Commodifying Religion

 As I sat on the floor in the religion section of Books A Million, one thing became very apparent: God is a moneymaker.

What I had anticipated to be a quick jaunt into the bookstore to purchase my first (yes, first) Bible turned out to be an exhausting and enlightening 45 minute process.

As my friend Mark and I embarked on this journey, only one question came to mind: "Whatever happened to the ‘just a Bible' Bible?"

There were women's Bibles, study Bibles, teen Bibles, large print Bibles, kids' Bibles, NIV, ESV, RKJ, gift Bibles, slimline Bibles…the list goes on and on.

Really? Should shopping for the book that contains the Word of God make my brain explode?

I thought the answer was "no," but there we were, toiling over which translation to buy and what version would facilitate my reading of it the best.

Frankly, I did not care about maps, ribbon bookmarks or words of inspiration from leading Biblical scholars.

I wanted the New Testament and the Old Testament.

The thing that bothered me the most, though, was not the various presentations of the text.  I can understand how teens would want to carry around a cool-looking book rather than a thick, ugly, brown copy.

And kids will probably appreciate the picture-book form.

And women probably like having a lovely pink one with a floral design.

I get it.  Marketability.  But sadly, it comes across not just as a way to "market" God and religion to different groups of people; it becomes a way to make money off of them.

In fact, I did not want an ugly, brown copy of the Bible.  I am the type of person who color coordinates her laptop accessories.

Of course I wanted a pretty copy.

But when those pretty copies were upwards of $49.95, I had to wonder if there wasn't something wrong with that picture.

I'm not saying the Holy Bible isn't worth 50 bucks.  I'm saying…shouldn't access to the Bible, God, and religion—as wonderful and powerful as people claim it to be—at least be fairly priced?

But that wasn't even the final straw.

No, it was the aptly-titled "Bible Essentials" that really made me think.

Sure, some of the covers are cool—and probably really handy if you pack your Bible everywhere you go and you aren't one of us nerds who prefers books that look read to perfectly pristine.

It was the special, Bible highlighters that got me.

Before you hate: I get it.  The pages are really thin and almost any ink is going to bleed through.  And these essential highlighters won't.

But let's reflect on the word "essential," meaning "absolutely necessary, indispensably requisite" according to the Oxford English Dictionary online.

Because those special highlighters are "absolutely necessary" to my ability to read the Bible…

And that's where commodification comes in.  The truth is none of those things are "necessary" or "essential."  Not even a pretty cover is "necessary."  Or a map or a ribbon bookmark.

Besides, religion isn't about owning a special Bible; it's about knowing God.

And I don't think God minds if my purple ink pen bleeds through the pages from time to time.