Carlos Whittaker

Jul02

The New Christian Rip Off Artists

Posted by loswhit in Mid Afternoon Distraction

I did not know this was still happening…
Lord Come Quickly…
Los

[ht:Here]

Ashley

I remember when I was younger I had a shirt saying “Wazzzup” on it. Underneath it said “watching the sky, ready to fly” and some scripture. This was of course when the whole Budweiser commercial was popular. This has been going on forever.

http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com loswhit

FOREVER

eric

Unfortunately this is not only contained to the store shelves. I’ve seen many church communication departments doing the same thing. As a graphic artist, I’m frustrated. As a Christian, I’m embarrassed.
Corbett

Whatever, Los… like you never sported a “Lord’s Gym” T.

http://twitter.com/danonbass Daniel Betts

HA! I remember this one! My dad had one for years that he bought at Fishnet ’93 (like a mini Creation Fest in the wilds of Virginia)

http://Ourfamilye.wordpress.com Michael e

Seriously?! Who still thinks these things are cool or witty?

I think i grew out of the rip-off shirt phase when i was like 10 and that was like in 99
Brendan

When I was in High School my aunt gave me a t-shirt with the Jurassic Park logo. Only it was called “Jehovah’s Park” and had a Bible verse. It was awesome.
http://iamjakz.com Jaklyn

There’s only one word for these type of shirts- embarrassing.
http://www.crittyjoy.com Christy

One of my biggest pet peeves EVER. I cannot stand this type of marketing and as Christian’s so many settle for it. I have strong opinions on it but will just shush it.
Jesus was original and rocked it…so why can’t we be original and rock it? (well some of us can!)
http://andrewgergen.com Andrew

I’ll give them witty. I’ve tried to come up with these, jokingly, but my ideas never quite have the pizzaz these pro’s get.

Man, I miss my ‘Addicted to Jesus’ (Adidas) shirt…..
http://bluemoosegraphics.com Brian

A case of imitation not innovation.

Though I understand wanting to get a God message out to the popular public, I think we as artists that are Christian need to quit burying the talents our Master has given us and really put them to work.
http://matreames.tk @matreames

I could care less about these shirt, because the only people I ever see wearing them are the odd people, you know who I mean, “Flag Lady” “Socks and Sandals guy” “tract for a tip man”

What bothers me more is when churches make sermons and themes for their services that are equally blatant rip offs. Hey, The office is a cool TV show, lets make a month of sermons that discuss the office and then show a bunch of clips of the TV show, and maybe people will think we are hip…

NO! I don’t know anyone who cares about your pop culture knowledge. We want to see you live, and live Jesus. Do you walk like Him? Talk like Him? When you don’t are you quick to admit, and apologize or do you make excuses? We want authentic Leaders who are filled with His Spirit and carrying Him into the world in a tangible way.

p.s. I do look forward to someone making the rip off of “The Dark Knight Rises” It will definitely be hilarious, and bad

http://matreames.tk @matreames

p.p.s because I ended my rant early….

Our God is the creator of the universe, and He lives inside of us, indwelling and filling us with power. How is it that we are not the innovators of creativity.

Why is it that people who haven’t ever encountered the Creator God are out creating us. Get out there and be creative and show them what the Creative power of YHVH God and Jesus is all about.

http://courtneyfeia.blogspot.com/ Courtney

Although in 15 years we could be cutting these up into tanks, fraying the bottoms and wearing them like vintage Stryper T’s. We’ll say to each other, “Whoa – where’d you get your Christian hunger games T? IT RULES”.
http://twitter.com/ewdavis1 Eric Davis

hahaha…someone’s been reading buzzfeed.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-ultimate-creation-fest-fashion-guide

http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com loswhit

You missed my link to that post at the end of my post!

http://twitter.com/ewdavis1 Eric Davis

my bad!

http://matreames.tk @matreames

I would so wear the Rib one though, thats funny without being copycat or overly religious. the rest made me cringe…

Especially Jorts man and Marge Simpson.

Brian Baute

I saw a kid a couple weeks ago wearing what looked like a Mountain Dew shirt, but it said “Mormon Dude.” I loved that Christians aren’t the only ones guilty of it. Anybody seen any shirts like these from other religions?
Anon E Moose

I was knee-jerk offended by stuff like this for years. Then my teenage soon-to-be stepson (who’s a baby Christian) bought me one for my birthday.

