren't making masses of money. They do it because they believe God wants them to and it's not especially profitable.

Maybe some Christians I don't know are making masses of money off it.

I'm sure some Christians must make a loss on sponsoring advertising to spread 'the gospel'.

love
Helen

Megatron

Stupid commercials... TV is getting dumber and dumber.

Nohweh

I think you have hit the nail right on the head as usual Wolf

I have no doubt that you are right in what you say Helen
Maybe most of the people that are making a lot of money from Christianity are really closet sceptics/agnostics/atheists. It seems very obvious to me that for many of them, their real god is the dollar.

butswana

I remember seeing that.
All I could do was roll my eyes and let out a pathetic,"what the fuck."

Caustic

I stopped watching years ago.