MARKETING SPIRITUALITY

Spirituality is commonly conceived as a matter of choosing the form that feels right for us. All of the spirituality marketers understand that the consumer wants to remain in charge and have marketed their products with this in mind, even the Voodoo priestess Alourdes.

Anthropologist Karen Brown, who written about her full-body dive into Voodoo, helps us to understand the attractiveness of Voodoo and other New Age spiritualities:

·       No Haitian — certainly not Alourdes [the Voodoo priestess] — has ever asked me if I “believe” in Voodoo or if I have set aside the religious commitments and understandings that come from my childhood and culture. Alourdes’s approach is, instead, pragmatic: “You just got to try. See if it works for you.” The choice of relinquishing my worldview or adopting another in its entirety has therefore never been at issue.” (“Mama Lola: A Voodoo Priestess in Brooklyn!”)

Normally, we want to maintain our autonomy to choose what gives us what we want. Therefore, for today’s buyer, doctrine is a major turn-off. It tends to feel like coercion for those who insist on being the “captain of their own ship.”

Following Jesus is the antithesis. He taught that God and His Word had to be first in our thinking (Matthew 6:33). Coming to Jesus was a matter of surrendering all, even our patterns of voting and speaking:

·       So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:33)

This is not an attractive message. Understandably, Jesus taught that coming to Him had to be miraculous:

·       “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:65)

What Jesus had been teaching was not humanly appealing. Even though He performed many miracles to validate His teachings, truth alone failed to be attractive enough for people to lay aside their own interests.

Consequently, the Christian faith has become less marketable. Even many who remain adjust the Faith to meet their lifestyle and then wonder why it is not working for them.