Sweat Shop Crucifixes
I was in a church book shop today (not the one here at Seabury), and I came across a truly interesting phenomenon. The shop had a nice selection of crucifixes that I was examining, and an ethical problem presented itself.
First, the crosses were on sale, which I might add was why they caught my attention. Perhaps I practice a bargain-based hermeneutic of caveat solicitor (Let the seller beware). But I think there is just something fundamentally wrong about putting Jesus on sale. Talk about cheap grace...
I got to looking further at the one crucifix I was contemplating buying. It said, "Made in China." So, not only are we putting Jesus on sale, we are putting a Jesus-on-the-cross-made-in-a-sweat-shop on sale. I began thinking about what a Messiah who would want such a thing made about him would look like and say. Thanks to my picture editing program, here is what I came up with...
Dies iræ, dies illa
First, the crosses were on sale, which I might add was why they caught my attention. Perhaps I practice a bargain-based hermeneutic of caveat solicitor (Let the seller beware). But I think there is just something fundamentally wrong about putting Jesus on sale. Talk about cheap grace...
I got to looking further at the one crucifix I was contemplating buying. It said, "Made in China." So, not only are we putting Jesus on sale, we are putting a Jesus-on-the-cross-made-in-a-sweat-shop on sale. I began thinking about what a Messiah who would want such a thing made about him would look like and say. Thanks to my picture editing program, here is what I came up with...
Dies iræ, dies illa
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