The Religious Issue
Vol. 5 Issue 1

The Religious-Commercial Complex
by Bruce Kramer

These are very complicated times we live in. Ours is a time where we are seeing the boundaries that we generally look at to provide the structure of our lives becoming blurred , distorted or even dissolved.

Military history talks about something called the military-industrial complex. Its definition is rather self-explanatory, the cooperation of the military and industrial sectors of a country in order to help produce weapons or advance R&D while giving the private industrial sector what they need: money. Mid 1940s America serves as an excellent example of this pairing for it shows it working and working well. The jobs and money generated by privately owned companies that quickly converted their facilities to accommodate the now existing demand for military equipment pulled the country out of the Great Depression and catapulted it to the front of the economic world. The power American received as a result of the success in WWII thanks to the military-industrial complex has been held for decades and only recently came into question with Japan's academic ascension. Nothing like a good war to help the economy. But the fueling of the engine of economic success through the war visions of a country is not the point of this essay. My point is that the military-industrial complex works and its concept should be applied elsewhere to increase the efficiency of other facets of society.

Organized religion has lost a step or two over the past few hundred years and is in need of revitalization. Most of the world's Religions have been in existence longer than any of their living followers. But while these religions have remained for centuries, the people have changed immensely. This caused a gap between the audience targeted by the religion and the religion itself. Jonathan Edward's proclamation that "The God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much like one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worth of nothing else but to be cast into the fire," does not cause the same reaction that it did when Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was published in the late 1730s.

Much like the military complex turned to private industrial contracting to increase productivity, so can religion turn to the commercial sector to help bring it back into the mainstream of our culture. Religion would gain more followers through being included into everyday life. And while it would gain exposure through pop culture, advertising, and other means, the commercial industries would gain through the money put forth by these religions to market their products.

The religious-commercial complex. Think of the possibilities uncovered here. The Muslim religion could be work with the world's leading retailer of fast food. And what better name to call these new establishments than MeccaDonalds. Consumers will come to these stores hungry to feed both their bodies and minds. Whether the quality of material entering the mind and soul equals that of the body in a place such as this would have to be left up to the consumer to decide for it is not my place to judge the validity of anyone religion over another. Selections on the menu could be complimented with readings from the Torah, the employees would be dressed in cheap paper replications of authentic nomadic clothing or religious attire complete with paper veils over the faces of the women. The paper mats that the restaurant places on your tray could be used as a prayer mat to kneel on during the ceremonies. The golden arches of commerce combined with the golden purity of knowing that your soul will not end up in eternal torment as long as you stay faithful to Allah!

The Body Shop, a chain of stores specializing in retailing various body lotions and creams, have an ad campaign that shows a heavy-set version of a Barbie doll and a slogan commenting on how the majority of women do not look like the supermodels seen on television or in magazines. But if such is the case, why then do places like Victoria's Secret hire the models they do to model their underwear? The Religious-Commercial complex could combine illuminate a more practical marketing strategy, one that follows the Body Shop's seemingly insightful observation, while bringing an ancient Eastern Religion to the hemisphere that James Monroe's Doctrine told the rest of the world to stay out of. As a model of the Wonderbra, the Buddha would become a nationally recognized pop-culture figure. He's a religious icon that is neither afraid nor ashamed of his girth and he could illustrate how the Wonderbra keeps him firm and perky. And while Victoria's Secret would reap the benefits of increased sales, Buddha would be thrust into mainstream culture along side other pillars of contemporary marketing genius such as Spuds McKenzie, that Taco Bell dog, and the Hamburglar. The potential upside for the religious-commercial complex can also envelop the western religion of Christianity. The combination of an industry that serves as a staple to American culture and Christianity could only result in the slogan "Budweiser's Wiser Bud: Jesus." Such a conjoining would allow Christ and his teachings, something that is not in the homes of many, to the masses by allowing it to ride onto the back of the alcohol industry. Some skeptics and moral purists argue that the partnership of something as pure as religion and something as morally questionable as Religion is not good although truth be known that alcohol is in fact as old if not older than religion.

These are critical times for religion and drastic measures must be made in order to ensure its survival.