Wearing your faith gets bolder, edgier
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BY KATHRYN CATES MOORE / Lincoln Journal Star
Wearing your faith isn’t new, but it certainly is becoming more popular as the mass marketing of Christianity gets bolder and more edgy than ever before.
That means T-shirts with religious messages are no longer just white cotton with black lettering and stashed in the back of the closet.
Christian products are taking a page from successful marketing and popular slogans.
Here are a few examples of what $16 will buy you:
“Abreadcrumb & Fish”
“Jesus Christ (in a Pepsi script on a bottle top) Eternally Refreshing, Never Thirst Again”
“A Blood Donor Save My Life, Matthew 26:28”
Kerusso, a company in Arkansas, makes T-shirts and all kinds of Christian apparel. The company motto on the price tag says it all: “Change your shirt — Change the world.”
Kerusso has been marketing T-shirts with religious slogans since the 1980s, according to a story in the Christian Science Monitor. But now the messages are worn by more mainstream Christians.
And it’s not just T-shirts. Jewelry and ball caps are turning up in stores that cater to all faiths. Vendors sell them at Christian rock festival. And they disappear as quickly as the loaves of bread and fish that Jesus used to feed the masses.
Web sites, bookstores and even mass retailers such as Wal-mart and Target offer faith-based merchandise.
Meanwhile, Trinity Cosmetics calls itself a “divinely inspired beauty collection that is embedded with the teachings of the Christian faith.”
The line includes Blessed Balm Lip Revival Treatment for $10 and Sole Savor Foot Revival Treatment for $16.50. Each product features inspiring passages and proverbs from the Bible.
Amazon.com has a selection of more than 11,000 items in its “religious jewelry specialty store.”
Because T-shirts with religious slogans are mostly non-denominational, this is not the typical “branding” of a product in a way advertising formally works, said Loy Watley, a Nebraska Wesleyan University marketing professor. Instead, it is more of a “self-identification,” he said.
“Wearing a T-shirt voluntarily enhances the credibility of the belief or event,” Watley said.
The “advertising” part of it is more informal — word of mouth to spread an idea or get attention, he said. “This is also geared around self-expression.”
When 150,000 teens show up in Sioux Falls, S.D., for the annual LifeLight Christian Music Festival, many of them go home with inspirational tunes and T-shirts.
Tami Weissert, vice president of media and communications for Back to the Bible, noticed more and more vendors at these festivals were selling shirts and other kinds of memorabilia with a message.
And the kids were buying them.
The shirts were mostly non-denominational, marking the event and proclaiming a belief at the same time.
As Back to the Bible began to focus on youth recently, including opening Edge64, the teen gathering place that books faith-based bands on weekends, Weissert saw a trend in the making.
“Bands usually sell the T-shirts, either with their names or scripture messages,” she said.
She sees the wearing apparel as a way teens can communicate to each other without saying a word. The message they share: “I’m not ashamed of my beliefs,” she said.
Weissert wears similar T-shirts on weekends and finds an element of comfort when she sees someone else in one. “I know I’m not the only one,” she said.
So when Back to the Bible launched its new Web site, www.notreligion.com, Weissert wasn’t surprised when Web site visitors began asking about T-shirt availability.
Back to the Bible’s $15 T-shirt message is two-sided. On the front it reads, “It’s not about religion.” On the back, “It is about a relationship.”
The message is intended to start a conversation, Weissert said, if the wearer wants to go in that direction.
Of course, T-shirts, religious or not, have carried messages of all kinds over the years. Some more acceptable than others.
“In any venture, there are always some that cross the line,” Weissert said. The message “Jesus is my homeboy” may not appeal to everyone, she said.
Still, Weissert said, they see a wide variety of T-shirts at Edge64, but “we are not monitoring clothes.”
But then, a recent legal spat in Georgia has made some people wonder if monitoring T-shirts may be the next opening for harassment suits.
A Christian student at Georgia Tech wanted the option of publicizing her views — she is opposed to the campus gay-right group and “a constant barrage of homosexuality,” according to her lawsuit.
It makes you wonder: WWJW — What Would Jesus Wear? The Bible makes little mention of his clothing, and most artistic interpretations describe him in modest robes, usually white, sometimes with red fabric draped over the robes.
No T-shirts were mentioned.
Reach Kathryn Cates Moore at 473-7214 or kmoore@journalstar.com.
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