Until last week I had no idea that there existed video games explicitly designed for a Christian audience, as you mention in your blog, why now? Could it be because of the games like Call of Duty, that are first person shooter games that there seems to have an obligation to produce Christians games that instill Christian moral values. As you mention it is the commodification of Christianity and it stipulates the question of agency that was postulated by Douglas E Cowan. That one cannot have an avatar of Jesus because of the complex and personal relationship one feels toward their avatar, a feeling that is allows one to become that avatar while they play. This cannot happen. Going back to the question of the commodification of Christianity. Although a little unrelated to video games, is the comodification of Christianity in fashion, more particularly of the “Saint Bracelets” that came out a couple years ago.
I had first seen these bracelets in El Salvador a few years before, but perhaps I was blind, but from one day to the next it felt that everyone on the Saint Michael’s Campus and Victoria campus, and outside of school started wearing them, men and women. They came in different shades of wood, with different saints on them. People I knew who were not Christian at all began wearing them, saying they were “trendy.” I’m not sure how trendy they are today, but I assume they are still around. This emphasizes the question, since when did Saint become trendy? Do you have to be Christian to wear it, clearly you don't. The image of saints no longer resonate with the same efficacy as before. It no longer becomes a statement that your Christian, but that your in the know how of what is "in" and what is "not." I never would have thought that saints could be in or out, could this over commodification render certain iconic images like Jesus and Saints as obsolete? I don't think so, they still have their inherent value that those of faith place upon them. The role of fashion has within Religion, has always been present, however today the role the of fashion has played a different role in the commodification of Religion, from T-Shirts, to run way high fashion couture that push the boundaries and experiment with the limits of those of faith and of society with the integration and religious symbolism in their designs.
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| Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture s/s 2007 |
For those of you who don’t follow the fashion world, on a more local level, Forever 21 also produced T-Shirts that had "believe"on them and even at the bottom of their bag there is John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
A quote that has been used as we saw in Sports. This comodification of Christianity in fashion ask the questions can one wear these clothes even if they do not believe just because it is popular and trendy and goes oh so cute with those red pumps?
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