Christian Bookstores

I do not like Christian bookstores, once in a great while there will be an item that I need right away and can't wait to have mailed to me and I'll be forced to enter into one of these dens of iniquity. I always come away feeling depressed.

Maybe there are some out there that are different (The Archives in Pasadena, CA are good folks in my book) but these are some of the reasons that make me feel the way I do:

The Books - Unless your genre of choice is leadership or Christian Living the selection is about as limited as your options at the dry cleaners. Expect to see large amounts of books that have a smiling dork on the cover and are basically his last major sermon series that he's selling to you for $19.99. As for Bibles, the same Bible you can find at Wal-mart miraculously becomes twice as expensive when placed within the sacred halls of these places.

The Music - I heard an interview with Bono from U2 where he said the reason why he never cared for Christian music is that it always came off like the artists were playing it safe and were afraid to talk about things that they were really feeling. I understand what he was saying, I think that Christian music has came a long way in the last ten years but in general most of it comes off musically sub-par in my ears. This leads me to wonder why I am asked to pay $22.99 for it at a Christian Bookstore, when at Best Buy Cds cost $14.99

The T-shirts - These things are just bad. If you own one I'm sorry. I once owned them too, it's never too late to get help.

The Jesus Junk - I was just saying how I needed pot holders with Bible verses on them, or maybe breath mints with crosses on them, or maybe toilet paper with fishes on every sheet.

What it basically comes down to is that these places charge me more because they have to in order stay open because not enough people shop at them. We are expected not to care about paying more because we are Christians supporting Christians. You don't come off very Christian to me though if you charge 20% more for everything you try to sell me. If you can't afford to keep the doors open while being normally priced then maybe you aren't called to run a business.

Anyway I'm off to buy more John the Baptist bug spray.