Suddenly, things aren’t so black and white.

http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com loswhit

I agree

Ryan McSherry

I know! Let’s bash anyone who would ever think to wear or make these and really show the love of Christ!! (pretty evident in these comments)

http://matreames.tk @matreames

people can wear what they like, it doesn’t mean anyone has to agree, but more to your point, how does wearing these shirts show the love of Christ?

As someone who is out on the streets preaching and teaching, and showing the love of Christ to the poor and the needy, I assure you most unsaved people cringe when they see people in these shirts because on the whole the people who wear them, while well meaning, tend to be the Bible Thumping type.

Love is not found on a shirt, love is found in the heart of a man, and how He pours himself out for others.

Jason P

If you re-read Ryans comment (s)he isn’t saying these shirts show the love of Jesus.

It is a sarcastic retort for all the people who are bashing the anyone who would make or wear these shirts.

As if they are truly showing the love of Christ by putting down and making fun of the uncool, immature, non marketing savvy believers who would wear these.

steve

seriously. . . i am way too mature for such a thing. . . i have moved on to the ties. . .
http://kevindooley.net Kevin Dooley

The last time I was in a Christian bookstore was probably about 7 or 8 years ago. While I was in there I heard a middle aged lady tell her friend as they looked at T-shirts like this, “I’m so glad they have shirts like this. It gives my son a real opportunity to witness to other kids at school.” I immediately stopped what I was doing and left the store, never to return to it or another like it. Mostly because if that’s the mentality of the people in there, I didn’t want to be around them. That kind of thinking and support for those kinds of products will do more to make followers of Christ look like a joke and for us not to be taken serious than almost anything else we do. It’s right up there with bad Christian music and movies.
Reuben

i just miss the days of people taking popular music and re-writing the lyrics to reflect a Christian worldview. so the music was good, the message was good – but like pickles and peanut butter – they just didn’t go well together.

think Linkin Park’s “What I’ve Done” re-imagined as “What He’s Done (for you)”

http://www.meetbrentdouglas.com Brent D

So you’re talking about Apologetix? heh

http://garydurbin.blogspot.com Gary Durbin

Drives me crazy. Here’s a post I wrote a couple years ago that hits on this called “Creative or Clever?”: http://garydurbin.blogspot.com/2010/09/creative-or-clever.html
Jim Echels

Back in the day it was normal to walk into Christian book stores and see posters declaring that “Petra . . . sounds like . . . Journey” and “Sandi Patty . . . sounds like . . . Barbra Streisand” and maybe even “Keith Green . . . sounds like . . . James Taylor.” It was and is the business model still used by much of CCM, folks, and it’s bled into many other forms of Christian marketing. Testamint, anyone?

http://mimiandbutterbean.blogspot.com shayne

I was just about to mention this same thing. I don’t really see how this is different from CCM trying to put music out there that is a cleaned up version of Lady GaGa.

I mean come ON…why are we behind the creativity curve? Shouldn’t we be leading the pack?

http://www.meetbrentdouglas.com Brent D

These are the people to blame for pretty much all of them: http://www.kerusso.com/
Kim S.

When I was getting ready to graduate HS, the big thing back then was “Jesus is my Homeboy!” I liked it at first. But then when it got obscenely crazy and you could find it everywhere in every store from PacSun to Spencer’s, it just got wrong. I think people didn’t quite get the grasp of it. They just wore it because it was the “in” thing at that time.
That’s the same thing with “W.W.J.D.” if people really sat and thought about the meaning behind the message and didn’t just wear it, then there may be alot fewer people wearing but more people actually doing what it says.
Jason Cormier

One is is corny and irksome. Two, how is the ripping off even legal?
http://nextstopnineveh.wordpress.com Virgil

Sadly, most churches are about as creative with their approach to ministry as the clowns behind these shirts
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Nick

I saw a Mountain Dew logo that said “Do the Jew”
http://murphy24p.com Steve

I lump these in with all of the cheesy church signs and they all say the same thing: “Do not approach me, I am out of touch”
Trey

Wow. Just look at these comments. So what if you dont like them? How about we say “you know that is not me, but keep doing your thing!” these do not make a person “immature” or an “embarrassment” (as comments above have stated.) maybe some of these are cheesy, but who cares. Preferences are always going to differ between Christians. We are to embrace christian diversity, not insult those who don’t fit our preferences. 1 Cor 12:12-31
http://www.graceistruth.com Chris Pontarelli

Is my designed tee shirt good or bad? go to graceistruthdotcom
http://www.mohan37.com mo

http://www.clevershoppers.com/images/kerusso/APT1133.jpg