Commercialising Christianity?

I was browsing through MPH bookstore and found a wide range of publications from a pastor in Singapore. Initially, when I first glanced at the cover, I thought it is one of those ‘How to be a millionaire by working in your pajamas’ kind of motivation book.

The book claimed the pastor is leading a church with 15,000 members. That’s a huge church in terms of people attending it. So, I check out the rest of his book titles and also his CDs because I am intrigue with the glossy covers.

All the books are rather expensive, at RM64+. Still curious to find out what special formula of Christianity this rather good looking pastor has to offer, I flipped through some of the pages. Well, from what I see, the stories he covered are basic daily human lives, very much the kind that we live in. Our trials and tribulations which normally end with ‘and they live happily ever after’ because they found Christ or rather Christ came into their lives.

I won’t be buying it anytime soon because I have a lot of books that I haven’t finished reading. But I guess such books will probably appeal to those who are searching for the Truth. I know that my faith was somehow steered by my extensive readings of Max Lucado and Chicken Soup series before I turn to Christianity.

Having said that…..I have also read some rather freaky books on Christianity whereby the author often encountered Christ. The author claimed that she had been to hell to witness the fire of hell and how people who do not profess Jesus Christ as their saviour will be burnt in hell fire forever. The author also insist that she had seen her own family in the river of fire eventhough they had been ‘good people’ all their lives but did not know Jesus Christ.

I guess Christians come in all kinds and shapes and some countries and races are more superstitious and devout than others. I certainly will not subscribe to that freaky Korean lady because I always want to believe in purgatory where we have a second chance. Where my late parents and other ancestors who are non-believers are given a second chance while we who are on earth are working hard to grant them their ‘visa’. I hate it when authors and Christians tried to frighten others to embrace Christ using fear. The fear of being thrown into hell.

Anyway, I hope Christianity will not become like the new age trend of volumes of fengshui books. You know….reams of nice glossy pages and photos promising you a better future, wealthier life, happier relationship? Good Lord, can you imagine Jesus Christ being put at the level of the laughing buddha or fortune cat? Funny as it sounds, we may end up putting our Lord as an idol if we are blinded with the fervor of spreading Christianity for the sake of gathering the numbers. God wants our faith.