Jeremy Lott writes about his experience at the 2002 Christian Booksellers Association (CBA) Convention. Some of the wares described sounded familar to this Christian bookstore visitor: Scripture mints and other candy, jewelry, clothing outlets, and of course the books.

Frankly, I detest some aspects of the commercialization bonanza going on in the Christian culture industry, but that’s what it is: a market targeting a certain audience, and in this case it happens to be the evangelical population. Lott sums it up nicely:

The products, good and bad, that dominated the CBA both reflected and validated the subculture that generated the demand for them. The people who read the books, listen to the music, hang the Thomas Kinkade paintings in their homes, and use the other products of this industry are surrounding themselves with artifacts that reflect their values and beliefs, that validate who they are. For such consumers, the Left Behind novels, the evangelical pop music, and all the rest serve as the building blocks of a shared evangelical cultural identity. In brief, evangelicals are using the market to fashion and refashion themselves, and to project the resulting identity to others, in just the way that all consumers do. (emphasis mine)