re: Christian Apps… “There’s an App for That”

In response to Christian Apps... "There's an App for That", 


The question of authenticity here is a moot point.

In class we questioned the sincerity of Gaga and Bieber who are combining their christianity (and a christian message?) with their music. If they have a mission to preach through their music, then the means (Gaga's sexuality and sexuosity, for example) and their rampant financial success certainly shed doubt on true motives. Unilver was also mentioned in one response to this post. They are another good example of questionable sincerity. In selling Dove products they are selling a message of female empowerment. But they also sell axe products, which was selling a message of extreme misogyny with commercials featuring vapid, slutty women tripping over themselves to be near men with a "nice" smell. To be fair to unilever, however, the more recent commercials feature both women AND men acting like vapid sluts.

The sincerity of companies like Surgeworks, whose goal is clearly not to missionize, but simply create and sell quality applications, can't be be called into question. Simply, they are a company with a goal to sell. To comment on the high price of their application I would hazard to guess (after a cursory glance at the product description on their site) that the application itself just costs more to produce. Dictionaries are in a similar vein, and they are in the same price neighbourhood. That's a publishing industry thing (thank you copyright?).

As mentioned by one respondent, the "confession" app is really interesting. It is reminiscent of the "indulges" given by the Catholic church. Rich sinners could pay the church and receive the slips of paper absolving them.. those who could pay could sin in abundance and still gain entry to the glorious kingdom of heaven! Clearly capitalist christianity is no new phenomenon. 

Indulgences fun-fact and sidenote: the printing press, was initially harshly opposed by the Church. At least until Gutenberg had the clever idea to print the previously handwritten "indulgences", which meant that the Church could produce more in less time (and cash in, exponentially).