NYT: Wearing Their Beliefs on Their Chests (religion as fashion statement)

Wearing Their Beliefs on Their Chests
By RUTH LA FERLA
Published: March 29, 2005


Denise Truscello/Wireimage.com
Ashton Kutcher in a Jesus-themed T-shirt.


....Mr. Blu and Mr. Grapentin are among the legions of the faithful, or the merely fashionable, who are increasingly drawn to the religious themes and imagery - portraits of saints, fragments of scripture - that have migrated in recent months from billboards and bumper stickers to baseball caps, T-shirts, flip-flops and even designer clothing. Such messages are being embraced by a growing number of mostly young people, who are wearing them as a testament of faith or, ironically, as a badge of hipness....

***

There was a time when such symbols were worn discreetly and were purchased mostly at gift shops or Bible stores. Now, emboldened perhaps by celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Paris Hilton, who are photographed brandishing spiritual messages on shirts and caps, aspiring hipsters and fashion groupies as well as the devout are flaunting similar items, which are widely available at mass-market chains and online....

***

Plastic tote bags and tank tops bearing images of Jesus and the saints stock the shelves of drugstore and cosmetics chains like Walgreens. Some items have worked their way up the fashion chain to stores like Atrium, a New York sportswear outlet popular with college students, which offers polo shirts with images from the Sistine Chapel; and Intuition, a Los Angeles boutique that sells rosaries, cabala bracelets and St. Christopher medals as fashion jewelry....

***

Fashions with spiritual messages are just the latest expression of religion as a pop phenomenon, one that has steadily gained ground with consumers since the best-selling "Left Behind" series of novels, based on a fundamentalist Christian interpretation of apocalyptic prophecy, turned up on bookshelves, and "The Passion of the Christ" became a box-office hit. Their popularity arrives at a time when faith-based issues, including school prayer and the debate over the definition of life, are dividing Americans, a rift reflected to some degree among those who wear the new fashions....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/29/fashion/29dres.html

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

:eyes:

I guess... if "better" means:

gullible
blindly obedient
ignorant
willing to harm people in the name of ideology
more interested in the next life (if there is one) than this one
scornful of modernity

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

kids can invent their own imaginary friends - they don't need a church to do it for them.

:eyes: My kids aren't "connected to God" and I couldn't ask for better sons.

Like my first husband, the preacher's son, the philandering SOB.

Or the drunken rituals in my high school church group.

Shall I go on?

It's beyond Christmas now, it's all year. The fundies won't be able to tell the "real" ones from the "hip" ones who think Jesus is cool as a fashion statement. We'll be overloaded with the Jesus image.

It's a good thing the Pope can't speak x(

It's so disgusting how Christianity is being sold to people. My neice wears a shirt with a big nametag on it that says, "Hello, I'm saved." Excuse me while I vomit.

Let me just picture that....

Paris Hilton wearing a t-shirt with a spiritual message...


.....BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!

:rofl:

grace such a shirt!

Jesus was far more impressed with folks who actually performed the work of the gospels than those who simply made a public showing of their religiosity.

I don't have anything particularly for or against Ashton Kutcher, but does he have any time, talent or treasure invested in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and furthering the cause of peace, or is it enough for him to be photographed wearing a t-shirt?

He he. You all thought Ashton was serious about Jesus.

"If people don't want to hear from you, what makes you think they want to hear from your t-shirt?"

:-)

"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward."

Ashton Kuchner? C'mon.

Rosaries are NOT fashion jewelry & I'd love to hear a conservative Rabbi speak out on "cabala bracelets."

Some of the Jesus Wear was probably ordered from Betty Bowers. But the writer of this article probably thinks that Landover Baptist is a real church.

(Closer perusal of the article reveals that "such messages are being embraced by a growing number of mostly young people, who are wearing them as a testament of faith or, ironically, as a badge of hipness...." I'd REALLY bet that irony has more to do with this trend than faith.)

Timed with the holy week and what supposed to be the sucessful implementation of Terri's law, the MSM is doing with Christianity what they did with the Iraqi invasion--make it sound cool, natural, and inevitiable. MSNBC has been doing a series on Faith in America! Oh and can we expect a followup aritcle on satanists, wiccans, and atheists?

:headbang:
rocknation

probably where Judiasm is right now. I think this is partly the reason people on DU find Christianity so annoying.

Nobody likes an in-your-face religion.

:eyes: I think they should be strongly encouraged to fill out their ballots with Write-In votes for "Jesus Christ."